Hampton University

Hampton University

Former names	Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute Hampton Institute
Motto	"The Standard of Excellence, An Education for Life"
Type	Private, HBCU
Established	April 1, 1868 (1868-04-01)
Affiliation	None (formerly, American Missionary Association)
Endowment	$263.2 million[1]
President	William R. Harvey
Students	4,646
Undergraduates	3,836
Postgraduates	810
Location	Hampton, Virginia, U.S. 37°01′19″N 76°20′10″W / 37.022°N 76.336°W / 37.022; -76.336Coordinates: 37°01′19″N 76°20′10″W / 37.022°N 76.336°W / 37.022; -76.336
Campus	Suburban, 314 acres (1.27 km2)
Colors	Reflex Blue & White
Athletics	NCAA Division I FCS
Nickname	Pirates
Affiliations	MEAC MAISA
Website	www.hamptonu.edu

Hampton University (also HU, or Home by the Sea) is a private historically black university located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1868 by black and white leaders of the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War to provide education to freedmen. In 1878, it established a program for teaching Native Americans, which lasted until 1923.

History

The campus looking south across the harbor of Hampton Roads was founded on the grounds of "Little Scotland", a former plantation in Elizabeth City County not far from Fortress Monroe and the Grand Contraband Camp that gathered nearby. These facilities represented freedom to former slaves, who sought refuge with Union forces during the first year of the war.

The American Missionary Association (AMA) responded in 1861 to the former slaves' need for education by hiring its first teacher, Mary Smith Peake, who had secretly been teaching slaves and free blacks in the area despite the state's prohibition in law. She first taught for the AMA on September 17, 1861 and was said to gather her pupils under a large oak. After the tree was the site of the first reading in the former Confederate states of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it was called the Emancipation Oak. The tree, now a symbol of the university and of the city, is part of the National Historic Landmark District at Hampton University.

The Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, later called the Hampton Institute, was founded in 1868 after the war by the biracial leadership of the AMA, who were chiefly Congregational and Presbyterian ministers. It was first led by former Union General Samuel Chapman Armstrong.^[2] Among the school's famous alumni is Dr. Booker T. Washington, an educator who founded the Tuskegee Institute, another college supported by the AMA.

Civil War

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Union-held Fortress Monroe in southeastern Virginia at the mouth of Hampton Roads became a gathering point and safe haven of sorts for fugitive slaves. The commander, General Benjamin F. Butler, determined they were "contraband of war", to protect them from being returned to slaveholders, who clamored to reclaim them. As numerous individuals sought freedom behind Union lines, the Army arranged for the construction of the Grand Contraband Camp nearby, from materials reclaimed from the ruins of Hampton, which had been burned by the retreating Confederate Army. This area was later called "Slabtown."

Hampton University traces its roots to the work of Mary S. Peake, which began in 1861 with outdoor classes which she taught under the landmark Emancipation Oak in the nearby area of Elizabeth City County. The newly issued Emancipation Proclamation was first read to a gathering under the historic tree there in 1863.

After the War: teaching teachers

After the War, a normal school ("normal" meaning to establish standards or norms while educating teachers) was formalized in 1868, with former Union brevet Brigadier General Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839–1893) as its first principal. The new school was established on the grounds of a former plantation named "Little Scotland", which had a view of Hampton Roads. The original school buildings fronted the Hampton River. Legally chartered in 1870 as a land grant school,it was first known as "Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute."

Typical of historically black colleges, Hampton received much of its financial support in the years following the Civil War from the American Missionary Association (whose black and white leaders represented the Congregational and Presbyterian churches), other church groups and former officers and soldiers of the Union Army. One of the many Civil War veterans who gave substantial sums to the school was General William Jackson Palmer, a Union cavalry commander from Philadelphia. He later built the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, and founded Colorado Springs, Colorado. As the Civil War began in 1861, although his Quaker upbringing made Palmer abhor violence, his passion to see the slaves freed compelled him to enter the war. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in 1894. (The current Palmer Hall on the campus is named in his honor.)

Unlike the wealthy Palmer, Sam Armstrong was the son of a missionary to the Sandwich Islands (which later became the U.S. state of Hawaii). He also had dreams for the betterment of the freedmen. He patterned his new school after the model of his father, who had overseen the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic to the Polynesians. He wanted to teach the skills necessary for blacks to be self-supporting in the impoverished South. Under his guidance, a Hampton-style education became well known as an education that combined cultural uplift with moral and manual training. Armstrong said it was an education that encompassed "the head, the heart, and the hands."

At the close of its first decade, the school reported a total admission in the ten years of 927 students, with 277 graduates, all but 17 of whom had become teachers. Many of them had bought land and established themselves in homes; many were farming as well as teaching; some had gone into business. Only a very small proportion failed to do well. By another 10 years, there had been over 600 graduates. In 1888, of the 537 still alive, three-fourths were teaching, and about half as many undergraduates were also teaching. It was estimated that 15,000 children in community schools were being taught by Hampton's students and alumni that year.^[3]

Booker T. Washington: spreading the educational work

Among Hampton's earliest students was Booker T. Washington, who arrived from West Virginia in 1872 at the age of 16. He worked his way through Hampton, and then went on to attend Wayland Seminary in Washington D.C. After graduation, he returned to Hampton and became a teacher. Upon recommendation of Sam Armstrong to founder Lewis Adams and others, in 1881, Washington was sent to Alabama at age 25 to head another new normal school. This new Institution eventually became Tuskegee University. Embracing much of Armstrong's philosophy, Washington built Tuskegee into a substantial school and became nationally famous as an educator, orator, and fund-raiser as well. He collaborated with the philanthropist Julius Rosenwald in the early 20th century to create a model for rural black schools - Rosenwald established a fund that matched monies raised by communities to build more than 5,000 schools for rural black children, mostly in the South. Washington recruited his Hampton classmate (1875), Charles W. Greene^[4] to the work at Tuskegee in 1888 by founding the Agriculture department.

Native Americans

In 1878, Hampton established a formal education program for Native Americans. In 1875 at the end of the American Indian Wars, the United States Army sent seventy-two warriors from the Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche and Caddo Nations, to imprisonment and exile in St. Augustine, Florida. Essentially they were considered hostages to persuade their peoples in the West to keep peace. Richard Henry Pratt supervised them at Fort Marion and began to arrange for their education in the English language and American culture. Numerous visitors to St. Augustine from the North became interested in their cases and volunteered as teachers. They also provided them with art supplies, and some of the resulting works (including by David Pendleton Oakerhater) are held by the Smithsonian Institution. At the end of the warriors' incarceration, Pratt convinced seventeen to enroll at Hampton Institute for a fuller education.^[5] (Later Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School based on the same philosophy of education and assimilation). Altogether, seventy Native Americans, young men and women from various tribes, mostly from the Plains rather than the acculturated tribes that had occupied Virginia, joined that first class. Because Virginia's aristocrats sometimes boasted of their Native American heritage through Pocahontas, it was hoped that the Native American students would help locals to accept the university's black students. The black students were also supposed to "civilize" the Native American students to current American society, and the Native Americans to "uplift the Negro[es]."^[6][7]

The program died in 1923, in the face of growing controversy over racial mingling. Native Americans stopped sending their boys to the school after some employers fired Native American men because they had been educated with blacks. The program's final director resigned because she could not prevent "amalgamation" between the Native American girls and black boys.^[7]

Name changes, expansion, and community

Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute became simply Hampton Institute in 1930. In 1931 the George P. Phenix School for all age groups was opened there under principal Ian Ross. A new nurses' training school was attached to the Dixie Hospital, with Nina Gage as director.^[8] With the addition of departments and graduate programs, it was accredited as Hampton University in 1984. Originally located in Elizabeth City County, it was long-located in the Town of Phoebus, incorporated in 1900. Phoebus and Elizabeth City County were consolidated with the neighboring City of Hampton to form a much larger independent city in 1952. The City of Hampton uses the Emancipation Oak on its official seal. From 1960 to 1970, noted diplomat and educator Jerome H. Holland was president of the Hampton Institute.

Campus

The campus contains several buildings that contribute to its National Historic Landmark district: Virginia-Cleveland Hall (freshman female dormitory, as well as former home to the school's two cafeterias), Wigwam building (home to administrative offices), Academy Building (administrative offices), Memorial Chapel (religious services) and the President's Mansion House.^[9][10]

The original High School on the campus became Phenix Hall when Hampton City Public Schools opened a new Phenix High School in 1959. Phenix Hall was damaged in a minor fire on June 12, 2008.^[11]

The Hampton University Museum was founded in 1868 and is the nation's oldest African-American museum. The museum contains over 9,000 pieces, some of which are highly acclaimed.^[12]

The Emancipation Oak was cited by the National Geographic Society as one of the 10 great trees in the world.

The waterfront campus is settled near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

National Historic Landmark District

Hampton Institute
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Virginia Landmarks Register
Show map of Virginia Show map of the US
Location	NW of jct. of U.S. 60 and the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, Hampton, Virginia
Coordinates	37°01′13″N 76°35′40″W / 37.0203°N 76.5945°W / 37.0203; -76.5945
Area	314 acres (127 ha)
Built	1866 (1866)
Architect	Richard Morris Hunt; Et al.
NRHP Reference #	69000323[13]
VLR #	114-0006
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	November 12, 1969
Designated NHLD	May 30, 1974[14]
Designated VLR	September 9, 1969[15]

A 15-acre (61,000 m²) portion of the campus along the Hampton River, including many of the older buildings, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark District. Buildings included are:

• Mansion House, original plantation residence of Little Scotland
• Virginia Hall built in 1873
• Academic Hall
• Wigwam
• Marquand Memorial Chapel, a Romanesque Revival red brick chapel with a 150-foot (46 m) tower

In addition, Cleveland Hall, Ogden, and the Administration building are also included in the district.^[16]

The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969,^[13] and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974.^[14][16]

Student demographics

As reported by the university in 2015, nearly two-thirds of the student body is female, and the other third male. Approximately 90% of the population identifies as Black, and only 32% are Virginia residents.^[17]

Subgroup
Total men	34%
Total women	66%
Black	90.65%
White	5.13%
Hispanic	1.29%
Asian or Pacific Islander	1.08%

Academics

Hampton University has 11 accredited schools and colleges.^[18]

As of 2015, Hampton offers 48 baccalaureate programs, 23 master's programs, 8 doctoral programs, 2 professional programs, and 8 associate/certificate programs.^[19]

Hampton's student to faculty ratio is 10 to 1, which is better than the national university average of 18 to 1.^[19][20]

Hampton is the first and only HBCU to have 100% control of a NASA Mission.^[21]

The Freddye T. Davy Honors College offers special learning opportunities and privileges to Hampton students who have completed at least 12 credit hours with at least a 3.25 cumulative GPA.^[22]

Hampton University consistently ranks among the top three HBCUs in the nation.^[23][24][25]

The Alumni Factor named Hampton one of the seven best colleges in Virginia.^[26]

Hampton University is a selective institution that has a 30 to 40 percent acceptance rate.^[27]

Student activities

Campus events

Athletics

Hampton's colors are blue and white, and their nickname is "The Pirates". Hampton sports teams participate in NCAA Division I (FCS for football) in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. They joined this in 1995 upon leaving the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, an NCAA Division II conference, of which they were a founding member. Since joining, Hampton has won MEAC titles in many sports, including football, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's track, and men's and women's tennis.

In 2016, Hampton became the first and only HBCU to field a Division I men's lacrosse team. ESPN held a broadcast on campus preceding the inaugural game in Armstrong Stadium.^[28][29]

Hampton is the only HBCU with a competitive sailing team.

In 2001, the Hampton basketball team won its first NCAA Tournament game, when they beat Iowa State 58–57, in one of the largest upsets of all time. They were only the fourth fifteen-seed to upset a two-seed in the tournament's history. They returned to the tournament a year later, as well as in 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2016, having won their conference basketball tournament. Their NCAA tournament record is 2-6, including the play-in game.

The "Lady Pirates" basketball team has seen great success as well, and made trips to the NCAA tournament in 2000, 2003, 2004, and from 2010-2014. In 1988, as a Division II school, the Lady Pirates won the NCAA Women's Division II Basketball Championship, defeating West Texas State. In 2011, as a number-13 seed, the Lady Pirates nearly upset Kentucky, but fell in overtime, 66-62. In 2015, the Lady Pirates played in the Women's NIT, where they defeated Drexel 45-42 in the opening round. However, in the second round, the team lost to West Virginia 57-39.

The Pirates won their conference title in football in 1997, shared the title 1998 and 2004, and won it again outright in 2005 and 2006. From 2004 to 2006, the team won three MEAC Championships and three SBN-Black College National Championships, and was ranked in the Division I FCS top 25 poll each year. The Pirates also sent five players to the NFL Combine in 2007, the most out of any FCS subdivision school for that year. They have also been dominant in tennis winning the MEAC from 1996–1999, 2001-2003 and 2007 for the men, and 1998 and 2002-2004 for the women.

Major rivals include Norfolk State University, located across Hampton Roads in downtown Norfolk, and Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Pirate athletics are supported by a plethora of groups, including "The Force" Marching Band. The marching band has appeared at several notable performances, including a Barack Obama Presidential Inauguration parade in Washington, DC. "The Force" was chosen out of a large pool of applicants to participate in the parade as the representative for the state of Virginia. "The Force" is complemented by the "Ebony Fire" all-female dance team.

Notable alumni

Business

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Percy Creuzot	1949	founder of Frenchy's Chicken in Houston, Texas	[30]
George R. Lewis		former President and CEO of Phillip Morris Capital Corporation; listed among the "Top 50 Black Executives" by Ebony magazine
Charles Phillips		CEO of Infor; former President of Oracle Corporation

Education

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
St. Clair Drake	1931	sociologist and anthropologist; created one of the first African American Studies programs at a US college or university
Martha Louise Morrow Foxx		blind educator
Freeman A. Hrabowski III	1969	President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
William C. Hunter		Dean of the Tippie College of Business at University of Iowa	[31]
Dr. Wilmer Leon		political scientist and associate professor in the Political Science Department at Howard University; talk show host on Urban View Channel 110 on Sirius XM Radio	[32]
Kimberly Oliver		2006 National Teacher of the Year	[33]
Hugh R. Page	1977	professor of theology and Africana Studies at the University of Notre Dame	[34]
Booker T. Washington	1875	founded Tuskegee University in Alabama

Entertainment and the arts

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
John T. Biggers		Harlem Renaissance muralist and founder of the Art Department at Texas Southern University
Leslie Garland Bolling	1918	early 20th-century wood carver
Spencer Christian		former weatherman for Good Morning America, 1986-1998
DJ Babey Drew	2003	disc jockey
DJ Envy	1999	disc jockey and host of the The Breakfast Club
Brandon Fobbs	2002	actor; best known for his role in the film Pride
Kevin Frazier		sports anchor and entertainment news anchor
Beverly Gooden	2005	writer
Biff Henderson		stage manager and personality on the Late Show with David Letterman
DJ Tay James	2009	disc jockey for Justin Bieber
Dorothy Maynor		concert singer
Orpheus McAdoo	1876	minstrel show impresario; toured Britain, South Africa and Australia	[35]
MC Ride		musician; best known for being the singer in Death Grips
Wanda Sykes	1986	comedian
A. S. (Doc) Young	1941	sports journalist	[36]

Politics and government

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Allyson Kay Duncan		4th Circuit US Circuit Court Judge	[37]
Vanessa D. Gilmore		Federal Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas	[38]
Theodore Theopolis Jones II		Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals, New York	[39]
Gloria Gary Lawlah	1960	Secretary of Aging for the State of Maryland	[40]
Spencer Overton	1990	election scholar, George Washington University Law School	[41]
Douglas Palmer	1973	Mayor of Trenton, New Jersey
Gregory M. Sleet		US District Court Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Delaware
Charles Wesley Turnbull		former governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands
W. Carlton Weddington		member of Ohio House of Representatives
Ivory Lee Young Jr.	1986	City Councilmember with the Atlanta City Council District 3, Atlanta, Georgia 2002-2018	[42]
Stephanie Young	2006	Director of African American Outreach, Associate Director of Communications, The White House	[43]

Sociology and humanities

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Clara Byrd Baker		Educator, civic leader, and suffragette	[44]
Alberta Williams King	1924	mother of Martin Luther King Jr.
Elizabeth Omilami		Chief Executive Officer of Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless

Sports

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Chris Baker	2008	current NFL defensive tackle	[45]
Darian Barnes		former NFL running back
Johnnie Barnes		former NFL wide receiver
Jamal Brooks	1999	former NFL linebacker	[46]
James Carter		award-winning track athlete
Marcus Dixon		current CFL defensive tackle; also played in the NFL for the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Jets	[47]
Reggie Doss		former NFL defensive end
Justin Durant	2007	current NFL linebacker, Jacksonville Jaguars, Detroit Lions
Kenrick Ellis		current NFL defensive tackle, New York Jets	[48]
Devin Green	2005	former NBA player	[49]
Isaac Hilton		former NFL defensive end	[50]
Rick Mahorn	1980	former NBA player, Washington Bullets, Detroit Pistons, New Jersey Nets; WNBA Detroit Shock Head Coach	[51]
Jerome Mathis		former NFL wide receiver	[52]
Nevin McCaskill		former NFL offensive lineman	[53]
Francena McCorory	2010	track and field, NCAA 400m three-time champion	[54]
Marquay McDaniel	2007	CFL football player, Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Carl Painter		former NFL running back with the Detroit Lions
Dick Price	1957	former head football coach at Norfolk State University, 1974-1983; former head coach of track team and athletic director at Norfolk State	[55]
Donovan Rose	1980	former NFL defensive back and current head coach of the Hampton Pirate football team	[56]
Zuriel Smith	2002	former NFL wide receiver and return specialist	[57]
Cordell Taylor		former NFL defensive back	[58]
Terrence Warren		former NFL wide receiver	[56]
Kellie Wells		track and field Olympic athlete; 100m hurdle bronze medalist, 2012

See also

• African-American Civil Rights Movement (1865–95)
• Emancipation Oak, an historic tree on the campus
• Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute
• WHOV 88.1 FM

References

Further reading

• Anderson, James D. The education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 (1988) pp 33–78 online.
• Engs, Robert Francis (1999). Educating the Disfranchised and Disinherited: Samuel Chapman Armstrong and Hampton Institute, 1839–1893. University of Tennessee Press.
• Molin, Paulette Fairbanks (Fall 1988). "'Training the Hand, the Head, and the Heart': Indian Education at Hampton Institute". Minnesota History. Minnesota Historical Society Press. 51 (3): 82–98. JSTOR 20179107. 
• Maddox, Lucy (June 2002). "Politics, Performance and Indian Identity". American Studies International. Mid-America American Studies Association. 40 (2): 7–36. JSTOR 4127989. 
• Schall, Keith L., ed. (1977). Stony the Road: Chapters in the History of Hampton Institute. The University Press of Virginia.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hampton University.

• Official website
• Official athletics website
• Information on Hampton University from Virginia African Heritage Program
• Hampton Institute: Its Program of Education for Life at the American Film Institute Catalog