Lincoln University - Lion Yearbook (Lincoln University, PA)

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T H E HISTORY O F History tries not merely to date events, but to exhibit them as the expres- sion of some idea. Our endeavor, therefore, must be not only to chronicle what has happened in the eighty-five years of our University's life, but to interpret it as the realization of the ideal of the founders. THE VISION John Miller Dickey (1806-1878) founded our University in response to a vision that came to him, May 8, 1849. in the old historic Presbyterian church at New London, Pennsylvania. The vision was that of an institution that would provide for young colored men a higher'' education, higher, not because above the secondary level, nor because it embraced non-vocational subjects, but because it was directly related to God. the highest being, and to Redemption, the highest good. Dr. Dickey was a practical idealist. He wished to give immediate bene- fits to the Negro. The enslaved Negroes were at that time inaccessible, but there were an increasing number of free Negroes. Therefore he resolved to work for them. This attracted him to The National Colonization Society of America, the primary aim of which was To rescue the free colored people of the United States from their political and social disadvantages. With no immediate hope that slavery could be abolished, repatriation to Africa seemed ♦he only way out, but apart from education of the highest type, even this way would lead nowhere. Therefore in 1853 Dr. Dickey persuaded the Presbytery of New Castle to adopt an overture that There shall be estab- lished within our bounds and under our supervision an institution to be called The Ashmun Institute, for the scientific, classical, and theological edu- cation of colored youth of the male sex.' ASHMUN INSTITUTE AND THE FREE NEGROES In the same year 1853 thirty acres of land were purchased; in 1854 the charter was granted by the Pennsylvania legislature, in 1855 a building was begun and the Rev. John Pym Carter, A.M., of Baltimore was elected Principal and Teacher; and on December 31, 1856, Ashmun Institute was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies, notably an address by the new Principal in which he vindicated the necessity of this institution and the capability of the colored man for intellectual and moral elevation. Next day, January 1, 1857, the work of instruction began with two pupils in the preparatory depart- ment and two in the theological department. For nine years the Institute continued its beneficent work. Necessarily it had to accept its students at the level on which they were, but it did not leave them there, for it gave them all the education it could impart without regard to the fact that they were colored. And the effort was abundantly justified by its results in providing leadership for the Free Negroes in America and in Africa. 14

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JOSEPH NEWTON HILL. AM. (Lincoln). William E. Dodge Prolessor ol English ULYSSES GRANT LEE. JR.. A M. (Howard). Assistant Prolessor ol English MANUEL RIVERO. AM. (Columbia). As- sistant Prolessor ol Physical Education and Director of Athletics REV PHILIP SHERIDAN MILLER. PhD., (Er- langen), Dean of the College, and John H. Cassidy Professor of Latin and Church History WILLIAM RAYMOND COLE. M.S. (Penn- sylvania), Burkitt Webb Professor of Physics NORMAN EDWARD GASKINS. M S. (Penn- sylvania). Instructor in Chemistry JOSEPH LEROY WILLIAMS. AM. (Penn- sylvania), Assistant Professor of B.ology and Chemistry JOHN AUBREY DAVIS. AM (Wisconsin), Assistant Prolessor ol History and Po- litical Science HAROLD FETTER GRIMM. M S. (Chicago), William A. Holliday Professor of Biology FRANK THEODORE WILSON. A M.. Ed.D. (Columbia). Dean of Men. and Professor of Education REV. GEORGE JOHNSON. Ph D. (Pennsyl- vania). Dean of the University, and John C. Baldwin Professor of Theology and Philosophy LAURENCE FOSTER. Ph.D. (Pennsylvania), Professor ol Education and History WALTER EVERETT WARING, AM. (Penn- sylvania). Assistant Professor of French REV. GEORGE LAKE IMES. A M. (Fisk), D.D.. Lecturer in Practical Theology 13

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LINCOLN UNIVERSITY THE LINCOLN UNIVERSITY AND THE FREED NEGROES The work of The Ashmun Institute came to a close when Lee on April 9 1865, surrendered to Grant at Appomatox. A new and larger phase of edu- cational effort for the Negro was now necessary. Dr. Dickey met the situation by calling to the Presidency the Rev. Isaac Norton Rendall (1825-1912) and by having the Pennsylvania legislature on April 4, 1866, change the name of The Ashmun Institute to The Lincoln University. Under the planning of Dr. Rendall and his three Princeton Seminary classmates, Edwin R. Bower (1826-1883), Lorenzo Westcott (1828-1879), and Gilbert T. Woodhull (1827- 1898), all graduates of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) as well as of Princeton Theological Seminary, the liberal and Christian char- acter of the institution was maintained as it has to the present essentially continued. The freed ex-slaves were received on the level at which they were, but they were not permitted to remain there, for the untiring effort of the faculty was to fit them by training for the best and highest leadership. The trustees earnestly sought to justify the new title of University by adding to the preparatory, collegiate, and theological departments that had existed from the beginning. In 1869 a business section was attempted, but after a trial discontinued when it was found to seriously threaten the character and aim of the departments already existing. In June, 1870, it was resolved to establish departments of medicine and law, the former in Philadelphia, and the latter in West Chester, Pennsylvania, but the financial strain was beyond the resources of the University at that time, and the departments while not abolished were discontinued THE LINCOLN UNIVERSITY AND THE NORTHERN MIGRATION With the ending of the World War in 1918 it was evident that a new era in the status of the American Negro had come. The Northern Migration of the Negro introduced profound changes, and the University was compelled to adapt itself to them. The transition began in the presidency of Dr. John B. Rendall, 1906-1924, continued under his successor, Dr. William Hallock Johnson, 1927-1936, and is now the acutest task of the present administration headed by Dr. Walter L. Wright. It has in part been met by organizing the University as a cooperative enterprise of white and colored both in the trustees and the faculty: the corporation and the operation. The hope is that the essential ideals of the University will not be changed in spite of the fact that the persisting tendency of the time is to regard the present existence as a broad place for body building rather than a narrow valley of soul making. DEAN GEORGE JOHNSON. 15