Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, HBCUs, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, have been the topic of a great deal of discussions recently, and I rise, as part of the observance of Black History Month, to recognize and celebrate one of them, Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina. Similar to the many Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the Nation, Allen University's contributions to my home State of South Carolina and the Nation are immeasurable. Founded to offer education and opportunity to formerly enslaved African Americans, HBCUs have been central institutions in African-American communities for generations. In 1870, 5 years after the end of the Civil War, the clergy of the African Methodist Episcopal Church set out to create an institution to educate newly freed slaves and train clergy for the AME Church. The Church purchased land in Cokesbury, South Carolina, and named the new college Payne Institute in honor of AME Bishop Daniel Payne, a native of Charleston, South Carolina. Bishop Payne had become the first Black college president in the United States at Wilberforce University in 1863, which he had helped found. In 1880, Bishop William Dickerson sought to relocate the college to Columbia and acquired land on which the campus sits today. The institution was renamed Allen University after Richard Allen, the founder and first bishop of the AME Church. Higher education remained segregated in South Carolina until the early 1960s.…”