Your favorite historic tidbit about your school.


Bartram

Bartram

Brand HBCUbian
When you were freshmen, did yall have those orientation classes where you learned about the history of your institution? What's the stories, attributes, historical things,, etc about your institution that stick with you? Maybe your parents went to your institution and you grew up hearing about some aspect of the school or going to the annual classic where you learned abou the school.

Coming from Tuskegee, I have many historical tidbits that I either knew or learned that first semester on campus and that stick with me to this day like:

  • The story of the "Chief" Anderson and the Tuskegee Airmen.
  • The story of George Washington Carver
  • The VA hospital and the KKK.

The first one is well known. What is not so well known is that there was a massive air force base (not Moton Field. Moton Field was a training facility and is the municiple airport today) located in Tuskegee that today is a gravel pit, hay field and forest in private hands.

Carver revolutionized farming and attempted to warn southern farmers (esp in Alabama) about the bollweevil, but they didn't listen. They did after the bollweevil and still benefit from countless lessons stemming from Carver's research.

The third one is my favorite that I remember to this day! Back in the 40s the federal government selected Tuskegee for the sight of a new VA hospital to serve the region. The whites then in political control of the city of Tuskegee thought the jobs at the VA would go to the white population. When they found out that black doctors and Tuskegee students would get most of the jobs they blew up. The decision was so unpopular that the local Klan scheduled a march that would go right through the campus of Tuskegee. They were met by Tuskegee's Army R.O.T.C. and turned around. That portion of their march DID NOT HAPPEN. :argue2: :lmao:
the nerve of those Klan ingrates! it may have been 40s Jim Crow Alabama,,, but to think they was just gone march through the campus of Tuskegee Institute and Normal College?! ooooooh noooooo Mr KKK grand cyclops. dat was not gonna happen,,,, or there was going to be some blood shed. :nod:

Another not totally Tuskegee University item, but one that would have affected Tuskegee was attempts by state and local representatives to "disband" Macon county (plans called to carve it up and have it annexed into surrounding counties to dillute the black population) in the 60s when it was evident that the overwhelming black population and voting rights would shift the balance of political power "forever". Their attempts failed.

What are some of the key historical attributes or famous notes of your institution? I'd like to hear them to learn more about other HBCUs. :wavey:
 
My historic comment has nothing to do with the university but......My grandparents purchased the land for their home from Charles P. Adams....founder of Grambling State University.:)
 

The fact that our founder, Dr. William Hooper Councill vowed that he would return to the very spot where he was sold into slavery, and establish an institution for the education of his people.

That spot is now the glorious campus of Alabama A&M University! ...Rich in heritage divine! Blest by the life of Councill brave, who gave his all that thou might shine.
 
During freshmen class orientation, my class was told that Dr. Samuel Koonce, AM&N(UAPB)alumnus, made the world's first Kidney transplant.

Dr. Simon Haley(Alex Haleys' father) was chairman of the agriculture department during the late fifties and early sixties.

The late Harold S. Strong, founding band director at UAPB(AM&N), played in jazz bands for Al Capone.

George M. James author of the book Stolen Legacy taught at the university in the 50's.

Muhammed Ali spoke to students from the top of a car in front of the Student Union Bldg in 1966.

Marvin Gaye practice catching footballs on UAPB's pumphrey stadium football field while visiting his former team mate former ex- Coach Shaw,Marvin Gaye played wide receiver at Eastern Michigan....
also on the same day he came to visit his song writer Ed Townsend ,an AM&N(UAPB) alumnus, who wrote Marvin Gayes "Let's Get It On".
 
Land, slaves, kidney

My grandparents purchased the land for their home from Charles P. Adams....founder of Grambling State University.
Click to expand...

Is that near the campus? If so, bet they want it back now.

I think I have heard the AAMU story (pop went to grad school there). Used to spend time on the campus as a kid and during the Skegee years in the early 80s.

Didn't know that about the kidney transplant. Good stuff.
 
Our First Building

I like to hear about the first building on the grounds of TxSU. Fairchild Hall. When I first got to TxSU the old Fairchild was still up. They renovated it the next year abd re-did the entire inside and I was kinda mad. I liked it the old way. They should have just painted and fix it up a bit, But they could have kept it the old way cause it was the first. I'm just glad I got to see it the old way.
 
I think at JSU the thing that sticks with most people is the story of the Plaza.

Two students were shot and killed on Lynch Street in 1972 after a protest on the campus. Students retalliated against the Mississippi State Troopers by throwing bricks, rocks, etc. at all cars driven by whites through the campus. The authorities had to close the street temporarily to stop the actions of the students. The street has been closed temporarily for 30 years. Lynch Street now ends at the front of the JSU campus and begins again behind the school. "The Plaza", the central meeting and gathering place of students on campus today, was built on the portion of Lynch street where the shootings took place. The Gibbs-Green Plaza was named after the two young men who were killed by the State Troopers in an effort to defend the rights of African Americans. They are remembered because their actions have made so much possible for us as Jacksonians, Mississippians and Americans today.
 
NOISE TALKA,,, "WOOSH" '97-'99

Das the kind of stuff I'm talking about. I'm saddened that there are not more stories like that from the younger folks on this forum.


Man WOOSH,,,, :lmao: ,,, uh-let me tell ya chief,,,,,, no HBCU is more expert at "rennovating" buildings den Tuskegee! The Band Cottage (wasn't a band cottage originally) is the oldest building on campus,,, built in 1880s (?) something, with bricks built by students and it has been rennovated so many times I can't count,,, and it just got rennovated again,, and is the current band building!

Here's a quote on The Band Cottage:
Our tour begins at the Band Cottage. It is the oldest building on the campus and was constructed in 1889. It was originally a tinshop. For a number of years, the cottage has been the home of the University's bands. The band is but one of many co-curricular activities that makeup The Tuskegee Experience. We do not have a music program, but we do have a marching band, a concert band, and several ensembles.
Click to expand...

www.tusk.edu/about/visiting/tour1.htm
(keep clicking "NEXT")

We have other buildings roughly from the same era that are still in use and in relatively good shape. The way they rennovated them was MASTERFUL. I love the way they put tin roofs (crimson/rust color of coarse) on the buildings that LOOK like the original buildings, but incorporate all the modern insulation and other technology. :nod:
 
Well, the Chapel on the campus of Alcorn State University was built by slaves. It is registered with the historical landmarks in Mississippi. It is the oldest historical landmark in Southwest Mississippi.

Alcorn State University is named after a Governor of the state of Mississippi, James L. Alcorn. He was instrumental in giving the school which was once for white to Blacks.

Alcorn State University is the oldest historically Black land-grant institution in the United States. The first degree in the state was issued there when it was called Oakland College, a college for white presbyterian males before the Civil war. It later opened for the education of Blacks in Agriculture and Mechanical areas.

The first president of Alcorn State University was Hiram Revels, the first Black senator in the United States.

Medgar Evers, a famous civil rights activist, graduated from Alcorn in the 50's.

Alex Haley, author of Roots, also graduated from Alcorn.
 
Interesting stuff on the governor.

Didn't know Alcorn was named after the governor. Was that a governor immediately after the civil war era when forces more sympathetic to blacks were in political control?
 
Re: Interesting stuff on the governor.

Originally posted by Bartram
Didn't know Alcorn was named after the governor. Was that a governor immediately after the civil war era when forces more sympathetic to blacks were in political control?
Click to expand...


Yes, you are right Bartram. There is a book out entitled "Against all odds: The history of Alcorn State University." It gives this more in detail.:)
 
While my school is not an HBCU, it is home to the largest collection of African American History in the country at the Amistad Research Center.
 
The Amistad Committee, a group of Christian abolitionists organized to help the Africans captured and brought to Long Island Sound aboard the slaveship L'Amistad, merged with the other benevolent groups to form American Missionary Association. The AMA along with the Freedmen's Bureau formed Lincoln School which later becomes Alabama State University. ASU also had a key roll in the Montgomery bus boycott. On this campus, organizing meetings were held, flyers asking blacks to stay off the bus were printed, handed out by students and instructors and carpools formed.
 
The site that Prairie View A&M stands is where the Alta Vista plantation stood. The land was once a very large plantation stretching for miles.

At the end of the civil war the document that disbanded the Confederate army in Texas was signed at the Alta Vista plantation. Note that the last battle of the war was fought near Brownsville, TX.
 

Representing Alcorn and Tuskegee

Alcorn
The first Black Optometrist registered in Alabama was a graduate of Alcorn. He practiced in Huntsville and died last year.

During a student demonstration in the 1960's, Dr. Boyd (president) authorized Trailway buses to come on campus and take students home. All students were vacated off the campus.

Tuskegee

Tuskegee has the oldest baccalaureate nursing program in the state of Alabama. Until the late 70's, nursing students had to complete their hospital training at John Hopkins Medical Ctr. and other institutions on the east coast because the hospitals in the South would not allow nursing students from Black colleges to use their facilities. The late Mrs. Lillian Harvey was instrumental in transporting the nursing students from Tuskegee to Baltimore and other cities to complete their training.

The super soaker (the water gun) was designed by a Tuskegee Grad. He used to work for NASA.

Carol Simpson (ABC News) taught English at Tuskegee before going into broadcast.

During Booker T. Washington's presidency, no Tuskegee student had been arrested. It can't be said now.

Booker T. Washington (co-founder and 1st president of Tuskegee) was instrumental in making Howard a comprehensive university. He was one of the first Blacks to sit on their board of trustees.

Tuskegee was originally a public institution. However, when the state of Alabama tried to control the curriculum of the school, Mr. Washington decided the school would be better off if it were private. By then he had made acquaintances with benefactors from the North and East who had his back. On one occassion he contacted Mr. Sears of Sears and Roebuck to inform him that students needed shoes to wear. Sears consulted Andrew Carnegie (steel and railroad magnate). Carnegie had a rail spur built at the school, and Sears later sent a train load of shoes directly to the campus.
 
JPJ! JPJ!!!! WHERE DA HEEL YOU BEEN?!!

OUTSTANDING!!!!

You know, if you look closely when traveling west passing Grey Columns and Marible Apartments on ole Montgomery road, you can still see the old rail bed that went to the campus.

Speaking of Grey Columns,,,, some of the shooting of Gone With the Wind took place there.
 
Nomad to Nomad

Hey HBCUbian


I've been roaming the countryside for the last 10+ years.

We can't forget the fact Mr. Booker T. Washington's influence was astronomical. Before philanthropists would donate money or any other resources to a Black School in the South, they would seek the counsel of Mr. Washington. He basically decided the fate of Black schools in the South.

Okay, I cheated I had to research Booker T while at Skegee for an re-enactment of the virtual debate between him and W. E. B. Dubois.
 
Yeah, NT, the history of the plaza was something I had intended to mention.
 
One of the most famous historical tidbits to me concerning my school was that W.C. Handy was one of the first director of bands at AAMU:cool: :cool:
 
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