Encyclopedia

This interactive encyclopedia offers teachers and students access to terms, people, and events related to the history of Slavery in America. Many entries include reference material and some of the biographies on prominent figures contain suggestions for teaching as well as links to related sections of this site. The encyclopedia will continue to grow throughout the course of this project.

Understanding Clause: See Literacy Tests.

United States v. Cruikshank: (1876) This case arose out of the bloody Colfax, Louisiana, riot on Easter Sunday, 1873, in which 280 African Americans were massacred. Federal prosecutors indicted scores of whites under the Civil Rights Enforcement Act of 1870 (see Enforcement Acts). In a staggering blow to the power of the federal government to protect the civil rights of blacks, the Court quashed the indictments on the grounds that they had failed to clearly indicate the racial intentions of the arrested whites to deprive blacks of their civil rights. Justice Joseph P. Bradley, in writing for the majority, stated that the Fourteenth Amendment authorized federal action against state laws that denied rights but did not permit federal action against the actions of private individuals. He also wrote that while the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Amendments did allow federal action to prevent the private denial of rights, they did so only on the specified basis of race, color, or previous conditions of servitude. This ruling along with the ruling in U.S. v. Reese, gave primary authority to the states in matters of civil rights.

University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff: The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, forty-two miles south of Little Rock, was created in 1873 by an act of the state of Arkansas as a branch of the Arkansas Industrial University, called the Branch Normal College. It functioned as a land grant junior college from 1894 through 1929, when it changed to a four-year college. In 1915, the school enrolled 170 students, with 130 in elementary classes and the rest enrolled at the secondary level. Its focus was largely industrial and agricultural training plus so-called practical arts for women such as sewing. Today the school offers its 3,600 students forty-three baccalaureate programs and two masters programs on its suburban campus in south central Arkansas. It prides itself in training more African-American teachers than any other college or university in the state.

University of Maryland, Eastern Shore: The University of Maryland Eastern Shore, founded in 1886 by the Delaware Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was originally called the Delaware Academy for Negroes, located in Princess Anne, Maryland. Although it began with only nine students and one faculty member, within one year its enrollment had grown four-fold. In 1890, this small college began to receive land grant federal funds and was renamed Princess Anne Academy. Primarily a secondary school offering industrial, agricultural, and practical arts courses, it was noted in 1915 for its excellence in literary studies. In 1919, the State of Maryland took control of the Academy and renamed it the Eastern Shore Branch of the Maryland Agricultural College. It became Maryland State College in 1948, although it was still popularly known as Princess Anne College, becoming the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in 1970. Currently, 78 percent of its students are African American, and the school's curriculum offers the choice of twenty-six bachelor degree programs, with particular emphasis in the arts, science, professional studies, and agricultural sciences. They also offer thirteen teaching degree programs and several masters and Ph.D. programs in the sciences.

University of the District of Columbia: Although begun in the 19th century as a teacher's college for African Americans, the University of the District of Columbia emerged in 1976 as the only public institution of higher learning in our nation's capital. Chartered as an urban, land grant institution it has emphasized an open enrollment policy since its inception. Today it offers associate, bachelor, and masters degrees, Over five thousand students are enrolled in credit classes and an additional 15,000 are enrolled in noncredit extension and community classes. As a university with a 75 percent African-American enrollment, it emphasizes urban-based social research, teacher preparation, and public service careers. Its principal disciplines and programs include the liberal arts, the social sciences, business, nursing, and the sciences. It holds the record for the number of African-American bachelor degree recipients who go on to earn a Ph.D. degree.

University of the Virgin Islands: The University of the Virgin Islands is the only acknowledged historically black college or university outside of the continental U.S. It was chartered in 1962 as a publicly funded, coeducation, Liberal Arts College--opening its first campus on 175 acres donated by the federal government on the island of St. Thomas. Two years later a second campus, on 130 acres, also donated by the federal government, was opened on the island of St. Croix. The school offered associate degrees until 1967, when it granted its first bachelor's degree programs. In 1972, the college was granted land grant status, which allowed it to construct an Agricultural Experimentation Center and to offer specialized programs at the Reichhold Center for the Arts, the Eastern Caribbean Center, and the William P. MacLean Science Center. The chief areas of emphasis for its 2,500 full and part-time students include agriculture, natural resources, education, and environmental management. In 1976, UVI granted its first masters degrees in education, and it was recognized in 1986 as a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). Currently the University of the Virgin Islands maintains a large number of collaborative agreements and programs with colleges and universities throughout the United States.