Forged in Faith, Renamed for Freedom: The Lincoln University Story

The Founding Vision: The Ashmun Institute (1854)

In the decade before the Civil War, opportunities for the higher education of African Americans were almost nonexistent. In this climate, a white Presbyterian minister named Reverend John Miller Dickey and his wife, Sarah Emlen Cresson, undertook a revolutionary project in Chester County, Pennsylvania. On April 29, 1854, they secured a charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to establish The Ashmun Institute.

The institute was named in honor of Jehudi Ashmun, a religious leader and social reformer associated with the American Colonization Society, a movement that encouraged the migration of free African Americans to Liberia. The initial mission of the institute was to provide a classical, scientific, and theological education for young men of African descent, with an early focus on training them to become missionaries and leaders.

The founding of the Ashmun Institute was an unprecedented step. It was the first institution in world history dedicated to providing a university-level liberal arts education for Black men, empowering them with the same rigorous academic training available to white students at the time.

A New Era and a New Name: Lincoln University (1866)

The end of the Civil War in 1865 and the subsequent abolition of slavery marked a profound turning point for the nation and for the Ashmun Institute. The country was grappling with the challenges of Reconstruction and the new reality of millions of formerly enslaved people seeking education and opportunity.

In 1866, just one year after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the institute’s board of trustees voted to rename the institution in his honor. This change to Lincoln University was a tribute to the late president, revered for his role in the emancipation of enslaved people.

The new name also signaled a broadening of the university’s mission. While the foundational goal of providing excellent education remained, the focus expanded beyond missionary work to preparing African American men for leadership roles within the United States. As Lincoln University, it dedicated itself to educating leaders, professionals, and activists who would go on to challenge injustice and shape a new future.

From its pioneering start as the Ashmun Institute to its transformation into Lincoln University, the institution has remained a pillar of academic excellence and a crucial incubator of Black leadership, boasting celebrated alumni like U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and poet Langston Hughes.