Hampton University
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Hampton University (formerly Hampton Institute) is a university located in Hampton, Virginia. The campus overlooking the northern edge of the harbor of Hampton Roads was founded on the grounds of a former plantation shortly after the end of the American Civil War. Among the school's famous alumni is Dr. Booker T. Washington. The historic Emancipation Oak tree, under which the Emancipation Proclamation was read to local freedmen and under which Mary Smith Peake taught the first classes on September 17, 1861, is still located on the campus today.
Early history
During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Union-held Fort Monroe in southeastern Virginia at the mouth of Hampton Roads became a gathering point and safe haven of sorts for fugitive slaves. These individuals were labeled "contraband" by the commander, General Benjamin F. Butler, and thereby safe from return to slave owners.Hampton University can trace its roots to the work of Mary S. Peake of Norfolk which began in 1861 with outdoor classes taught under the landmark Emancipation Oak in the nearby area of Elizabeth City County adjacent to the old sea port of Hampton. The newly-issued Emancipation Proclamation was first read to a gathering under the historic tree there in 1863.
After the War, a normal school ("normal" meaning to establish standards or norms while educating teachers) was formalized in 1868, with former Union Brigadier General Samuel C. Armstrong (1839-1893) as its first principal. Typical of traditionally Indian, Mulatto and Black colleges and universities, Hampton received much of its financial support in the years following the Civil War from church groups and former officers and soldiers of the Union Army. The new school was established on the grounds of a former plantation named "Little Scotland" which had a view of the great harbor of Hampton Roads. It was legally chartered in 1870 as a land grant school, and was first known as "Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute."
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, who 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 free 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). However, he also had dreams and aspirations for the betterment of the newly freed slaves. He patterned his new school in the manner of his father, who had overseen the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic to the Polynesians. He also felt it was important to add the skills necessary 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, or as Armstrong was fond of saying, an education that encompassed "the head, the heart, and the hands."
Among Hampton's earliest students was Booker T. Washington, who arrived in 1872 at the age of 16. He later became a teacher there. Upon recommendation of Armstrong to founder Lewis Adams and others, in 1881, Washington was sent to Alabama at age 25 to head the new Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Embracing much of Sam Armstrong's philosophy, Washington built Tuskegee into a substantial school and become famous as an educator, orator, and fund-raiser.
Name changes, community
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute became simply Hampton Institute in 1930 and gained university status in 1984. Originally located in Elizabeth City County, it was long-located in the town of Phoebus, which was 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 Emanicipation Oak on its official seal.Native Americans
In 1878, Hampton established a formal education program for Native Americans (who were commonly called "Indians" at the time), beginning the Institute's lasting commitment to serving a multicultural population. Recent initiatives have proven unsuccessful in renewing Indigenous interest in Hampton. (Virginia has two reservations, and a growing number of recognized Native American tribes). There are a number of grave markers in the university cemetary that display the diversity of tribes that attended the school.
Sports
Hampton's colors are blue and white, and their nickname is the "The Pirates". Hampton sports teams participate in NCAA Division I (I-AA for football) in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). 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.Some Famous Alumni
- Booker T. Washington
- Wanda Sykes, comedienne
- Spencer Christian, weatherman for Good Morning America
- Charles Phillips, President, Oracle Corporation
- Rick Mahorn, Detroit Pistons
- Devin Green, Los Angeles Lakers
- Nicole Bailey-Williams, author
- Douglas Palmer, Mayor of Trenton, New Jersey
- Jerome Mathis, Houston Texans
Trivia
- The school is informally called simply "Hampton" or "HU" by many students, faculty and supporters.
- Rivals include Norfolk State University, located across Hampton Roads in downtown Norfolk, and Howard University, in Washington, D.C.
- Hampton and Howard constantly battle over which is the "Real HU". (Hampton Institute became "Hampton University" in the early 1980s.)
External link
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