First African-American college chartered
By an act of the Pennsylvania legislature Ashmun Institute the first college founded solely for African-American students is officially chartered.Established in the rolling farmlands of southern Chester County Pennsylvania Ashmun Institute was named after Jehudi Ashmun the U.S.agent who helped reorganize and preserve the struggling African-American colony in Africa that later grew into the independent nation of Liberia.The Ashmun Institute chartered to give theological classical and scientific training to African Americans opened on January 1 1857 and John Pym Carter served as the colleges first president.
In 1866 the institution was renamed Lincoln University.
