July 6, 2025
The college celebrates 114 years on the second oldest HBCU in Alabama.
The fourth of July holds one other particular which means in American historical past moreover Independence Day. The day can also be the 114th anniversary of Tuskegee College, the second oldest HBCU in Alabama.
Based on July 4, 1881, the institution held title of the Tuskegee Regular Faculty for Coloured Lecturers. The preliminary imaginative and prescient of Lewis Adams, famously spearheaded by Booker T. Washington, resulted in Washington main the college inside a church.
Now, it has grown right into a top-ranked HBCU that additionally holds standing as a delegated Nationwide Historic Web site. With over 60 levels provided, the establishment focuses on its engineering applications. It additionally serves as a number one producer of African American graduates in chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering.
To mark the event, the college’s president and CEO, Dr. Mark A. Brown, joined a wreath-laying ceremony with the Tuskegee Historic Preservation Fee to honor these founders at their grave websites.
On this monumental anniversary 12 months, the HBCU highlighted its connection to a different traditionally Black establishment. Hampton Institute’s, now College, preliminary founder, Samuel C. Armstrong, beneficial Washington tackle the duty of reshaping Tuskegee as a conventional school.
The HBCUs’ shared connection stays robust. Hampton’s president, Darrell Okay. Williams, beforehand spoke on the Founders’ Day celebration in Tuskegee final March. There, Williams highlighted the similarities between the 2 storied establishments.
Past the connection between Armstrong and Washington, the college president emphasised the shared names of a lot of their buildings, and the way their leaders graced each faculties. Nonetheless, he expressed that their bond goes “a lot deeper” than the floor, proclaiming that their mission to coach Black folks stays undeterred.
“I contend that the bond is far, a lot deeper,” he mentioned, as reported by HBCU Gameday. “We share the identical values…We share the identical beliefs. We share the identical dedication to excellence and the information that schooling stays the door to alternative, financial empowerment, and the continued development of a folks.”
Williams’ speech additionally ended a historic weekend for Tuskegee, wherein alumni raised over $1.3 million for his or her alma mater. Whereas Tuskegee celebrates its continued help to coach the plenty, its unofficial “sister college” honors its dedication to tutorial excellence.
“The names Hampton and Tuskegee will ceaselessly be spoken collectively in historical past,” added Williams. “They’ve all the time been inseparable of their singular and collective brilliance, and our destinies ceaselessly shall be intertwined. Hampton and Tuskegee; Crimson and Outdated Gold, Reflex Blue and White, Tuskegee and Hampton. Might God bless our communities, and should God proceed to richly bless America.”
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