Shaw University

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Shaw University
Seal of Shaw University
Motto: "Pro Christo Et Humanitate""For Christ and Humanity"
Established: 1865
Type: Private-Social Research Institution
President: Clarence G. Newsome
Undergraduates: 3,700
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Campus: Urban
Athletics CIAA: 14 Varsity Teams
Mascot: Bear
Athletics: 14 varsity teams
Website: www.shawuniversity.edu

Shaw University is a nationally accredited historically black college (HBCU) located in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. Recently it won a 5-year grant with University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to create a Partnership for the Elimination of Health Disparities for minorities, which adds to its research capacity. The university offers several undergraduate degrees in the concentrations of natural science, divinity and religious education, allied health, business and accounting, the performing arts, religion and philosophy, psychology, public administration and safety, education and humanities, the social sciences and computer science. Shaw Divinity School offers a Master of Divinity and Master of Religious Education. Also in addition to the school's academic programs,The Institution offers a Master of Science Degree in Education with a concentration in Early Childhood Development and so forth. Shaw University has 14 varsity athletic teams and is a member and Cofounder of the CIAA also known as the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, which is a NCAA Division II Conference and the oldest Black Conference in the Nation.[1] In 2008, Shaw's Football team won the CIAA Championship as well as its Female Basketball team, which has been a prominent force in Division II Female Basketball. As a liberal arts university, Shaw was founded by the American Home Baptist Mission of the Baptist Church and is currently affiliated with The General Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, and is furthermore a member of the National Baptist Convention,USA,Inc. which is the largest and oldest African American Christian denomination in the world.[2] As an affiliate of the General Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, Shaw University is supported through monetary and moral support and is celebrated as well as blessed through the prayers and offerings of the all the member Churches of the State Convention yearly, through what has been dubbed as "Shaw Day." The General Baptist State Convention of N.C. instituted "Shaw Day" in commemeration of Shaw's founding and committment elucidated in the school's motto, "Pro Christo Et Humanitate, For Christ and Humanity." As of 2007, Shaw's enrollment has increased to 3,700 students and is acknowledged as the oldest HBCU in the American South.


Contents

[edit] History

Shaw University was the first college for African Americans in the Southern United States.[3] The Rev. Dr.Henry Martin Tupper came south immediately after the end of the Civil War. He established the Second Baptist Church of Raleigh (the name was changed to Tabernacle Baptist Church in 1910)and is now the Tupper Memorial Baptist Church of Raleigh North Carolina.[4] Later Tupper and his Bible study students constructed a two-story church, with one story being dedicated to the church, and the other to what is known as the Raleigh Institute, where he taught freedmen. By 1915, still supported by the American Baptist Home Mission or ABHM, the Institute had an enrollment of 291 students, about evenly divided between men and women.

It was renamed Shaw Collegiate Institute after Elijah Shaw, benefactor of Shaw Hall, the first building constructed for the college. In 1875, it became Shaw University. In 1873, Estey Hall was erected for female students, making it the first such dormitory in the U.S. on a coeducational campus. The Leonard Medical School was founded in 1881 as the first four-year medical school in the South to train black doctors and pharmacists. It was also the first medical school in North Carolina to offer a four-year curriculum. It operated until 1918. Given their importance in the education of African Americans, both Estey Hall and Leonard Hall have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Education was seen as among the most critical needs of freedmen. In many communities the roles of minister and teacher were closely allied, and Shaw's teaching had a strong spiritual base. Shaw University trained many of the new teachers who taught African Americans in the South after the Civil War. They worked for a profound cause, the advancement of their race. Northern white teachers also came to the area to teach. Newly free adults and children eagerly sought to learn to read and write. Most southern states imposed segregated schools by the late 1870s.

African-American teachers nurtured their students and were part of their communities, acting as role models to encourage children to get education. By 1900, more than 30,000 black teachers had been trained and put to work in the South, and the majority of African Americans had become literate. It was a huge achievement and the energy of black teachers played a key part.[5] While some teachers taught children with only a few years more of schooling than their students, Shaw was among the colleges that graduated the most accomplished men and women teachers. It was a highly regarded profession.

Shaw University has been called the mother of African-American colleges in North Carolina, as North Carolina Central University, Elizabeth City State University, and Fayetteville State University all had founding presidents who were Shaw alumni. The founder of Livingstone College spent his first two college years at Shaw before transferring to Lincoln University. What became North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University was located on Shaw's campus during its first year.

[edit] Civil Rights Movement to present

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), also pronounced,"Snick." a major force in the American Civil Rights movement from 1960 to 1966, began at a conference held at Shaw University, led by Ella Baker in 1960. It was created to coordinate activities among numerous civil rights groups, to conduct sit-ins such as those that had taken place in Greensboro, support the leaders, and publicize their activities. Major political leaders of the next generation started with SNCC, and it played a strong role in Freedom Summer and the voter registration drive in Mississippi in 1964 and 1965.

With the end of legal segregation after civil rights legislation, Shaw University and other historically black colleges and universities found that part of their purpose had disappeared. Where they at one time had offered the only chance for higher education for African Americans in the South, they had to compete for students with larger universities, both public and private, which sometimes had more financial resources and amenities. They spent time to redefine their purpose and best ways to reach both students and stakeholders.

By the mid-1980s, Shaw University's student body had declined and the university was deeply in debt. With the presidency of Dr. Talbert O. Shaw (1988-2003) (not related to the namesake), Shaw University was revived and the student body grew markedly, from 1600 to 2700, while the university also succeeded in raising its standards. President Shaw restructured debt and worked to raise funds and build support from all sectors of the city. He joined civic groups to highlight the status of the university. He also reached out to the Raleigh professional, business and the state's political communities, to create opportunities for students to take advantage of the university's unique location. He worked to redefine the advantages a small liberal arts university could offer African-American students and to create new strengths in the departments. In the 1990s, Shaw ran a successful capital campaign to renovate historic buildings and construct new campus facilities, including a center for teachers' education. The percentage of faculty holding doctorates increased substantially. [6]

Initiatives have continued under the new president. In recognition of its progress, in 2005 Shaw's Divinity School received a 10-year accreditation from the Association for Theological Schools. Also, in 2005 construction started on a new Center for Early Childhood Education, Research and Development. The following year the university partnered with the City of Raleigh to create a Citizens' Participation and Leadership Institute, to encourage civic engagement and cultivate leadership throughout the city.[7]

Another example of new directions is that the university is collaborating with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill on a Partnership for the Elimination of Health Disparities Center. As noted by Dr. Daniel Howard, center co-director at Shaw University, establishing the research resources at Shaw, meant that "more African American college students can become health researchers, which is a definite plus when trying to eliminate disparities." [8] Collaborating with a major research university adds to what Shaw can offer in its programs of health and physical research, but students still have the opportunity to work closely with faculty in a small college setting.

[edit] University Presidents Past to Present

  • Dr. Henry Martin Tupper (1865-1893) First/ Founder
  • Dr. Charles Francis Meserve (1894-1919) Second
  • Dr. Joseph Leishman Peacock (1920-1931) Third
  • Dr. William Stuart Nelson (1931-1936) Fourth
  • Dr. Robert Prentiss Daniel (1936-1950) Fifth
  • Dr. William Russell Strassner(1951-1962) Sixth
  • Dr. James Edward Cheek (1963-1969) Seventh/ Alumni
  • Dr. King Vergil Cheek (1969-1971) Eighth/ Alumni
  • Dr. J. Archie Hargraves (1971-1977) Ninth
  • Dr. ? Tenth
  • Dr. John Lucas (1981-1987) Eleventh/Alumni
  • Dr. Talbert O. Shaw (1988-2002) Twelfth
  • Dr. Clearance G. Newsome (2003/ now) Thirteenth

[9]

[edit] Colleges and Centers

Shaw University has the following colleges and centers: Center for Prostate Research; the College of Arts and Sciences; the Institute for Health,Social, and Community Research; College of Business and Technology,Center for Early Childhood Education, Research and Development; the Center for Biostatistics and Data Management;Shaw University Social Gerontology Institute for Minorities, the Center for Survey Research for the Social Sciences; the College of Professional and Graduate Studies; and the Shaw University Divinity School (one of the few fully accredited theological institutions in the state of N.C.). Its football stadium is Durham Co. Memorial Stadium, in Durham North Carolina.

To expand its programs for adult education, Shaw University has established the College of Adult and Professional Education (CAPE). The university has created numerous CAPE centers to provide professional education in other cities of North Carolina. Shaw University offers degree programs in Greenville, NC; Kannapolis, NC; High Point, NC; Rocky Mount, NC; Ahoskie, NC; Fayetteville, NC; Durham, NC; Wilmington, NC; and Asheville, NC. With students at these centers, Shaw University has become one of the largest HBCUs in the state of North Carolina.[10]

[edit] Study of service by World War II black veterans

Shaw University led a research study to investigate why no black veterans of WWII had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The study concluded that racial discrimination had contributed to the military's overlooking the contributions of black soldiers. The 272-page Shaw study recommended ten soldiers whose military records suggested they deserved the Medal of Honor.

In January 1995 the team’s findings were sent to the Department of Defense. In April 1996, the Pentagon agreed that seven of the ten soldiers should be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. All ten had been awarded other medals during the war years. President William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton awarded the Medals of Honor on January 13, 1997.

The Pentagon’s decision in response to Shaw's study marked only the third time that the military re-evaluated military records to award the Medal of Honor. Only one of the seven nominees, 1st Lt. Vernon Baker of St. Maries, Idaho, was alive to receive his medal. Those who were awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously were: 1st Lt. Charles L. Thomas of Detroit; Pvt. George Watson of Birmingham, Alabama; Staff Sgt. Edward A. Carter Jr. of Los Angeles, California; 1st Lt. John R. Fox of Boston; Pfc. Willy F. James Jr. of Kansas City, Kansas; and Staff Sgt. Ruben Rivers of Tecumseh, Oklahoma.[11]

[edit] Notable Shaw alumni

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ www.theciaa.com
  2. ^ www.baptistlife.org/Constitution Article IV Higher Learning
  3. ^ Shaw University official website, accessed Mar 2008
  4. ^ Tabernacle Baptist Church official website, accessed 29 May 2008
  5. ^ James D. Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988, pp.244-245
  6. ^ Eleanor Lee Yates, "Talbert O. Shaw retires after 15 years at Shaw University - Noteworthy News", Black Issues in Higher Education, accessed 26 Mar 2008
  7. ^ Shaw University Alumni News, accessed 26 Mar 2008
  8. ^ Carolina-Shaw Partnership for Elimination of Health Disparities, accessed 27 Mar 2008
  9. ^ Carter, Wilmoth. A, Shaw's Universe, 1989 Tapestry Press
  10. ^ College of Adult and Professional Education (CAPE). Shaw University. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
  11. ^ Historical Perspective, "World War II Study", Shaw University official website, accessed 29 May 2008

[edit] References

  • Carter, Wilmoth A. Shaw's Universe: A Monument to Educational Innovation, Raleigh: Shaw University, 1973
  • Lincoln, C. Eric, The Black Church in the African American Experience, Durham: Duke University Press, 1990

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