Howard University is a historically black college in Washington, D.C. It was established by a congressional charter in 1867, and much of its early funding came from the Freedmen's Bureau.

Howard University has played an important role in civil rights history on a number of occasions. After being refused admission to the then-segregated University of Maryland School of Law, a young Thurgood Marshall enrolled at Howard instead. There he studied under Charles Houston , a Harvard Law School graduate and leading civil rights lawyer who at the time was the dean of Howard's law school. Houston took Marshall under his wing, and the two forged a friendship that would last for the remainder of Houston's life and forever change America.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered a speech to the graduating class at Howard, where he outlined his plans for civil rights legislation. A decade earlier, Howard University was the site where Thurgood Marshall and his team of legal scholars from around the nation prepared to argue the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.

Howard has graduate schools of law, medicine, dentistry, and divinity, in addition to the undergraduate program. The current enrollment (as of 2003) is approximately 11,000, including 7,000 undergraduates.

Presidents of Howard University

•  Charles B. Boynton	(1867)
•  Byron Sunderland	(1867–1869)
•  Oliver Otis Howard	(1869–1874)
•  Edward P. Smith	(1875–1876)
•  William W. Patton	(1877–1889)
•  Jeremiah E. Rankin	(1890–1903)
•  John Gordon	(1903–1906)
•  Wilbur P. Thirkield	(1906–1912)
•  Stephen M. Newman	(1912–1918)
•  James S. Durkee	(1918–1926)
•  Mordecai Wyatt Johnson	(1926–1960)
•  James M. Nabrit	(1960–1969)
•  James E. Cheek	(1969–1989)
•  Franklyn G. Jenifer	(1990–1994)
•  H. Patrick Swygert	(1995– )

Famous Staff

• Todd Duncan, opera singer
• Lois Mailou Jones, painter

Notable Alumni

Howard University has conferred 99,318 degrees and certificates in its 137-year history. Noteworthy alumni are educators, politicians, United States ambassadors, writers, prominent international figures, corporate executives, and a Nobel Laureate.

Academia

• Charlene Drew Jarvis (Ph.D.), president Southeastern University
• Lois Pierre-Noel , educator
• Irvin Reid (Ph.D.), president Wayne State University
• H. Patrick Swygert , president Howard University

Law & Politics

• Dr.Percival Broderick , Deputy Prime Minister of Jamaica
• Hon.Edward Brooke, first African-American elected to the United States Senate
• Hon.Ewart Brown , Deputy Premier and Minister of Transport of Bermuda
• Hon.Roland Burris , State Attorney General, Illinois
• Hon.Elijah Cummings, United States Congress
• Hon.David Dinkins, first African-American mayor of New York City
• Hon.Mike Espy, first African-American United States Secretary of Agriculture
• Hon.Shirley Franklin, first female mayor of Atlanta, Georgia
• Dr.Oliver Harper , Minister of Health, Guyana
• Hon.Patricia Roberts Harris, United States Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, United States Ambassador
• Hon.Earl Hilliard , United States Congress
• Hon.John Junor , Minister of Health, Jamaica
• Hon.Sharon Pratt Kelly, first African-American female mayor of a major city, Washington, DC
• Hon.Keith Knight , Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Jamaica
• Hon.Thurgood Marshall, first African-American United States Supreme Court justice
• Hon.Gabrielle McDonald , judge Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, The Hague, Netherlands
• Gregory W. Meeks Representive for New York's sixth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives
• Hon.M. Kasim Reid , United States Senate, Georgia
• Hon.Spottswood Robinson , judge, United States Circuit court
• Hon.Roy Schneider , Governor United States Virgin Islands
• Hon.Walter Washington
• Hon.Douglas Wilder, first African-American United States governor
• Hon.Harris Wofford, United States Congress
• Hon.Albert Wynn, first African-American elected to the United States Congress from Prince George's County and Montgomery County in Maryland
• Hon.Andrew Young, first African-American United Nations Ambassador and former mayor of Atlanta, Georgia

Arts & Music

• Ossie Davis, actor
• Lillian Evanti, Opera singer
• Phylicia Rashad, actress
• Debbie Allen, dancer, actress
• Puff Daddy

See also

• List of historically black colleges of the United States

External link

• Howard University Website
• Howard University Hospital
• The Hilltop (student newspaper)
• Howard University Press
• The Official Howard Athletics Site

University seal © Howard University.