Wilberforce University Expands Under AME Leadership, First Black University

Wilberforce University in Ohio, the first university owned and operated by African Americans (since 1856 under AME Church control), expands its programs in the 1870s and becomes a model for Black higher education. Under Bishop Daniel Payne and later presidents, it offers classical, theological, and normal education and graduates generations of Black teachers and ministers who fan out across the South.