Johnson C. Smith

In the record (3)

1. 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 SchoolBiddle Memorial InstituteW.W. WardJane Berry Smith

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

2. 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 UniversityBiddle Memorial InstituteMary Deborah Baird BiddleJane Berry SmithHenry J. Biddle

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

3. 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 SchoolBiddle Memorial InstituteDorothy CountsJane Berry Smith

   Source · checked 2026-08-13