Lincoln University - Lion Yearbook (Lincoln University, PA)

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Four students admitted in 1873. before and after Baseball Team in 1912. graduation. The Class of 1934 with President William Hal lock Johnson and Prefessor Walter L. Wright. Convocation at Tindley Temple, Philadelphia. President Bond confers Honorary D.D. Degree upon Lt. Col. Elmer Gibson, '26.

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Calvin to undergird the Calvinistic version of the Protestant Reformation. From 1350-1600 the Reformation, and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, gave impetus to the idea of education for everyone; the authority of clericals as the sole interpreters of the Scrip- tures had been undermined. In Scotland, John Knox, disciple of Calvin, developed a system of universal education (1561) that gave his Presby- terian followers a veritable passion for higher education. The pastor must also be the teacher; for both functions he needed to be a university- trained man. John Miller Dickey, Lincoln’s Founder, a Presbyterian minister, had the pro- foundest Christian conviction of human brother- hood under God, and shared Knox's faith in higher education. A second religious strain was the humanitarian zeal among people called Quakers. The Founder married a Quaker woman, Sarah Emlen Cresson. The Quakers were first in America to condemn human slavery. Their Founder, George Fox (1624- 1691), denounced slavery in 1672. The Quaker Saint, John Woolman, succeeded in 1754 in per- suading the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to take a definitively strong stand against the peculiar institution.” A third important influence was the more secular scientific Enlightenment Philosophers”: Voltaire, in France; Adam Smith, in England; Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Ben- jamin Rush in America. They developed the revolutionary idea of the natural rights of man and helped precipitate revolutions in Europe and America. (1775-1793). Their theories of human equality and brotherhood were part of the con- verging forces and personalities that, in 1854, chartered Ashmun Institute, now Lincoln Uni- versity. II A staccato of great events accompanies the corporate history of Lincoln University. (In 1853 Perry opened Japan to the West; the Crimean Hr . - Old view from entrance to campus, showing Livingstone and University Halls and the Chapt-i. — Rendall Hall, Newest Dormitory. Ladies' Auxiliary and New Guest House, com- pleted in 1954.

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r War began). The first Charter was granted onl April 29, 1854. (The Kansas-Nebraska Bill, threatening extension of the slave states, passed the Senate May 22, 1854). The institution at first directed its mission toward Africa, so hope- less seemed prospects for Negroes in America. Classes began January 1, 1857. (The Dred Scott Decision, denying that Negroes, either free or slave, were citizens, ivas handed down March 6, 1857). With John Miller Dickey providing the principal support from his personal funds, the early years were poverty-ridden. In 1859 the first three graduates went to Liberia, in Africa. (That October John Brown raided Harpers Terry. The Civil War began in 1861). Civil War emptied the school when most stu- dents enlisted. John Carter served as President from 1856-1862, John Martin from 1862-1865. (The Emancipation Proclamation took effect Jan- uary 1, 1863. The Civil War ended with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865; Abraham Lincoln died of an assassin’s bullet on April 15; the 13th Amendment to the Constitu- tion abolished Slavery, December 18.) The end of the Civil War generated a great new enthusiasm; to the Freedmen and their friends, the bright blue heavens were their only limit. Isaac Norton Rcndall was elected President. Ashmun Institute was renamed Lincolun Univer- sity in 1866. (In the South the Klu Klux Klan was formed to suppress Negro rights; in Con- gress, the Civil Rights Ad of 1866 was passed over Johnson’s veto). Expansive plans were made to establish full university schools of law, medi- cine, and Theology. (The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, to protect the civil rights of Negroes. The 15th Amendment, to guarantee his citizenship and franchise rights, was ratified in 1870). The financial panic of 1873 closed all but the College of Liberal Arts and the Theological Sem- inary. It was slowly realized that the Civil War had not solved all of the bitter problems of racial inequality. (The Hayes-Tilden compromise of 1876 ended Reconstruction). From his election in 1865 to his retirement in 1905, and, indeed, beyond his death in 1912, Isaac N. Rendall placed his firm stamp on every aspect of the institution. Never married, he was Pap to the boys, whom he insisted on treat- ing as men. (In 1882 Koch isolated the Tuber- culosis bacillus). Isaac Rcndall thought Negroes endowed with every highest human capacity for learning and achievement. Almost to 1900 and beyond, Lincoln University was the only geunine college for Negroes in the country. (In 1889 the I ,v '. (n i w i frit i tig» - nu'olon io)v - , ielaS iLjnnEBAu ( S Y d . % alutc4l in Ouiifcio. '«W , . » ' t . ' ff' A '' ,,• +. - .. • . • , , « .. • » 1 .r w»V' r j.-,. ... ... , ■ . . ■ « . «I ,' .'' »,. . ( !,„ '• ,■ . , 4 • .. Vi... ... ) ,,! ». a ' 4 The first diploma conferred upon Thomas H. Amos, class of 1859. i