For over 120 years Black colleges alone produced most of this nation's Black graduates of higher education. Many mark the beginning of Black colleges with the founding of Lincoln University (earlier named Ashmum Institute) of Pennsylvania in 1854, and Wilberforce University of Ohio in 1856.1 Although these colleges were founded before the Civil War, the Black college movement was not pronounced until the post-Civil War era. During these years, a number of important Black colleges were founded, including Virginia Union and Shaw University (1865); Fisk University and Lincoln Institute (1866); Talladega College, Howard University, and Scotia Seminary (1867); Tougaloo College (1869); Alcorn College and Benedict College (1871); and, Tuskegee Institute (1881).2