Social and Civic Whirl: Lincoln University of Pennsylvania Will Hold Alumni Meeting

The Coastal Virginia Chapter of Lincoln University of Pennsylvania holds monthly meetings every 4th Saturday at 9:30 a.m. except for dates that conflict with major holiday as Christmas.  The next meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, December 12, 2015, at 13 E. Mellen Street in the Phoebus area of Hampton.

Lincoln of Pennsylvania was established, in 1854, prior to the Civil War.  Two other institutions of higher education classified among the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) founded before the Civil War were Cheyney (1837) in Pennsylvania and Wilberforce (1856) in Ohio.  With the assistance of Northern religious missionary organizations, most of the other HBCUs were established, in the South, after the Civil War. Those educational institutions established as land grant institutions were founded to satisfy the Morrill Act of 1890 or the Agricultural Act of 1890 (the second land grant act which was considered the grant for Blacks.)  The principal mission of these institutions founded before 1964 was according to information retrieved from Wikipedia “was, and is, the education of Black Americans;” however, no person who was eligible to be admitted, regardless of race, was denied admission to these institutions of higher learning.

As most of us are aware, especially those of us who attended an HBCU, our alma maters are in dire need of support.  Most of the 107 institutions of higher education are struggling financially and struggling to build endowments because of the high cost of education, declining financial aid and enrollment.  We have been privileged to have matriculated at these colleges and universities with such rich legacies.  The HBCUs have produced most of the doctors, engineers, lawyers (Thurgood Marshall/Lincoln University of Pennsylvania and Howard University) and teachers in the African-American/Black community.   

It is past time for all of to get involved in helping to save our institutions of higher learning. If we had not attended an HBCU, especially during the days of segregation, where would many of us be?  Please give by joining your alumni association serious thought and support your school financially.  If each of us who either attended or graduated from a HBCU gave a minimum of $5 or $10 a year, that would be a huge financial gain to our various alma maters.  Let us save our institutions of higher education which in turn will help save our youth and our communities. 

For more information concerning the Lincoln University of Pennsylvaniaís alumni association, contact Thelma Carroll at motley42@verizon.net.