January 1867

Howard University was chartered by an act of Congress in March 1867, named for General Oliver O. Howard of the Freedmen's Bureau. Located in Washington DC, it became the nation's premier HBCU, training generations of Black doctors, lawyers, engineers, and leaders — earning the designation 'The Capstone of Negro Education.'

Over a dozen Black colleges were founded during Reconstruction: Atlanta University (1865), Morehouse (1867), Hampton Institute (1868), Talladega College (1867), and others. These institutions trained the teachers who staffed freedpeople's schools. By 1875 Hampton had produced hundreds of Black teachers spreading across the South.

Rebecca J. Cole graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1867, becoming the second Black woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. She worked alongside Elizabeth Blackwell in New York and later ran the Woman's Directory Center in Philadelphia for decades, providing medical care and social services to women and children in poverty.

Hundreds of Black women from the North volunteered as teachers in Freedmen's Bureau and missionary schools beginning in 1865–67. Figures including Edmonia Highgate, Sara Stanley, and Blanche Harris taught in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Virginia despite death threats and arson. Highgate wrote detailed reports of Klan intimidation while continuing to teach. Their work was foundational to Black literacy gains.

Hundreds of Black women from the North volunteered as teachers in Freedmen's Bureau and missionary schools from 1865–67. Edmonia Highgate, Sara Stanley, and Blanche Harris taught in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Virginia despite death threats and arson. Highgate sent detailed reports of Klan intimidation while continuing to teach.