North Carolina Central University (NCCU or NC Central) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

historically black university Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

. Founded by

James E. Shepard James Edward Shepard (November 3, 1875 – October 6, 1947) was an American pharmacist, civil servant and educator, the founder of what became the North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. He first established it as a private sc ...

in affiliation with the

Chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) was an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua bro ...

movement in 1909, it was supported by private funds from both Northern and Southern philanthropists. It was made part of the state system in 1923, when it first received state funding and was renamed as Durham State Normal School. It added graduate classes in arts and sciences and professional schools in law and library science in the late 1930s and 1940s. In 1969 the legislature designated this a regional university and renamed it as North Carolina Central University. It has been part of the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

system since 1972 and offers programs at the

baccalaureate Baccalaureate may refer to: * ''Baccalauréat'', a French national academic qualification * Bachelor's degree, or baccalaureate, an undergraduate academic degree * English Baccalaureate, a performance measure to assess secondary schools in England ...

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

, professional, and

doctoral A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

levels. The university is a member of the

Thurgood Marshall College Fund The Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is an American non-profit organization that supports and represents nearly 300,000 students attending its 47 member-schools that include public historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), medic ...

History

North Carolina Central University was founded by

as the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua for the Colored Race in the

Hayti District Hayti (pronounced "HAY-tie"), also called Hayti District, is the historic African-American community that is now part of the city of Durham, North Carolina. It was founded as an independent black community shortly after the American Civil War o ...

was an educational movement that originated in the Northeast. The school was chartered in 1909 as a private institution and opened on July 5, 1910.

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

, the future U.S. president, contributed some private support for the school's founding. The school was sold and reorganized in 1915, becoming the National Training School; it was supported by

Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, known as Olivia Sage (September 8, 1828 – November 4, 1918), was an American philanthropist known for her contributions to education and progressive causes. In 1869 she became the second wife of robber baron Russel ...

, a philanthropist of New York who was particularly concerned about education. (She founded the

Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her recently deceased husband, rail ...

and made generous bequests to several schools.) The National Training School supported Black teacher development in the

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

era, a time when Black education was underfunded by southern states at both the lower and upper levels. NCCU James E

Becoming a state-funded institution in 1923, this school was renamed as Durham State Normal School for Negroes; normal schools trained teachers for elementary grades. In 1925, reflecting the expansion of its programs to a four-year curriculum with a variety of majors, the General Assembly converted the institution into the North Carolina College for Negroes, dedicating it to the offering of liberal arts education and the preparation of teachers and principals of secondary schools. It was the nation's first state-supported liberal arts college for black students. To avoid the state

system of segregated passenger cars on trains, Shepard insisted on traveling to Raleigh by car to lobby the legislature. The college's first four-year class graduated in 1929. The college was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools as an "A" class institution in 1937 and was admitted to membership in that association in 1957. Graduate courses in the School of Arts and Sciences were added in 1939, in the School of Law in 1940, and in the School of Library Science in 1941. In 1947, the General Assembly changed the name of the institution to North Carolina College at Durham. On October 6, 1947, Shepard, the founder and president, died. He was succeeded in 1948 by

Alfonso Elder Alfonso Elder (February 26, 1898 – August 1974) was the second president of North Carolina Central University. On January 20, 1948, Elder was elected President of North Carolina College at Durham. At the time of his election, Elder was ser ...

. At the time of Elder's election he was serving as head of the Graduate Department of Education and had formerly been dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Elder retired September 1, 1963. Samuel P. Massie was appointed as the president on August 9, 1963, and resigned on February 1, 1966. On July 1, 1967,

Albert N. Whiting Albert Nathaniel Whiting (July 3, 1917 – June 4, 2020) was an American academic who was Chancellor (education)#University_president, President and Chancellor of North Carolina College (which became North Carolina Central University) from 1966 to ...

assumed the presidency. He served as president and chancellor of the institution. Among the significant developments during his service was the creation of NCCU School of Business. Programs in public administration and criminal justice were also launched. Whiting retired June 30, 1983. The 1969 General Assembly designated the institution as one of the State's regional universities, and the name was changed to North Carolina Central University. Since 1972, NCCU has been a constituent institution of the

system. On July 1, 1972, the state's four-year colleges and universities were joined to become The Consolidated University of North Carolina, with 16 individual campuses headed by a single president and governed by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. However, each campus was led by a separate chancellor and a campus-specific board of trustees. Whiting was succeeded by

LeRoy T. Walker LeRoy T. Walker (June 14, 1918 – April 23, 2012) was an American track and field coach and the first black president of the United States Olympic Committee. In the 1996 Olympics, Walker was delegated to lead a 10,000 member group of the mo ...

as chancellor, followed by Tyronza R. Richmond,

Julius L. Chambers Julius LeVonne Chambers (October 6, 1936 – August 2, 2013) was an American lawyer, civil rights leader and educator. Early life and education Chambers grew up during the Jim Crow era in rural Montgomery County, North Carolina. As a child, Cham ...

(who had previously been director-counsel (chief executive) of the

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (NAACP LDF, the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF) is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City. LDF is wholly independent and separate from the NAACP. Altho ...

James H. Ammons James H. Ammons is an American educator, who is the Chancellor of Southern University at New Orleans. He served as president of Florida A&M University (FAMU) from July 2, 2007, until his resignation took effect on July 16, 2012. He is a native Flo ...

Charlie Nelms Charlie Nelms is an educator and administrator who served as the tenth chancellor of North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. On July 26, 2012, after completing a five-year commitment to serve at the institution, Dr. Nelms annou ...

, and

Debra Saunders-White Debra Saunders-White (January 8, 1957 – November 26, 2016) was the eleventh chancellor of North Carolina Central University. She assumed office on June 1, 2013, and was the first woman to hold the permanent position of chancellor at NCCU. She wa ...

in 2013. Saunders-White was the first woman to hold the office on a permanent basis (Donna Benson was the first woman to serve as interim chancellor of the university). Saunders-White took a leave of absence in 2016, then provost, Johnson O. Akinleye, was appointed as acting chancellor. Following her death in November 2016, Akinleye became interim chancellor. Johnson O. Akinleye was elected as the 12th chancellor of NCCU on June 26, 2017. In this position, Akinleye has worked to expand the university's academic partnerships, including new agreements with community colleges, as well as introduced a robust online, distance-education program, NCCU Online. He also created K-12 initiatives and implemented a security strategy to increase safety for campus constituents.

Campus

The campus is located about a mile south of downtown

and about three miles east of

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. Eleven buildings built before 1940 are included in a national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

. All of the buildings, except for the three residences, are

Georgian Revival Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Georg ...

-style buildings; they have contemporary fireproof construction with steel trusses and brick exterior walls. They include the James E. Shepard Administration Building, Alexander Dunn Hall, Annie Day Shepard Hall, and five institutional buildings built in the late 1930s under the auspices of the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recove ...

. The campus was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1986.

Organization

NCCU is a part of the University of North Carolina (UNC) System. The campus is governed by a thirteen-member Board of Trustees: eight elected, four appointed, and the president of the Student Government Association also serves as an ex-officio member. The Board elects its officers annually and meets five times per year. As of Fall 2020, NCCU had a total of 8,078 students, (full and part-time) including 6,067 undergraduate and 1,608 graduate students. Nearly 70% are women and 30% are men. 71.6% percent are Black, 9.7% are white, 6.6% are Hispanic and 1.3 Asian. As of 2020, NCCU had a student faculty ratio of 16:1.

Schools and colleges

*School of Business (

AACSB The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, also known as AACSB International, is an American professional organization. It was founded as the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business in 1916 to provide accreditation to ...

-accredited) *School of Education *

School of Law A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

*School of Library & Information Sciences * College of Health & Sciences * College of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities * School of Graduate Studies

Research institutes

*The Julius L. Chambers Biomedical Biotechnology Research Institute (BBRI) *Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise (BRITE)

Additional programs

*University

Honors Program Honors colleges and honors programs are special accommodation constituent programs at public and private universities – and also public two-year institutions of higher learning – that include, among other things, supplemental or alternative ...

(UHP) *NCCU Online *Evening & Weekend Degree Programs

Student activities

Student organizations

North Carolina Central University has over 130 registered student organizations and 12 honor societies.

Student media

The students of North Carolina Central University publish the ''Campus Echo'', a bi-weekly newspaper that has been in publication since the school's founding in 1910. The ''Campus Echo'' contains articles covering local events, arts and entertainment, and sports among other topics.

Gallery

File:James E. Shepard.jpg,

, c. 1947, founder of the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua for the Colored Race File:NCCU campus signage.JPG, North Carolina Central University entrance seen from S. Alston Avenue File:NCCU Campus Drive.JPG, View of the NCCU campus seen from the James E. Shepard Administration Building File:NCCU Student Center.jpg, The NCCU Student Center

Athletics

File:NCCU's O'Kelly-Riddick Stadium.JPG, NCCU's O'Kelly-Riddick Stadium home to the MEAC Division I FCS Eagles File:NCCU track and soccer field.JPG, A view of the NCCU track, soccer field along with Richmond Residence Hall and the LeRoy T. Walker Physical Education Complex (far right) NCCU sponsors fourteen men's and women's sports teams that participate in the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA) Division I as a newly readmitted member of the

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the National C ...

. Athletic teams include football, softball, baseball, basketball, track and field, tennis, volleyball, bowling, and golf.

Notable alumni

References

External links

*
NCCU Athletics website
{{Authority control Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Universities and colleges in Durham, North Carolina Educational institutions established in 1910 1910 establishments in North Carolina Public Works Administration in North Carolina Georgian Revival architecture in North Carolina Buildings and structures in Durham County, North Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Durham County, North Carolina Public universities and colleges in North Carolina Historically black universities and colleges in the United States