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Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is a public, coed comprehensive unit that is a part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Cheyney university has a 275 acre campus that is located in Cheyney, Pennsylvania. The university offers associates, bachelors and masters degrees.
[edit] History
Founded in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is the oldest of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America, but is not the first degree granting HBCU. Nearby Lincoln University, Pennsylvania founded in 1854 is the oldest degree granting HBCU. The founding of Cheyney University was made possible by Richard Humphreys, a Quaker philanthropist who bequeathed $10,000, one tenth of his estate, to design and establish a school to educate the descendents of the African race.
Born on a plantation in the West Indies, Humphreys came to Philadelphia in 1764. Having witnessed the struggles of African Americans competing unsuccessfully for jobs due to the influx of immigrants, he became interested in their plight. In 1829, race riots heightened and it was that year Richard Humphreys wrote his will and charged thirteen fellow Quakers to design an institution: "...to instruct the descendents of the African Race in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanic Arts, trades and Agriculture, in order to prepare and fit and qualify them to act as teachers...."
Cheyney University began as a boarding school in Philadelphia as the Institute for Colored Youth and successfully provided free classical education for qualified young people. The school had Matrons & Principals from 1837 to 1913. In 1902, the Institute moved to George Cheyney's farm, 25 miles west of Philadelphia. In 1913, the name was changed to Cheyney State Teachers College; in 1921, the State Normal School at Cheyney; and in 1959, Cheyney State College. In 1983, Cheyney joined the State System of Higher Education as Cheyney University of Pennsylvania.
Today, Cheyney University students represent a variety of races, cultures, and nationalities who receive education instruction beyond the vision of Richard Humphreys. Cheyney graduates still become teachers, but students also enter careers such as journalism, medicine, business, science, law, communication, and government service. The university offers baccalaureate degrees in more than 30 disciplines and the master’s degree in education.
Cheyney University is proud of its more than 10,000 graduates. Well known alumni include journalist Ed Bradley of the CBS program "60 Minutes"; Robert W. Bogle, publisher and CEO of the Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest newspaper continuously owned an operated by an African American; Gladys Styles Johnston, Chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Kearney; Congressman Curt Weldon who represents the 7th Congressional District (which includes Chester and Delaware Counties); State Representative Michael Horsey who represents the 190th district in Philadelphia County; State Representative Thaddeus Kirkland who represents the 159th district in Delaware County; Robert L. Woodson, Founder and President of the National left for Neighborhood Enterprise (NCNE), Washington, D.C.; Samuel J. Patterson, CEO of Shepard Patterson Systems and Information Consulting Firm; and Ambassador (retired) Joseph M. Segars.
[edit] Alumni
| Name |
Class year |
Notability |
Reference |
| Randy Monroe |
|
current head coach of University of Maryland Baltimore County men's basketball |
|
| Ed Bradley |
|
former CBS News journalist |
|
| Ronald S. Coleman |
|
Lieutenant General, Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs for the United States Marine Corps |
|
| Bayard Rustin |
|
African-American civil rights activist |
|
| Josephine Silone Yates |
|
African American writer, teacher, and civil rights advocate |
|
| Robert Bogle |
1973 |
President/CEO of The Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest black newspaper in circulation today |
|
| Jim Vance |
1964 |
Emmy Award-winning anchorman. Vance was inducted into the Journalists Hall of Fame. |
|
| Octavius Catto |
1858 |
Catto was the class valedictorian in 1858 at the Institute for Colored Youth (later Cheyney University). An activist, Catto was influential in getting the 15th Amendment passed in 1870 which gave black men the right to vote. Catto is also the founder of the first black baseball team in the United States (The Pythians, 1867) and the Equal Rights League (Oct. 1864). |
|
| Rebecca J. Cole |
1863 |
graduated from the Institute for Colored Youth in 1863 (now Cheyney University). She graduated from Women's Medical College (now the Medical College of Pennsylvania) in 1867 with a medical degree. Cole was the second African-American woman physician in the United States and the first black woman to graduate from the Women's Medical College. |
|
| Andre Waters |
1984 |
former NFL player |
|
| Joseph E. Lee |
|
He graduated from the Institute for Colored Youth (presently Cheyney University) in the early 1860s and graduated from Howard University in law, 1873. He was admitted to the Florida bar that year and was one of the first blacks to practice in Florida. He was a member of the Florida House from 1875-1880 and the Florida Senate from 1881-82.[1] |
|
| Julian Abele |
ca. 1896[2] |
graduate of the Institute for Colored Youth (now Cheyney University) was a prominent African-American architect. Upon Abele's graduation in 1902 as the first black student in architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, Abele designed or contributed to the design of some 250 buildings, including Harvard’s Widener Memorial Library, Duke University, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Philadelphia Free Library, and many Gilded Age mansions in Newport and New York City. |
|
| James "Big Cat" Williams |
|
former Chicago Bears player. He was a Pro Bowl offensive lineman. He had a 12-year career with the Bears. |
|
[edit] References
[edit] External links
