January 1874

Rep. Robert Brown Elliott of South Carolina delivered a celebrated speech on the House floor on January 6, 1874, rebutting former Confederate VP Alexander Stephens' opposition to the Civil Rights Act. Elliott's command of constitutional law and oratory electrified the chamber. Harper's Weekly called it 'the best speech of the session.' The speech was reprinted as a pamphlet and distributed nationwide.

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.

Wilberforce University in Ohio, the first university owned and operated by African Americans (under AME Church control since 1856), expands its programs in the 1870s. Under Bishop Daniel Payne it offers classical, theological, and normal education, graduating teachers and ministers who spread Black education across the South.

Robert Brown Elliott, Black congressman from South Carolina, delivered a powerful speech on the House floor on January 6, 1874 in support of the Civil Rights Act, directly rebutting the arguments of former Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens. Elliott's eloquent defense of Black citizenship rights was widely reprinted and celebrated as one of the great speeches of the Reconstruction era, and his portrait hung in Black homes across the South for decades.