Wilberforce University campus   Save
National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center
Description: Photograph showing buildings on the campus of Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio. In 1856, the Methodist Episcopal Church established Wilberforce University near Xenia, Ohio, to provide African Americans access to a college education. The university was the first private black college in the United States, and was named by its founders after William Wilberforce, a prominent eighteenth-century abolitionist. A number of African American Ohioans attended the school during its early years. During the American Civil War, attendance declined as many students enlisted in the Union army. Wilberforce University closed in 1862. In 1863, the African Methodist Episcopal Church acquired ownership of the university. Under the direction of Daniel Payne, a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, John Mitchell, the principal of a school in Cincinnati, and James Shorter, an African Methodist Episcopal pastor from Zanesville, Ohio, Wilberforce reopened its doors. The institution operated as a private university serving the African-American community for the next twenty-four years. In 1887, the State of Ohio began to provide Wilberforce with funds to help finance the institution, which brought to an end the university's exclusively private status. The state also helped the university create a Normal and Industrial Department that eventually evolved into Central State University. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03808
Subjects: Greene County (Ohio); Multicultural Ohio -- African American Ohioans; Universities and colleges--Pictorial works; Historical Black Colleges and Universities
Places: Wilberforce (Ohio); Greene County (Ohio)