Check out our latest installment of This Month in North Carolina History here!
In December 1865, Henry Martin Tupper began teaching Bible study classes to African Americans studying to become Baptist ministers. The courses he and his wife taught would quickly expand in scope and student body, and Shaw University was established as the first black college in the South.
There are several postcards of Shaw University up on North Carolina Postcards, and Jason Tomberlin wrote a post for NCM about Shaw University’s med school, the Leonard Medical School that is also worth checking out.
Please accept my gratitude of expression for inclusion of Shaw University in your archives of history. I am a fourth generation descendant of slaves and attended and graduated from Shaw University and after leaving to perform military duties went on to finish education at the University of Colorado. My heart goes out to the founder Henry Martin Tupper for his vision and compassion for the freed slaves at that time. Had I not had this prolific experience, I might not have become a physician. This history as depicted should be universal for all people and their cognition. I equate this experience and philantrophic act of Dr. Tupper to the recent Haiti Catastrophy today. Thank you for receipt of my comment..