April 29 …

Lincoln University (PA) — an HBCU located in Chester County, PA — holds a distinctive place in American educational history as the first degree-granting HBCU in the United States.

Chartered on April 29, 1854 as the Ashmun Institute, it was founded by Presbyterian minister John Miller Dickey and his wife, Sarah Emlen Cresson, to provide higher education opportunities for African American men at a time when such access was extremely limited. The institution was renamed Lincoln University in 1866 in honor of Abraham Lincoln following the Civil War.

From its earliest years, the university emphasized a classical liberal arts education combined with religious and moral instruction. Its founders envisioned an institution that would train leaders for ministry, education, and public service, and it quickly became known for its rigorous academic standards — earning the informal nickname “the Black Princeton.” During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Lincoln attracted students from across the United States and abroad, particularly from Africa and the Caribbean.

The institution played a critical role in developing Black professional leadership. During its first century, it produced approximately 20 percent of African American physicians and more than 10 percent of African American lawyers in the United States.

The university expanded its mission over time, authorizing the education of women in 1953 and becoming a state-related, coeducational institution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1972. It now offers a range of undergraduate and graduate programs in the arts, sciences, and professional fields.

The university’s alumni include some of the most influential figures in African American history.

• Thurgood Marshall (1930) became the first African American justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Langston Hughes (1929) emerged as a leading literary voice of the Harlem Renaissance.
• Horace Mann Bond (1923) was a distinguished historian and president of Lincoln University and later Fort Valley State College in Georgia.
• Herman Branson (1936) made significant contributions to physics and co-developed early models of protein structure.
• Rebecca Cole (1867), one of the first Black women physicians in the United States, pursued preparatory studies at Lincoln before earning her medical degree.
• Nathan Francis Mossell (1879) became a prominent physician and founded the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia.

Today, Lincoln University (PA) remains a symbol of educational access and Black intellectual achievement. Its legacy reflects a long-standing commitment to leadership, scholarship, and social progress, making it a cornerstone institution within African American history and higher education in the United States.

Footnotes:

• Lincoln University. History of Lincoln University. Lincoln University (Pennsylvania). Accessed April 26, 2026.
• “Lincoln University (Pennsylvania).” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Last modified 2026. Accessed April 26, 2026.
• Anderson, James D. The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
• Gasman, Marybeth, and Christopher L. Tudico. Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Triumphs, Troubles, and Taboos. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.