Howard University and Black Higher Education Expand 1880s

Howard University, Fisk University, Atlanta University, Spelman Seminary (founded 1881), and other HBCUs expanded significantly through the 1880s, training Black doctors, lawyers, ministers, and teachers. Spelman, founded in an Atlanta church basement by Sophia Packard and Harriet Giles for Black women, enrolled over 800 students by 1890. These institutions became the institutional backbone of Black professional life as other doors slammed shut.