HBCU History

Cheyney to Drew: The Story of the HBCU

HBCU history simmers with often brash, bodacious acts to secure higher education for those long denied. The approach fit the challenges. Even when the path appeared clearer, the reality could prove otherwise.

Every HBCU has a story, from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, the very first, to Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, recognized as the last. (Last because the U.S. Department of Education’s HBCU designation requires establishment prior to enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, with Drew (1966) drawing an HBMC (medical college) ‘dispensation’.)

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