Allen University - History

History

Allen University was founded in Cokesbury in 1870 as Payne Institute. Its initial mission was to provide education to freed African American slaves. In 1880, it was moved to Columbia and renamed Allen University in honor of Bishop Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The university remains connected to the denomination, which is in the Methodist family of churches. As one of two black colleges located in Columbia, Allen has a very strong presence in the African American community. Allen University initially focused on training ministers and teachers, and over the years has enlarged its scope to produce graduates in other academic areas.

Read more about this topic:  Allen University

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records between the material and the moral nature.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads.”
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    “What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
    —Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)