Cheyney University of Pennsylvania

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Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, located in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, in the United States, was originally founded as the Institute for Colored Youth in 1837 by Richard Humphreys.

[edit] History

It is the oldest historically Black college or university in the United States, although it was not originally founded as an "institution of higher learning" as Lincoln University, PA was.^{[citation needed]} Humphreys was a Quaker philanthropist who bequeathed $10,000.00, one tenth of his estate, to establish a school for “the descendants of the African race”. Humphreys changed his will to include this bequest in 1829 after race riots occurred in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Institute for Colored Youth provided educational opportunities to many African Americans in the Philadelphia area, and also employed a number of important African-American educators, including Charles L. Reason and Fanny Jackson Coppin, the first female African-American school principal.

The school began at the corner of Ninth St. and Lombard St. in Philadelphia and moved in 1902 to George Cheyney’s farm, twenty-five miles west of the city. The name of the school was changed several times; to Cheyney State Teachers College in 1913, the State Normal School at Cheyney in 1921, and Cheyney State College in 1959. The current name was adopted when the school joined the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education in 1983.

Basketball coach John Chaney, best known as head coach of the Temple University Owls from 1982 through 2006, began his head coaching career with Cheyney (then Cheyney State), coaching the school from 1972 through 1982. His record at Cheyney State was 225-56, and he won his only national championship in 1978.

Cheyney State College was also the runner-up in the first ever NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship Tournament, in 1982. Cheyney State was defeated by Louisiana Tech, 76 - 62.

[edit] Alumni

• Ed Bradley, CBS News journalist
• Lieutenant General Ronald S. Coleman, Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs for the United States Marine Corps
• Bayard Rustin, African-American civil rights activist
• Josephine Silone Yates, African American writer, teacher and civil rights advocate
• Robert Bogle, 1973, the President/CEO of The Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest black newspaper in circulation today.
• Jim Vance, 1964, Emmy Award winning anchor man. Vance was also inducted into the Journalists Hall of Fame.
• Octavius Catto, 1858, Catto was the class valedictorian in 1858 at the Institute for Colored Youth(name later changed to Cheyney University). An activist, Catto was influential in getting the 15th Amendment passed in 1870 which gave black men the right to vote. Catto is also the founder of the first black baseball team in the United States (The Pythians, 1867) and the Equal Rights League (Oct. 1864).
• Rebecca J. Cole, 1863, Cole graduated from the Institute for Colored Youth in 1863 (name later changed to Cheyney University). She graduated from Women's Medical College (now the Medical College of Pennsylvania) in 1867 with a medical degree. Cole was the second African-American woman physician in the United States and the first black woman to graduate from the Women's Medical College.
• Andre Waters, 1984, former NFL player
• Joseph E. Lee, He graduated from the Institute for Colored Youth( presently Cheyney University) in the early 1860s and graduated from Howard University in law, 1873. He was admitted to the Florida bar that year and was one of the first blacks to practice in Florida.He was a member of the Florida House from 1875-1880 and the Florida Senate from 1881-82.
• Julian Abele, 18?? Graduate of The Institute for Colored Youth (now Cheyney University) was a prominent African-American architect, Upon Abele's graduation in 1902 as the first black student in architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, Abele designed or contributed to the design of some 250 buildings, including Harvard’s Widener Memorial Library, Duke University, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Philadelphia Free Library, and many Gilded Age mansions in Newport and New York City.

[edit] External link

• Cheyney University of Pennsylvania official website

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