On March 2, 1867, U.S. President Andrew Johnson signed the Congressional Charter for Howard University, making it one of only two universities in the country whose existence was enshrined in federal law. The university was named after one of its most notable founders – Civil War general and president of the Freedmen's Bureau, Oliver Otis Howard.

Howard University’s origins, in every respect, aligned with the birth of a new nation. And its role in shaping that new nation and the course of American history cannot be overstated.

On this episode of On the Yard, Dr. Benjamin Talton, director of MSRC, is joined by Sonja Woods, university archivist for MSRC, and Howard alum Abdur-Rahman Muhammad. Together, they discuss the socio-political context surrounding Howard’s founding, and the historical figures who dreamed of a university that transcended racial and gender lines.

Episode Guide:

00:00 The Founding of Howard University

01:36 Guest Introductions and Personal Howard Connections

02:54 Howard's Unique Position Among HBCUs

06:29 Early Challenges and Visionaries

18:58 The Role of the Freedmen's Bureau

25:44 Howard's Legacy and Influence

32:31 The Push for a Black President

36:18 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

On the Yard is a production of The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University and is produced by University FM.

Howard was a vision way ahead of this time

07:06: [Abdur-Rahman Muhammad] It appears that Howard was conceived as a racially integrated university, you know, that that was actually the vision. It was an anomaly. It was an anomaly. It was far ahead of its time. People at the time didn't know what to make of it. You know, is this a Black university? Is this a white university? I mean, what's going on here? You know, you have to remember, Howard was founded almost a year and a half before the ratification of the 14th Amendment. Okay? I mean, just think about that, because education, the college degree, it supplies you with more than the ability to prosper in the job market. Education is a sign of social status, right? Even today, maybe one out of 10 people have a college… I mean, to have a college degree really meant that you were, kind of, a somebody.

Abdur’s Howard origin story

01:42: [Abdur-Rahman Muhammad] Well, I first stepped foot on Howard's campus in 1979. That's the first time I visited the campus. And I enrolled the next year, 1980, in the Center for Academic Reinforcement, as it was called back then, the CAR Center. From Providence, Rhode Island, originally, I was part of the class of 1984, although that's not exactly when I walked. You know, that's one of those Howard stories. I actually took my degree sometime later, but I was, you know, class of 1984. I was here with so many illustrious personalities at that time, and I had a wonderful Howard experience and just fell in love with this venerable institution, this magical place.

Howard was unique from the very beginning

04:01: [Sonja Woods] What makes Howard different from the very beginning is that it was, unlike Morehouse and Spelman, co-ed from the beginning. There's a committee of founders at Howard. There's 17 men... And then we're in D.C., so it's a federal location, different type of municipality. It's the South, but it's the federal city.

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It took 59 years and 12 white ministers before Howard University finally had its first Black president. Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, Howard’s 13th president, took office in 1926 at just 36 years old.

On this episode of On the Yard, President Johnson’s legacy comes to life – from his days as a Baptist minister to leading Howard through the most pivotal time of the 20th century. Dr. Benjamin Talton, director of MSRC, is joined by Dr. Krista Johnson, professor and director of Howard’s Center for African Studies, and Sonja Woods, university archivist for MSRC.

Together, they discuss Mordecai Wyatt Johnson’s historic tenure as Howard’s first Black president, including his initiatives to position Howard as a global intellectual hub, his promotion of academic freedom, and his admiration for global figures like Gandhi, which shaped Howard's involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.

Episode Guide:

00:00 Introduction to Mordecai Wyatt Johnson

02:15 Early Life and Background

04:23 Howard University During President Johnson's Tenure

07:03 President Johnson's Vision and Institutional Impact

09:30 Challenges and Controversies

13:30 International Influence and Nonviolent Action

31:55 Legacy and Influence on Future Leaders

36:24 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

On the Yard is a production of The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University and is produced by University FM.

Mordecai’s legacy lives in the leaders who came after him

[35:09] Sonja Woods: I think there's so many books and articles and things that need to be written coming out of the presidential papers, a serious one thing, though, is the number of college presidents that came out of his faculty, during his tenure, the number of college presidents. We have Dwight Holmes went on, and he was a Howard alum. He went on to be president of Morgan. Charles Wesley was the president of two HBCUs. Benjamin Mays left him, was president, Morehouse. William Stewart Nelson was the college president of two HBCUs. We got to throw Jennifer in there, Franklin Jennifer. We got to throw him in there. But that's minor compared to these other guys, who were alum and faculty sometimes, mostly faculty. But it's clear what they learned or what they were able to absorb from Mordecai, just looking at their titles, their roles, their positions at Howard.

Howard’s global impact started at the top

[06:23]: Dr. Krista Johnson: The more I have been digging into the intellectual and the scholarly scholarship of those two individuals in particular, but also the climate at Howard at that time, the more I came to understand that these were remarkable individuals, but there was also an institution and there was an institutional architecture that emerged here at Howard University that nurtured these intellectuals at the time and also really created an environment to have discourse and dialogue and conversation across races, across international boundaries. And much of that, it can be attributed to the first president, Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, who was, I think, had the foresight to position Howard as a global institution and an institution of global consequence.

On the golden era of Black academia

[01:41]: Dr. Krista Johnson: President Johnson presided over Howard University during really a fascinating time in its history, and really a growth era…The golden era of Black academia at Howard in particular, where you really just had some of the who's who of Black intelligentsia that were either faculty here at Howard or who were orbiting around Howard in terms of the conferences, the intellectual engagement that was happening right here on The Yard in those decades.

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