Let’s start with a confession: This might be your first time ever hearing the name Wilberforce University. Trust…once you do, you’ll never forget it.
Founded in 1856, five years before the Civil War fired its first shot—Wilberforce University stands as the oldest private, historically Black university in the United States. Not just a relic of history, but the birthplace of Black higher education leadership itself. Long before hashtags proclaimed “Black Excellence,” Wilberforce was already living it, breathing it, and building it from the ground up.
A University Born From Defiance
Picture it: America in 1856. Slavery still legal. Black literacy outlawed in most states. And yet, amid such oppression, something audacious emerged in Ohio, a university daring to believe that people of African descent not only could learn but should lead.
Wilberforce was named after British abolitionist William Wilberforce, a man who famously said, “We are too young to realize that certain things are impossible, so we will do them anyway.” That spirit equal parts faith and fire became the university’s heartbeat. Wilberforce was never simply about education. It was about freedom. About intellect as a form of rebellion…