Shaw University history

The school’s name changed to Shaw Collegiate Institute in 1870 and five years later it adopted its present name, Shaw University.

In 1871, the school was renamed the Shaw Collegiate Institute after major donor Elijah Shaw.

In 1873, Estey Hall was built, marked the second female dormitory on the campus of a co-ed school in the United States.

As of 1875 when Shaw Collegiate Institute became Shaw University only two major structures existed – The Shaw Building and Estey Seminary.

Leonard Medical School was founded in 1881 as the first four-year medical school in the South to train black doctors and pharmacists.

On December 11, 1888 the university opened their law school.

North Carolina politician John S. Leary was an important figure in the founding of the law school served as its dean starting in March 1890.

The first medical school in the state to offer a four-year curriculum, it operated until 1918.

An alumna and former valedictorian (1927), Ella Baker started SNCC, as sociologist Aldon D. Morris writes, to “coordinate the local movements in which students were already immersed” in the Southern Leadership Conference.

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) /ˈsnɪk/ was one of the organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a student meeting organized by Ella Baker that was held at Shaw University in April 1960.

In 1968, Shaw University became the first black college to own a radio station.

In April 1996, officials at the Defense Department agreed that seven of the ten soldiers recommended in the report, should be awarded the Medal of Honor.

In 2005, Shaw University Divinity School (SUDS) received a 10-year accreditation from the Association for Theological Schools.

On April 16, 2011 a tornado made a direct hit on the campus, causing severe damage to the University’s student center and residence halls.

The university sold the station to Educational Media Foundation effective July 26, 2018, who subsequently renamed it WRKV.