Howard University

Howard University, at Washington, D.C.; coeducational; with federal support. It was founded in 1867 by Gen. Oliver O. Howard of the Freedmen's Bureau, to provide education for newly emancipated slaves. A normal and preparatory department was opened the same year. In 1868 the collegiate department and the departments of law, pharmacy, and medicine were opened, followed by the theological (1871), dentistry (1882), music (1883), and engineering and architecture (1910) departments. The university also has schools of fine arts, nursing, business and public administration, and social work. The Founders Library houses the Moorland-Spingarn and Channing Pollock collections on African-American literature and history, which date back to the 16th cent. Although predominantly a black university, the school has been open since its founding to all qualified students.

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Howard University

University in Washington, D.C., the most prominent African American educational institution in the U.S. It is financially supported by the U.S. government but is privately controlled. Though open to students of any ethnicity, it was founded (1867) with a special obligation to educate African American students. It has a college of liberal arts, a graduate school of arts and sciences, and schools or colleges of business and public administration, engineering, human ecology, medicine, dentistry, and law, among others. Its library is the leading research library on African American history.