Biddle Memorial Institute

In the record (12)

1. 1867

   Biddle Memorial Institute's early curriculum was organized into preparatory, normal, theological, and collegiate departments, all aimed at training Black ministers, teachers, and other professionals for leadership among the freedpeople of the region.

   Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

   Johnson C. Smith UniversityMary Deborah Baird BiddleHenry J. Biddle

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

2. 1867

   Mary Deborah Baird Biddle of Philadelphia, widow of Union Major Henry J. Biddle (who was mortally wounded at the Battle of New Market in June 1862), pledged $1,400 toward the new Charlotte freedmen's school, which was named the Henry J. Biddle Memorial Institute in her late husband's honor.

   Johnson C. Smith UniversityHarding High SchoolSecond Ward High SchoolCentral High SchoolPhiladelphia Presbyterian ChurchMary Deborah Baird BiddleRobert HenryHenry J. Biddle

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

3. 1867

   Samuel C. Alexander, a Pennsylvania-born Presbyterian minister, and Willis L. Miller, a former Confederate soldier and slaveholder who became a Presbyterian minister, co-founded and served as the first two professors of the freedmen's school in Charlotte that became Biddle Memorial Institute.

   Johnson C. Smith UniversityHarding High SchoolSecond Ward High SchoolCentral High SchoolGeorge AlexanderAbraham AlexanderSamuel C. AlexanderMary Deborah Baird BiddleWillis L. MillerHenry J. Biddle

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

4. 1867

   Stephen Mattoon served as the first president of Biddle Memorial Institute, leading the school for fourteen years following its 1867 founding.

   Johnson C. Smith UniversityHarding High SchoolSecond Ward High SchoolCentral High SchoolMary Deborah Baird BiddleHenry J. BiddleStephen Mattoon

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

5. 1867

   W.R. Myers, a Charlotte businessman (identified elsewhere as a former Confederate colonel), donated the initial eight acres of land on Beatties Ford Road in northwest Charlotte on which Biddle Memorial Institute was built.

   Johnson C. Smith UniversityFord Motor CompanyMary Deborah Baird BiddleW.R. MyersHenry J. Biddle

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

6. 1867 · 1867-05-01

   The Henry J. Biddle Memorial Institute, chartered by the state as a freedmen's school under the Presbyterian Church's Board of Missions for Freedmen, held its first classes on May 1, 1867, enrolling eight male students in a local church building in Charlotte.

   Johnson C. Smith UniversityHarding High SchoolSecond Ward High SchoolCentral High SchoolMecklenburg PresbyteryFirst United Presbyterian ChurchFirst Baptist Church WestMary Deborah Baird BiddleRobert HenryHenry J. Biddle

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

7. 1876

   In 1876, the North Carolina state legislature formally chartered the Charlotte freedmen's school and changed its name from Biddle Memorial Institute to Biddle University.

   Johnson C. Smith UniversityHarding High SchoolSecond Ward High SchoolCentral High SchoolMary Deborah Baird BiddleHenry J. Biddle

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

8. 1884

   Biddle Hall, the principal building on Biddle University's Charlotte campus, was completed in 1884.

   Johnson C. Smith UniversityBiddle Memorial HallMary Deborah Baird BiddleHenry J. Biddle

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

9. 1891

   In 1891, Daniel Sanders — who had been born enslaved in South Carolina, was educated at Western Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, and had served as a pastor and school principal in Wilmington, NC — became Biddle University's first African American president, serving until his death in 1907, and making Biddle the first southern four-year institution to have both a Black professor and a Black president.

   Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

   Johnson C. Smith UniversityHarding High SchoolSecond Ward High SchoolCentral High SchoolMary Deborah Baird BiddleHenry J. BiddleDaniel Sanders

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

10. 1923

    Before Second Ward High School opened, Black students in Charlotte seeking a high-school education had to leave the city or attend the high-school-level program at Johnson C. Smith University.

    Johnson C. Smith UniversityHarding High SchoolSecond Ward High SchoolCentral High SchoolW.W. WardJane Berry SmithJohnson C. Smith

    Source · checked 2026-08-13

11. 1923

    Following a major benefaction from Jane Berry Smith of Pittsburgh, who funded multiple campus buildings and an endowment in memory of her late husband Johnson C. Smith, Biddle University's trustees renamed the institution Johnson C. Smith University, with the new charter formally amended in 1923 — a milestone outside this era's range but a direct continuation of the freedmen's-education thread begun at Biddle in 1867.

    Johnson C. Smith UniversityMary Deborah Baird BiddleJane Berry SmithJohnson C. SmithHenry J. Biddle

    Source · checked 2026-08-13

12. 1964

    Dorothy Counts went on to earn a psychology degree from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte in 1964, seven years after the harassment that forced her withdrawal from Harding High School.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    Johnson C. Smith UniversityHarding High School 1957 site (Dorothy Counts' walk)Harding High SchoolSecond Ward High SchoolCentral High SchoolDorothy CountsJane Berry SmithJohnson C. Smith

    Source · checked 2026-08-13