Hampton University history

In 1872, Booker T. Washington—who had born a slave in Virginia—arrived at the school with fifty cents in his pocket.

Upon recommendation of Sam Armstrong to the founder Lewis Adams and others, of a small new school in Tuskegee Alabama that had begun in 1874.

Beginning in 1878, Native American students were brought to the school from Northern Plains tribes to be “re-educated.”

In 1881, Washington went to Tuskegee at age 25 to strengthen it and develop it to the status of a Normal school, one recognized as being able to produce qualified teachers.

The Butler School, which was succeeded in 1889 by the Whittier School, was used as a practice ground for teaching students of the Hampton Normal School.

Washington and Greene recruited George Washington Carver to the Tuskegee Agriculture faculty upon his graduation with a master's degree from Iowa State University in 1896.

By 1900, Hampton was the wealthiest school serving African Americans, largely due to its success in development and fundraising.

In 1903 W. E. B. Du Bois published his first major attack on industrial education, and was soon recognized as the leading critic of the Hampton Idea.

In addition to expansion of the agricultural program in 1913, Hampton's music program flourished under the direction of Doctor R. Nathaniel Dett, who brought the Hampton Choir and Quartet to the world through highly acclaimed performances in London, Vienna, Zurich, Berlin, Geneva, and Paris.

The Robert C. Ogden Auditorium was built in 1918 and with two thousand seats, it was at the time the largest auditorium in the area.

Partly in response to such criticism, Hampton beginning in 1922 expanded its faculty and curriculum, raised admissions standards and introduced a four year bachelor’s degree program.

These seventy men and women became the first American Indian students at Hampton and began a Native American education program that spanned more than 40 years, with the last student graduating in 1923.

The Hampton Institute Library School opened in 1925 and through its Negro Teacher-Librarian Program (NTLTP) trained and issued professional degrees to 183 black librarians.

The first B.A. degrees were awarded in 1926 and two years later Hampton initiated its first graduate programs.

In 1927 a protest over a relatively minor social issue quickly grew into a general strike.

Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute became simply Hampton Institute in 1930.

In 1931 the George P. Phenix School for all age groups was opened there under principal Ian Ross.

And in 1949, Doctor Alonzo G. Moron became the first Negro president of Hampton Institute. Thus, in 1940, a few high-ranking administrative positions–including Dean of Instruction and Dean of Women–were appointed to Negroes.

In 1945 the Austrian-American psychologist, art educator, and author of the influential text book Creative and Mental Growth Viktor Lowenfeld joined the Hampton faculty as an assistant professor of industrial arts and eventually became chair of the Art Department.

And in 1949, Doctor Alonzo G. Moron became the first Negro president of Hampton Institute.

Phoebus and Elizabeth City County were consolidated with the neighboring City of Hampton to form a much larger independent city in 1952.

On February 11, 1960, a group of Hampton Institute students were the first in Virginia to stage a lunch counter sit-in, to protest local business' refusal to serve blacks and whites equally.

Thomas Nelson Community College opened there in 1968.

In 1984, after a nine-month study of Hampton Institute's rapid growth and development in quality of students, faculty and academic offerings, the recommendation was made to change the name to Hampton University.

Fort Monroe served as an active United States Army installation until September 15, 2011.

Banner Lecture (2013): "Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South." by Stephanie Deutsch

In 2018, Hampton University students launched a protest calling for the administration to address several concerns they believed to be longstanding and urgent, including food quality, living conditions and the handling of sexual assault complaints.