- Howard University
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a university in Washington, DC, which was established in 1867 for freed slaves as well as white people, although few of the latter came. It is named after General Oliver O Howard, who helped to establish it and was its president (1869–73).
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University in Washington, D.C., the most prominent African American educational institution in the U.S. It is financially supported by the U.S. government but is privately controlled.Though open to students of any ethnicity, it was founded (1867) with a special obligation to educate African American students. It has a college of liberal arts, a graduate school of arts and sciences, and schools or colleges of business and public administration, engineering, human ecology, medicine, dentistry, and law, among others. Its library is the leading research library on African American history.* * *
historically black university founded in 1867 in Washington, D.C., and named for General Oliver Otis Howard (Howard, Oliver O.), head of the post-Civil War Freedmen's Bureau, who influenced Congress to appropriate funds for the school. The university is financially supported in large part by the U.S. government but is privately controlled.Although Howard University has always been open to students of any race, colour, or creed, it was founded with a special obligation to provide advanced studies for blacks. Its library is the leading research library on African American history. Academic divisions include the colleges or schools of arts and sciences; business; communications; dentistry; divinity; education; engineering, architecture, and computer sciences; law; medicine; pharmacy, nursing, and allied health sciences; and social work. There is also a graduate school. Although the student body at one time was virtually all black, students of other races began attending after World War II, especially in the graduate schools.Many of Howard's graduates advance to leadership positions in education, social reform, and government. Among the most prominent have been U.S. Senator Edward William Brooke (Brooke, Edward) of Massachusetts; sociologist E. Franklin Frazier (Frazier, E. Franklin); playwright Amiri Baraka (Baraka, Amiri) (LeRoi Jones); statesman Ralph Bunche (Bunche, Ralph), a longtime member of the United Nations and recipient of the 1950 Nobel Prize for Peace, who established the school's political science department; soprano Jessye Norman (Norman, Jessye); and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison (Morrison, Toni).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
