University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) is a public historically black land-grant research university in Princess Anne, Maryland. It is part of the University System of Maryland. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". It was established as Delaware Conference Academy. It has also been known as Princess Anne Academy and other names during its evolution.

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving African Americans. Most of these institutions were founded during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War and are concentrated in the Southern United States. They were primarily founded by Protestant religious groups, until the Second Morill Act of 1890 required educationally segregated states to provide African American, public higher-education schools in order to receive the Act's benefits.