Clark Atlanta University is a private, Methodist, historically black research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Clark Atlanta is the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in the Southern United States. Founded on September 19, 1865 as Atlanta University, it consolidated with Clark College to form Clark Atlanta University in 1988. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Stone Hall, c. 1910
Clark Atlanta University sign
Bust of W.E.B. DuBois by Ayokunle Odeleye at Clark Atlanta University
CAU Football Stadium
Historically black colleges and universities
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.
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania was founded in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth, making it the oldest HBCU in the nation
President George H. W. Bush signs a new Executive Order on historically black colleges and universities in the White House Rose Garden, April 1989
North Carolina A&T State University is the nation's largest HBCU by enrollment.
Vice President and HBCU alumna Kamala Harris with students attending HBCUs