In March 1865 Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedman and Abandoned

lands, better known as the Freedmen’s Bureau. It was intended to be a temporary relief

agency, rather like the Red Cross. Relief meant food, shelter, medical aid, clothing,

supplies, education. It was intended for people displaced by the war, which meant

primarily the slaves or former slaves. However it did help whites who were displaced too.

Originally it was intended to operate for one year. But the South was in such a state of ruin

and devastation that the Republicans sought to extend the life of the Bureau in 1866.

President Johnson felt that it was a wartime agency, and the war was over. He also felt

that the Bureau was an example of special favoritism for blacks. In a sense, in his view,

blacks had become a special interest group, at taxpayer expense. Johnson vetoed the

Supplemental Freedmen’s Bureau bill. Congress voted to override his veto.

The Freedmen’s Bureau was the first federal relief agency. It expired in 1870.

Between 1865 and 1870 it issued 21 million rations of food, clothing and supplies. This

was approximately 15 million rations to blacks, and 5 million to whites (Franklin, From Slavery To Freedom, p. 224).

By 1867 the Bureau operated 46 hospitals. Over its lifetime, it treated 450,000 cases of

illness, and spent $2 million for healthcare.

After the Civil War, 80% of African Americans in the South were illiterate. Please

recall, again, that during slavery it had been illegal to teach a slave to read or write. White

supremacists in the South deliberately kept the slaves in a state of ENFORCED

ignorance. It is easier to control an illiterate person. The greatest accomplishment of the

Freedmen’s Bureau was in the field of education. By 1870 there were 247,333 pupils in

4,329 schools (Franklin, p. 231).

Most colleges in the US, North and South, did not admit blacks. Harvard, Oberlin, and

colleges in liberal New England were the exception. The Freedmen’s Bureau and

Northern liberal white philanthropy helped to establish colleges for blacks. These were

some of the first historically-black colleges.

Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee- January 1866

The predecessor to Morehouse College, established in Atlanta, Georgia, Feb. 1867

Howard University, named after white Union general Otis Howard, established in

Washington, D.C., opened in May 1867 (annual appropriation from Congress)

Atlanta University (beginning as a Baptist Bible College) opened in Atlanta, May 1867

Hampton Institute (now University); originally like a high school; in Virginia, April 1868

Subsequently, in 1876, Meharry Medical College opened in Nashville, Tenn. As the first

all-black medical school in the U.S. It was desperately needed because white colleges and

medical schools did not admit African Americans. White doctors did not want to touch or

treat black patients. White nurses did not want to deal with blacks, White dentists did not

want to treat blacks. A black medical school was the only way to train black physicians.

In 1881 two white teachers from New England, Sophia Packard and Harriet Giles,

established a college for black women in Atlanta, Georgia. It was called the Atlanta

Baptist Female Seminary. It started in the basement of the Friendship Baptist Church, and

was part of the American Baptist Home Mission Society. In 1884 Mrs. John D.

Rockefeller asked her husband, through the Rockefeller Foundation, to donate money to

the school. After receiving her many thousands of dollars, the school changed its name to

Spelman (with only one l). Harvey Buel Spelam was the father of Mrs. Rockefeller, and

she named it after her father. Over the decades the Rockefellers donated millions to

Spelman . It is the premier college for black women. In 1988 Bill and Camille Cosby gave

20 million to Spelman, which at that time was the largest single donation to any historically

black college.

Xavier College was also established in Louisiana, for African Americans and native

Americans, with millions of dollars from Blessed Saint Catherine Drexel. Her family also

established the famous Drexel University, in Phila. Francis Drexel was the father of

Catherine Drexel. She was born in 1858, died in 1955. She established the Sisters of the

Blessed Sacrament in 1891, and many schools for Native Americans and African

Americans. She founded Xavier University of Louisiana, in New Orleans, not to be

confused with the Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is a Jesuit school. Xavier is

the only historically-black college which is a Catholic university. Xavier began as a high

school for blacks and Indians in 1915. It became a liberal arts college in 1925, and a

college of pharmacy was added in 1927.

There are 102 historically black colleges, most of them small schools in the South

(typically agricultural and technical (A&T) or agricultural and mechanical (A&M) schools.

Although the colleges were FOR black students, in the beginning they had white

presidents, trustees and faculty. When Du Bois attended Fisk in the 1880s, only about 5

of the 20 professors were black. As late as 1920 the president of Howard University was

white.

Separate black schools and colleges were absolutely needed until 1964, because until

1964 most colleges in the South were segregated and simply refused to admit anyone who

was not white (blacks, Latinos, Asians, whatever).

.Cheney University (originally the Institute for Colored Youths), in Penna, as established

in 1832 by a rich white Quaker, named Richard Humphreys, who gave $10,000.

established for blacks. . Lincoln University, in PA, was established for blacks in 1854.

The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church purchased Wilberforce University in

Xenia, Ohio, as a college for blacks, in 1863 White colleges such as Bowdoin College

and Amherst, in Mass, and Oberlin, in Ohio, had reputations as liberal colleges even

before the Civil War, and admitted blacks. And Harvard admitted outstanding blacks.

White liberals played an important role in funding black higher education.