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Founded in 1837, Cheyney University in Chester County, PA, is the first and oldest of our nation's 101 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). HBCUs are accredited institutions established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was—and continues to be—the education of African Americans. In 2020, HBCUs in 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands had enrollments of 279,000 students and conferred 48,200 degrees to their students, making these schools critical components toward training America's young people to serve their communities in the public and private sectors both domestically and abroad.

The nation's oldest HBCUs were founded prior to the American Civil War (1861–1865) in the northern United States to educate free Blacks. They included Cheyney University (1837); the University of the District of Columbia (1851); Lincoln University in Oxford, PA, (1854); Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, OH, (1856); and Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis, MO (1857). The number of HBCUs expanded rapidly after the Civil War when colleges and universities specifically prohibited or limited Black enrollment. Patrons of higher education—often religious organizations—established schools throughout the southern United States to train former slaves in the trades, agriculture, or to become teachers within their communities. Atlanta University in Atlanta, GA (today's Clark Atlanta University), founded in September 1865, and Shaw University in Raleigh, NC, founded in December 1865, are the first and oldest surviving HBCUs in the southern United States. The first historically Black medical school—Howard University College of Medicine—opened in Washington, DC, in 1868, while Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN, became the first historically Black medical school in a southern state when its medical department opened in 1876.

Educational opportunities in the United States expanded thanks to passage of the 1862 Morrill Act. The act granted thousands of acres of federally controlled land—often seized from American Indian tribes—to each state. States used funds raised from the sale of these lands to establish and endow land-grant colleges, including the University of Maine in Orono, ME; Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN; and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. Historically Black universities established under the 1862 act include Lincoln University in Jefferson City, MO, and Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University in Prairie View, TX. Although the Morrill Act benefited millions, it did not specifically stipulate that students of all races should be granted equal access to these state schools. As a result, some states forbade the enrollment of Black students at their land-grant universities. In response, Congress passed the Second Morrill Act of 1890. In addition to providing funding for existing land-grant colleges, the act also required states to enroll Black students in existing schools or establish separate but segregated land-grant colleges. Historically Black universities established by states choosing to create segregated land-grant schools for Black students include West Virginia State University in Institute, WV, and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, NC.

Today, nearly 90 percent of HBCUs are located in the southern United States, with the majority founded between 1865 and 1900. Schools must have been founded to primarily serve Black students prior to 1964 to receive the HBCU designation from the U.S. Department of Education. Schools founded after 1964 that meet specific criteria—including enrollment of 1,000 undergraduates of which 40 percent or more are Black—are known as "Predominantly Black Institutions" (PBIs). American PBIs include Chicago State University in Chicago, IL; Georgia State University, Perimeter College in Decatur, GA; and Medgar Evers College in New York City, NY.

The value of HBCUs in the United States cannot be overstated. During a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor, former congressman and United Negro College Fund president (1991–2004) William Gray said that at the beginning of the 21st century, "HBCUs have performed a remarkable task, educating almost 40 percent of this country's Black college graduates at either the graduate or undergraduate level, some 75 percent of all Black Ph.D.s, 46 percent of all Black business executives, 50 percent of all Black engineers, 80 percent of all Black Federal judges, and 85 percent of all Black doctors." During that same hearing, U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher added that, "historically Black health professional schools have trained an estimated 40 percent of this Nation's Black dentists, 40 percent of Black physicians, 50 percent of Black pharmacists, and 75 percent of the Nation's Black veterinarians."

You can learn more about our nation's education system, HBCUs, and HBCU alumni using census records and demographic and economic data collected by the Census Bureau. For example:

• Decades before the founding of the nation's first historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), John Chavis became the first Black man to attend college in the United States. He earned a license to preach from Liberty Hall University—today's Washington and Lee University—in 1799. Alexander Lucius Twilight was the first Black student to earn a bachelor's degree after graduating from Middlebury College in 1823. Mary Jane Patterson became the first Black woman to earn a bachelor's degree when she graduated from Oberlin College in 1862.
  
• Founded in 1837, Cheyney University is the first and oldest of our nation's 101 HBCUs. Established through the bequest of philanthropist Richard Humphreys, the school trained students of African descent as teachers and later offered training in agriculture and the trades. Named the African Institute at its founding and renamed the Institute for Colored Youth that same year, the school moved to land donated by George Cheyney in 1902, becoming Cheyney State College, and then Cheyney University in 1983. Today, Cheyney University is a census designated place with a population of 565.
  
• The University of the District of Columbia is the second oldest HBCU in the United States. Myrtilla Miner founded the Normal School for Colored Girls in 1851 and taught her students to become teachers from a tiny rented room. The school was renamed the Miner Normal School in 1879 and the Miner Teachers College for African Americans in 1929. Following the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the school merged with the Wilson Teachers College for Whites, becoming the District of Columbia Teachers College in 1955. Following additional mergers, Washington, DC's city council established the University of the District of Columbia in 1996. Included among its alumni are Euphemia Haynes who became the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1943; Cathy Lanier, the first female chief of police with the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia; college basketball championship-winning coach John Thompson Jr.; and Johnny Grier who became the National Football League's first Black referee in 1988.
  
• The census first collected education data in 1840. That year, the U.S. marshals and their assistants conducting the census asked the White population 20 years and older if they could read or write; 22 percent were illiterate. They also collected data about the number of colleges, universities, primary schools, and grammar schools in their assigned areas; the number of students at each institution; and the total number of scholars at public charge. Ten years later, the 1850 Census collected additional data on the nation's educational institutions, finding 239 colleges with 27,821 students; 80,978 public schools with 3,354,011 students; and 6,085 private schools and academies with 263,096 students. In 1850, 2,146,432 White males and 1,916,614 White females attended school, while just 13,864 "Free Colored" males and 12,597 "Free Colored" females reported attending school that year. Southern slave states like Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia reported fewer than 100 "Free Colored" students in 1850. Among people aged 20 and older, 962,898 White and 90,522 "Free Colored" people could not read and write.
  
• Many notable Americans have attended HBCUs including: poet Langston Hughes (Lincoln University); Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris (Howard University); Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison (Howard University); Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Morehouse College); former associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Thurgood Marshall (Lincoln and Howard Universities); actor, producer, director, and screenwriter Spike Lee (Morehouse College); Civil Rights leader Ralph Abernathy (Alabama State University); aerospace engineer Lonnie Johnson (Tuskegee University); educator and author Booker T. Washington (Hampton University); NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson (West Virginia State University); sociologist and special census advisor W.E.B. Du Bois (Fisk University); and journalist and cofounder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Ida B. Wells (Fisk University).
  
• The Census Bureau first collected data about educational attainment in 1940. Among the 77.8 million Americans aged 25 and older, 2.8 million had not attended school; nearly 35.9 million completed 8th grade; 10.5 million completed high school; and nearly 7.5 million completed 1 or more years of college. Among the nation's 6.5 million Black men and women aged 25 and older, 646,229 reported no formal education; approximately 1.3 million completed 8th grade; 268,484 completed high school; and 199,122 completed 1 or more years of college. The Census Bureau published additional educational attainment and sample data tabulations in several reports including: Educational Attainment of Children by Rental Value of Home; Educational Attainment by Economic Characteristics and Marital Status; and Education, Occupation, and Household Relationship of Males 18 to 44 Years Old.
  
• Alabama leads the nation with 14 HBCUs in the state. Founded in 1867 to educate newly freed slaves, the Lincoln Normal School in Marion, AL, was the state's first and oldest HBCU. The school moved to Montgomery, AL, in 1899, and became Alabama State University (ASU) in 1969. In addition to ASU, Alabama is home to Alabama A&M University in Madison County, AL; Bishop State Community College in Montgomery, AL; Concordia College in Selma, AL; Gadsden State Community College in Gadsden, AL; J.F. Drake State Technical College in Huntsville, AL; Lawson State Community College in Birmingham, AL; Miles College in Fairfield, AL; Oakwood University in Huntsville, AL; Selma University in Selma, AL; Shelton State Community College and Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, AL; Talladega College in Talladega, AL; Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, AL; and H. Councill Trenholm State Community College in Montgomery, AL.
  
• The 2000 Census found that of the nearly 214 million Americans aged 15 and over, 78.5 percent graduated from high school and 21.9 percent received a bachelor's degree or higher. Among the more than 25.9 million Blacks in the United States, 72.7 percent graduated high school and 13.4 percent had a bachelor's or graduate degree. Of the 11.7 million Black males aged 15 years and over, 70.4 percent graduated high school and 12.9 percent had a bachelors degree or higher, while 72.9 percent of Black women graduated high school and 13.9 percent received a bachelor's or graduate degree. Among all races and sexes, non-Hispanic White women aged 15 and over were most likely to hold a high school diploma (83.8 percent) and Asian or Pacific Islander men were most likely to have a bachelor's degree or higher (38.9 percent).
  
• Data about educational attainment moved from the decennial census to the American Community Survey (ACS) in 2005. Estimates from the ACS in 2020 found that of the more than 222.8 million people in the United States aged 25 and over, 59.4 million graduated from high school or an equivalent program; more than 19.2 million had an associate degree; 45 million had a bachelor's degree; and 28.3 million had a graduate or professional degree. Nearly 148 million of the 163 million Americans reporting their race as White alone were high school graduates or higher, and 23 million of the 26 million people reporting themselves as Black alone graduated high school or higher. Among the other races, 1.3 million of the 1.7 million American Indian or Alaska Natives; 11.4 million of the 13 million Asians; 337,408 of 388,491 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders; 6.4 million of 10 million people reporting some other race; and 7 million of the 8.2 million people reporting two or more races had graduated from high school or higher. Among the nation's 34 million people identifying as being of Hispanic or Latino origin in 2020, 23.9 million had high school or higher degrees.
  
• Following the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling, 11 segregated Black colleges opened in Florida in an attempt to prove that "separate but equal" education could be achieved. Schools included Gibbs Junior College (1957) in St. Petersburg, FL; Hampton Junior College (1858) in Ocala, FL; Suwannee River Junior College (1959) in Madison, FL; Johnson Junior College (1960) in Leesburg, FL; and Jackson Junior College (1961) in Marianna, FL. These and other historically Black (i.e., Black-only) schools in the southern United States closed following passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which desegregated the nation's schools.
  
• The majority of HBCUs were founded between the end of the American Civil War and President Lyndon B. Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, 1964, which enforced the desegregation of public schools. The University of the Virgin Islands (1962) and J.F. Drake State Technical College (1961) in Huntsville, AL, were founded in the years just prior to passage of the Civil Rights Act. The Department of Education still accepts applications from schools seeking HBCU designation. Founded in 1924, American Baptist College's application to become the nation's newest federally designated HBCU was approved on March 20, 2013. The private college in Nashville, TN, has approximately 150 students studying in 2- and 4-year degree programs.
  
• With more than 12,000 students, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, NC, is the nation's largest HBCU, followed by St. Philip's College in San Antonio, TX, and Howard University in Washington, DC Students who prefer smaller schools should consider one of the nation's HBCUs with fewer than 1,000 students enrolled including Allen University in Columbia, SC; Barber-Scotia College in Concord, NC; Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, CA; and Simmons College of Kentucky in Louisville, KY.
  
• Schools have attempted to duplicate the benefits of HBCUs for other race and ethnic groups. Hispanic-serving Institutions, like Fresno Pacific University in Fresno, CA, are schools with undergraduate enrollment that is both 50 percent low-income and 25 percent Hispanic. Tribal Colleges or Universities, such as Dine College in Tsaile, AZ, are schools formally controlled or chartered by American Indian Tribes, while Native American Non-Tribal Institutions like Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, OK, have undergraduate populations that are both low-income and at least 10 percent American Indian. California State University, Los Angeles, in Los Angeles, CA, is an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving Institution with an undergraduate population that is low-income and at least 10 percent Asian or Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander. The University of Alaska Fairbanks in College, AK, and the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, HI, serve undergraduates who are low-income and 20 percent Native Hawaiian or 10 percent Alaska Native, respectively.

On October 22, 1980, a federal judge cited Census Bureau director Vincent Barabba for contempt after he refused to release confidential address lists to city and state officials investigating suspected 1980 Census undercounts.

On February 24, 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court (Baldrige et al. v. Shapiro) ruled that the Census Bureau's address lists could not be disclosed through civil discovery or under the Freedom of Information Act.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series provides data about private junior colleges (NAICS 6112), and private colleges, universities, and professional schools (NAICS 6113) including some of our nation's 101 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Public colleges and universities are not within the scope of the County Business Patterns series.

In 2020, the County Business Patterns series data showed that there were 765 private junior colleges in the United States. Junior colleges provide associate degrees, certificates, and licensing programs to students pursuing interests in liberal arts, theology, medical and pharmacy studies, and trade programs like welding, construction, plumbing, masonry, etc.

County Business Patterns series data for the pay period that included March 12, 2020, found that private junior colleges employed 56,383 people and had an annual payroll of more than $2 billion.

That same year, the County Business Patterns series reported there were 4,148 private colleges, universities, and professional schools in the United States.

Nationwide, these private colleges and universities employed 1,891,368 people during the pay period that included March 12, 2020, and had annual payroll of nearly $87.9 billion.

In May 2022, the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics reported that following the 2019–2020 academic year, public and private colleges and universities in the United States conferred more than 1 million associate degrees, 2 million bachelor's degrees, 843,400 master's degrees, and 55,283 doctoral degrees. The nation's HBCUs conferred 48,200 of these undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Many Census Bureau employees are proud HBCU alumni.

Social scientist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois graduated from Fisk University in Nashville, TN. The Census Bureau published DuBois's analysis of 1900 Census data about Black southern farmers—The Negro Farmer—in 1904.

Florida Baptist Academy graduate Eartha M. M. White (pictured) worked as a census taker in Jacksonville, FL, during the 1910 Census. Her business success allowed her to pursue charitable endeavors that still benefit Floridians today, including the Clara White Mission that provides shelter and training to those in need and the historic Eartha White Nursing Home.

Ivanna Eudora Kean attended Hampton University in Hampton, VA. She was teaching in the U.S. Virgin Islands and worked as an enumerator during the 1917 Census of the U.S. territory. The Ivanna Eudora Kean High School in St. Thomas is named in honor of Kean's 52 years of service to the islands' students.

Howard University alumni Robert A. Pelham and Frederick Slade began their Census Bureau careers as tabulation clerks. Pelham patented census equipment and coauthored reports that included, Negro Population:1790–1915 during his 29-year Census Bureau career. Slade became a population division section chief during the 1930 and 1940 Censuses.

Today, the Census Bureau recruits HBCU alumni and introduces interns to survey work through programs like our partnership with historically Black Bowie State University in Bowie, MD.

Learn about some of our other HBCU alumni at our Notable Alumni webpage.