Howard University history

In 1868 the trustees created a Preparatory Department, which served as preparation for entrance into undergraduate course work by ensuring a minimum level of achievement in basic subjects like reading and writing.

Under the tutelage of Dean John Mercer Langston, a future congressman, the Law Department first enrolled students in the spring of 1869.

The first students enrolled at Howard, four or five young women, were also white; they graduated from the three-year Normal Department in 1870.

An integral part of Howard from its founding, the theology department, opened officially in 1870, never used federal funds; instead, it relied upon contributions from the American Missionary Association, which was associated with the Congregational Church. It graduated its first class of ten in February 1871, including African-American John Cook, a future dean of the law school.

As an example of this, Howard established the first black law school in the nation only two years after its founding and in 1872, Charlotte Ray was one of its first graduates.

One of the two blacks in this class, James Monroe Gregory, became a tutor in Latin and math; in 1876 he became a professor of Latin.

After the bureau's demise, the university received no additional federal funds until 1879, when Congress began granting Howard a small appropriation.

In 1912, during his historic journey to the west, Bahá’í Faith leader ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá addressed an integrated gathering in Rankin Chapel at Howard University in which he declared the oneness of all people, the elimitation of racial prejudice and segregation and the urgent need for race amity.

Under the administration of President J. Stanley Durkee, the university budget grew from $121,937 in 1920 to $365,000 only five years later.

The first sitting president to speak at Howard was Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

From its founding down to 1926 Howard’s presidents were all white, but in that year, Stanley Durkee was replaced by Mordecai Wyatt Johnson.

Beginning in 1942, Howard University students pioneered the "stool-sitting" technique of occupying stools at a local cafeteria which denied service to African Americans, blocking other customers waiting for service.

By January 1943, students had begun to organize regular sit-ins and pickets around Washington, D.C. at cigar stores and cafeterias which refused to serve them because of their race.

Board decision which desegregated public schools in 1954, and who thirteen years later became the first African American Justice on the United States Supreme Court.

Her tenure as the first black female dean of the law school, however, lasted only thirty days; outcry over student protests and conflicts with other university administrators compelled her to resign (1969).

The School of Business was founded in 1970 with Doctor Milton Wilson as Dean and over time became the second largest School within the University, establishing its reputation for excellence in both the academic and business communities.

Since 1974, it has expanded to include a 22-acre School of Law West Campus, a 22-acre School of Divinity East Campus and another three-fifths of an acre facility in northeast Washington and a 108-acre tract of land in Beltsville, Maryland.

Also in 1975, Jeanne Sinkford became the first female dean of any American dental school when she was appointed as the dean of Howard University's school of dentistry.

In 1989, Howard gained national attention when students rose up in protest against the appointment of then-Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater as a new member of the university's board of trustees.

Howard received more unfavorable publicity in early 1994 after the appearance on campus by former Nation of Islam official Khalid Muhammad.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Howard students spent several of their spring vacations working to assist the residents of New Orleans, Louisiana.

The following month, Swygert announced he would retire in June 2008.

In 2018, nearly 1,000 students held a sit-in demanding injunction over the administration's use of funding.

In July 2020, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donated $40 million to Howard.