And welcome and good morning to all of you for coming to this very important event today. We're so delighted to host you here on this campus. Dan is an outstanding friend and when Dan was talking about putting this event on I said yes and we wanted to be a part of history for you to be able to stand up here and say that we are the first historically black college university in the country to host this event.
This is a big deal and so we are so thrilled that you're all here. Today I want to spend some time with you just kind of talking about the value of HBCUs. In our country there's a big debate as it relates to our universities and it shouldn't be a debate but it is a debate in terms of why we still have historically black colleges and universities and what I'm going to do for the next 10-15 minutes is to be very clear on why these universities will be here for the next 200 years 400 years because they had value and we need them in our country to continue to help our country move forward in a positive way.
So to set the stage for those of you who may not know this, and I know some of our students are in the audience and they know this because this is part of when they come here, they have to go through orientation. And part of orientation is to get a sense of the history of the institution and how it started. For those of you who are new in the community, I want to take a brief.
A minute to kind of share with you the history of Delaware State University, how we were created. We were created part of a piece of legislation that was passed in Washington, D.C. As you all know, we had slaves in this country. And at the end of slavery, the president at the time was President Lincoln. And they were trying to figure out... What do we do with the former slaves as it relates to provide them with opportunities to advance themselves?
And the answer is education. So how do you do that? You do that by providing opportunities for those to be able to get an education so they can advance and have a better life.
And that's the key in our country. And at the time when these schools first came on the scene, African Americans were not allowed to go to what they call historically white institutions. And you think about that today, and it doesn't make sense.
We're all in this together. And if you think about and put it in context of where we are today, we all work together. We live in the greatest country in the world. And by living in the greatest country in the world, we have big responsibilities.
So by creating historically black colleges and universities, that was a way. to create opportunities for former slaves to advance. President Lincoln created what he called the Morrell Act. It was the 1862 Morrell Act, which during the Civil War, they were trying to figure out what we were gonna do to bring this country back together.
And so therefore, Justice Morrell, a senator from Vermont, introduced legislation to create Land-grant colleges all over the United States of America. So in every state there's a land-grant college. And the purpose of that was to provide with education and tools so that you can provide for yourself and you can live off the land and you can do things in the right way in terms of building up the land.
In the state of Delaware the land grant was the University of Delaware. In the state of Maryland the land grant is the University of Maryland. In the state of Pennsylvania the land grant is Penn State.
In the state of Florida... University of Florida, every state there's a land grant. So at the end, when the war ended, they said, blacks need to have an opportunity to enroll in these land grant colleges.
And for those states that would say yes, those students could enroll. Well, we didn't have a single state to say yes to African Americans. So the federal government created a second land grant act called the 1890s Land Grant Act.
And that created 18 universities. Now we have 19. And the 1890 universities are all located in southern states. If you go to North Carolina, North Carolina A&T would be the 1890 land grant there. If you go to South Carolina, South Carolina State would be the land grant institution there. You go to Mississippi, Alcorn would be the land grant institution there.
So every southern state primarily would have an institution. In Delaware, we're a little bit confused about where we are. Either we're in the South or we're in the North.
So we're right at that border. We're on the borderline. So we had to decide. Our legislators said clearly that you can enroll at the University of Delaware if they would say yes. And they said no.
So the General Assembly created the State College for Colored Students in 1891. And that's the birth of Delaware State University. So the State College for Colored Students started out on this campus. This was a plantation.
It was called the Lockerman Plantation. And on this campus, the mansion is still here. So you have time today. It's a historic landmark.
If you have time today, I would encourage you to go see it. And you can go into this mansion and you can see at the bottom where they used to keep slaves. Literally, in this house. And that was the first building here. So 12 students enrolled at the State College for Colored Students with three professors.
And everything took place in this house. So the vision was set, and we had 20. The state, the federal government appropriated $25,000 for the state to purchase the Lockerman Plantation. and to get this school started. They didn't appropriate the full amount.
They said, this is an experiment. We don't know if it's going to work. So let's give them $8,000.
So the way I look at it, they owe us some money. If you think about that, and that's why you hear schools like us always struggling, trying to get up and trying to get back on the right track in terms of facilities. But that was the birth of it. And the first president of this institution was a white man. He was a chemistry professor at the University of Delaware.
President Webb. He stayed here for about three years, and the next president became William Jason. And William Jason served this institution for 28 years. And his very first building that he built on this campus, it cost $1,500. And he had to raise that amount.
And this was a farm. In the very first building was a chapel and the students, he felt it was important to have the foundation laid. And by having a chapel, he made it the requirement for students to go to chapel every single morning to get the day started.
And in that chapel, they didn't have Wi-Fi either. And they didn't have internet connections. They didn't have heat.
They didn't have running water. So that kind of gives you a sense. of the struggle that students went through to lay this foundation down.
So fast forward 125 years later and we're celebrating our 125th anniversary and we've been celebrating. Fast forward, now we're an institution, literally with students from all over the world attending, 29 different countries, 47 different states represented here. At this institution, with Delaware being the primary largest part because we're still a state institution, we have 4,600 students.
We went from three faculty members to over 230 faculty members. We went from one faculty member with a PhD which is the highest degree you can have in the academy to more than 200 faculty members with the terminal degree. So therefore we are a first-rate quality institution. that's producing graduates that are doing great things around the world. So the data is there to support that.
The data is there to support institutions like Delaware State University and our existence, and why we are here, and what we're doing to contribute to society. So I use that as an example to set the stage in terms of the points that I want to make today. And the main point that I want to leave with you is that There's value in having an institution like Delaware State.
In this country, at one time, we had more than 300 historically black colleges and universities. Today, we only have 105. We have 47 public institutions that would be classified as historically black, meaning they get funding from the state. and 58 private institutions and they get funding by raising money.
Sometimes people get confused between public and private. A private institution would be like Morehouse College in Atlanta or Spelman College in Atlanta, a school that is prominent for African-American women and prominent in this space. I was talking to the president at Spelman recently and we were talking about the history of Spelman. And she said she takes great deal of pride in introducing Spelman to African American women because she make it very clear that this institution was built for you.
This institution was created for you. It was created for you to provide you with what you need to be successful in this world. So when you have that pride, you have that connection, it makes you feel good to be in a space like this where you can grow. And you can develop and you become your own person.
And when you leave, you can face the world. And so we've had successful African-American graduates from all... All of our HBCUs in America, some just to name a few that you may know and you may not know. One of the greatest African Americans that attended a historically black institution is a former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall had the privilege of going not too far from here, a university called Lincoln University.
At Lincoln University, they pride themselves on being considered the first historically black college in America. And there's a debate that goes on between Lincoln and Cheney University. Because Cheney is also a historically African American public institution that's located in Pennsylvania.
And they go back and forth between which one was the first one based on who produced the graduate, who opened their doors first. But the Thurgood Marshall attended Lincoln University and went on and got his law degree from Howard University, which is a proud. A proud, historically black institution that's located in our nation's capital.
An institution that has produced graduates from all over the world. Outstanding graduates. You're going to hear from one of them today.
Our dean will come up. She earned her PhD from Howard University. Students, I want you to know that this institution, institutions like Delaware State University, they are here to provide you with the opportunities that will open doors for you and you will be able to achieve. Whatever you want to achieve in life.
For those of you who like to go to movies, there was a movie that's popular right now. It's called Hidden Figures. How many have seen it?
I can't see you on TV, but I see you raising your hand. But that movie celebrates African American women and their brains and their strength and their courage and how they persist to move forward despite... despite all the obstacles that people put in your way.
If you haven't seen that movie, I would encourage you to go and see it because the ladies who are in that movie that they're telling their stories, they all graduated from historically black colleges and universities. The woman who plays, I think it was Tajay, was it Tajay, the first woman, she graduated from West Virginia State University. which is a historically black land grant in West Virginia.
The second woman who taught herself how to go through the Fortran training, and she taught herself, she was self-taught. She went to River Force, a historically black college that's located private, that's located in Ohio. And the young lady who wanted to become an engineer, she went to Hampton University, which is a private, historically black college that's located in Hampton.
Virginia. So I just give you those quick bullets so that you get a sense of the pride that we feel when we talk about historically black colleges and universities. So I will leave with you seven points and then I'm going to step off the stage. Seven points that I believe that's the foundation of why these institutions exist today. Number one is access.
We provide access, meaning these schools, these institutions were created primarily because there were no other opportunities for African Americans. So we have never, let me emphasize, we have never said anything as relates to no, you can't come here. Because of the way you look, because of the way you smell, because of the way we see you, we have never said it.
We have said we have open door access for opportunities. If you are willing to work. and you're willing to commit yourself to excellence, and you get up every single day focused on excellence and focused on improving yourself and improving the lives of others around you, you will be successful in this space.
So access is very important as it relates to the value of our institution. Second, African-American prominence. In this space, when you walk around, A place like this versus going to a historically white institution, which are fine. Our students struggle to get their identity and get their history relevant.
You have to create programs. Here, in this space, you are surrounded by this every single day. You're surrounded by the prominence of African-American success.
This building, named after one of the greatest leaders ever. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was created, primarily from the uprising that took place in 1968 when Dr. King was assassinated. And when that uprising occurred, Our students at the time took over this campus and took over the administration and administration building and demanded. National Guards actually came into Wilmington.
National Guards came here because of that unrest that took place after his assassination. But the students wanted to do something and so therefore they demanded the administration named a facility after the late great Dr. Martin Luther King and that's how we this name this facility was named. This actual building was not here in 1968, but the original building is not far from here, and we moved the name here to this building.
If you walk and look around, there's a residence hall called Tugman Hall, named after the great Harriet Tugman. Actually, Harriet Tugman ran the Underground Railroad right through this campus marching people the way to freedom through Pennsylvania. Harriet Tugman, not too far from here. So students get a sense.
of that legacy. One of our residents saw his name out the Meger Evers. Meger Evers was a famous NAACP civil rights leader who was assassinated in Mississippi while he was getting out of his car in his back was gunned down because he was advocating for the rights for others.
Our students get to understand that every single day and that's important. Three, the values empowerment. We empower our students so they feel like they can do anything when they leave here.
And that's important. That's important for you to have that confidence when you leave and you go into this world. So we take a great deal with that. Four, we have an HBCU track record.
There are 3,000 colleges and universities in America, and HBCUs make up less than 1% of those. But listen to this. According to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, African-Americans, graduates of HBCUs, 40% of black members of Congress. graduated from HBCU.
40% of all black engineers graduated... All black engineers in the United States graduated from HBCUs. 50% of all black lawyers graduated from HBCUs.
50% of all black professors in colleges and universities graduated from HBCUs. And 80% of black judges graduated from HBCUs. And 12% of all of the Fortune 500... Big time, 12% of the CEOs, African-American, graduated from HBCUs. Number five, diversity.
We celebrate it every single day here on our campus. When you walk on this campus, you are in America. We have students literally from all over the world attending here. We have five core values, and our number one core value is diversity.
We believe in the power of diversity. We believe in the power of thought. We believe in the power of bringing people together from all over and learning from each other.
That is important for us. It's important for our students. It's important for our faculty. It's important for our community.
So diversity is very important. Number six, there's a cultural level of comfort here for our students, where you feel good about your culture and you feel good about yourself. And when you have that, that lifts your spirit up and that lifts you up. And finally, the value and the most important one for me out of all of them is the HBCU legacy. The legacy that we have here in terms of the people who have gone through here and have circled back.
And we take pride in bringing our alums back. We take pride in celebrating them. HBCUs have been an important part in our country for a long time and will continue to be an important part.
So I want you to have a great day today. and thank you for being here on the campus of Delaware State University.