On February 25, 2020 Cheyney University of Pennsylvania celebrated its one hundred eighty-fifth birthday. Founded by Society of Friends (Quakers) from a $10,000 bequeathal from Richard Humphreys’ 1829 last will and testament, which stipulated the money was to be used expressly for the creation of an institution whose purpose was “…the benevolent design of instructing the descendants of the African Race in school learning, the various branches of the mechanical arts and trades and agriculture, in order to prepare and fit and qualify them to act as teachers in such of those branches of useful business as in the judgment of the said society they may appear best qualified for, the Said Institution to be located not far distant from the City of Philadelphia and to be under the care, management and control of such Persons only as are or may be members of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends commonly called Quakers…”
Humphrey’s vision/intention was exceptional; to provide the money to create an educational institution, at a time when widescale hostility and enmity directed against Blacks by various white ethnic groups living in Philadelphia was rampant. This historical reality runs contrary to the myth of Philadelphia being the city of Brotherly and Sisterly affection.
First named The African Institute, the school was not chartered as a college. It was a truly unique concept at that time, a school designed to teach rigorous academics, trade, agriculture and mechanical arts to the descendants of Africans living in the Philadelphia area at a time when most Blacks were living in brutal bondage. The name was subsequently changed to The Institute of Colored Youth and the doors opened in 1840 following the 1839 purchase of a 136 acre farm located on the outskirts of Philadelphia.
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