Hampton University

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Union-held Fortress Monroe in southeastern Virginia at the mouth of Hampton Roads became a gathering point and safe haven of sorts for fugitive slaves. The commander, General Benjamin F. Butler, determined they were "contraband of war", to protect them from being returned to slaveholders, who clamored to reclaim them. As numerous individuals sought freedom behind Union lines, the Army arranged for the construction of the Grand Contraband Camp nearby, from materials reclaimed from the ruins of Hampton, which had been burned by the retreating Confederate Army. This area was later called "Slabtown."[6][7]

Hampton University traces its roots to the work of Mary S. Peake, which began in 1861 with outdoor classes which she taught under the landmark Emancipation Oak in the nearby area of Elizabeth City County. The newly issued Emancipation Proclamation was first read to a gathering under the historic tree there in 1863.[6][8]

Hampton Institute, 1898

An 1899 class in mathematical geography

After the War, a normal school (teacher training school) was formalized in 1868, with former Union brevet Brigadier General Samuel C. Armstrong (1839–1893) as its first principal. The new school was established on the grounds of a former plantation named "Little Scotland", which had a view of Hampton Roads. The original school buildings fronted the Hampton River. Legally chartered in 1870 as a land grant school, it was first known as Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute.

Typical of historically black colleges, Hampton received much of its financial support in the years following the Civil War from the American Missionary Association (whose black and white leaders represented the Congregational and Presbyterian churches), other church groups and former officers and soldiers of the Union Army. One of the many Civil War veterans who gave substantial sums to the school was General William Jackson Palmer, a Union cavalry commander from Philadelphia. He later built the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, and founded Colorado Springs, Colorado. As the Civil War began in 1861, although his Quaker upbringing made Palmer abhor violence, his passion to see the slaves freed compelled him to enter the war. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in 1894. (The current Palmer Hall on the campus is named in his honor.)

Students in an 1899 bricklaying class

Unlike the wealthy Palmer, Sam Armstrong was the son of a missionary to the Sandwich Islands (which later became the U.S. state of Hawaii). He also had dreams for the betterment of the freedmen. He patterned his new school after the model of his father, who had overseen the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic to the Polynesians. He wanted to teach the skills necessary for blacks to be self-supporting in the impoverished South. Under his guidance, a Hampton-style education became well known as an education that combined cultural uplift with moral and manual training. Armstrong said it was an education that encompassed "the head, the heart, and the hands."

At the close of its first decade, the school reported a total admission in the ten years of 927 students, with 277 graduates, all but 17 of whom had become teachers. Many of them had bought land and established themselves in homes; many were farming as well as teaching; some had gone into business. Only a very small proportion failed to do well. By another 10 years, there had been over 600 graduates. In 1888, of the 537 still alive, three-fourths were teaching, and about half as many undergraduates were also teaching. It was estimated that 15,000 children in community schools were being taught by Hampton's students and alumni that year.[9]

After Armstrong's death, Hampton’s leaders continued to develop a highly successful external relations program that forged a network of devoted supporters. By 1900, Hampton was the wealthiest school serving African Americans, largely due to its success in development and fundraising.[10]

Hampton also had the only library school in the United States for educating black librarians.[11] The Hampton Institute Library School opened in 1925 and through its Negro Teacher-Librarian Program (NTLTP) trained and issued professional degrees to 183 black librarians.[11] The library school closed in 1939.[11]

Among Hampton's earliest students was Booker T. Washington, who arrived from West Virginia in 1872 at the age of 16. He worked his way through Hampton, and then went on to attend Wayland Seminary in Washington D.C. After graduation, he returned to Hampton and became a teacher. Upon recommendation of Sam Armstrong to the founder Lewis Adams and others, of a small new school in Tuskegee Alabama that had begun in 1874. In 1881, Washington went to Tuskegee at age 25 to strengthen it and develop it to the status of a Normal school, one recognized as being able to produce qualified teachers. This new institution eventually became Tuskegee University. Embracing much of Armstrong's philosophy, Washington built Tuskegee into a substantial school and became nationally famous as an educator, orator, and fund-raiser as well. He collaborated with the philanthropist Julius Rosenwald in the early 20th century to create a model for rural black schools – Rosenwald established a fund that matched monies raised by communities to build more than 5,000 schools for rural black children, mostly in the South. Washington recruited his Hampton classmate (1875), Charles W. Greene[12] to the work at Tuskegee in 1888 to lead the Agriculture Department. Washington and Greene recruited George Washington Carver to the Tuskegee Agriculture faculty upon his graduation with a master's degree from Iowa State University in 1896. Carver provided such technical strength in Agriculture that in 1900, Booker T. Washington assigned Greene to establish a demonstration of black business capability and economic independence off-campus in Tuskegee. This project, entirely black-owned, comprised 4,000 lots of real estate and was formally established and designated Greenwood in 1901, as a demonstration for black-owned business and residential districts in every city in the nation with a significant black population. After Booker T. Washington visited Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1905 and addressed a large gathering there, the Oklahomans followed the Tuskegee model and named Tulsa's black-owned and operated district "Greenwood" in 1906.

In 1878, Hampton established a formal education program for Native Americans. In 1875 at the end of the American Indian Wars, the United States Army sent seventy-two warriors from the Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche and Caddo Nations, to imprisonment and exile in St. Augustine, Florida. Essentially they were considered hostages to persuade their peoples in the West to keep peace. Richard Henry Pratt supervised them at Fort Marion and began to arrange for their education in the English language and American culture. Numerous visitors to St. Augustine from the North became interested in their cases and volunteered as teachers. They also provided them with art supplies, and some of the resulting works (including by David Pendleton Oakerhater) are held by the Smithsonian Institution. At the end of the warriors' incarceration, Pratt convinced seventeen to enroll at Hampton Institute for a fuller education.[13] (Later Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School based on the same philosophy of education and assimilation). Altogether, seventy Native Americans, young men and women from various tribes, mostly from the Plains rather than the acculturated tribes that had occupied Virginia, joined that first class. Because Virginia's aristocrats sometimes boasted of their Native American heritage through Pocahontas, it was hoped that the Native American students would help locals to accept the university's black students. The black students were also supposed to "civilize" the Native American students to current American society, and the Native Americans to "uplift the Negro[es]."[14][15]

The program died in 1923, in the face of growing controversy over racial mingling. Native Americans stopped sending their boys to the school after some employers fired Native American men because they had been educated with blacks. The program's final director resigned because she could not prevent "amalgamation" between the Native American girls and black boys.[15]

Sunset at Hampton University Waterfront

Hampton University Monroe Memorial Church

Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute became simply Hampton Institute in 1930. In 1931 the George P. Phenix School for all age groups was opened there under principal Ian Ross. A new nurses' training school was attached to the Dixie Hospital, with Nina Gage as director.[16] In 1945 the Austrian-American psychologist, art educator, and author of the influential text book Creative and Mental Growth[17] Viktor Lowenfeld joined the Hampton faculty as an assistant professor of industrial arts and eventually became chair of the Art Department. By 1971 the university offered 42 evening classes in programs including "Educational Psychology", "Introduction to Oral Communication", "Modern Mathematics", and "Playwriting", among others.[18] At the time, the tuition cost for these courses was $30 per semester hour.[18] With the addition of departments and graduate programs, it became Hampton University in 1984.[19] Originally located in Elizabeth City County, it was long-located in the Town of Phoebus, incorporated in 1900. Phoebus and Elizabeth City County were consolidated with the neighboring City of Hampton to form a much larger independent city in 1952. The City of Hampton uses the Emancipation Oak on its official seal. From 1960 to 1970, noted diplomat and educator Jerome H. Holland was president of the Hampton Institute.

In early 2018, Hampton University students launched a protest calling for the university administration to address several concerns they believed to be longstanding and urgent, including food quality, living conditions, and sexual assault.[20] Students shared videos and photos related to these concerns.[21] The university released a statement indicating that it was "moving forward" to address student concerns and issues.[22]

In July 2020, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donated $30 million to Hampton. The donation is the largest single gift in Hampton's history.[23] Hampton's president has sole discretion on how funds will be used but has committed to consulting with other university leaders on the best way to allocate the generous donation.[24][23]

Hampton Institute
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Virginia Landmarks Register
Show map of Virginia Show map of the United States
Location	NW of jct. of U.S. 60 and the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, Hampton, Virginia
Coordinates	37°01′13″N 76°35′40″W
Area	314 acres (127 ha)
Built	1866 (1866)
Architect	Richard Morris Hunt; Et al.
NRHP reference No.	69000323[32]
VLR No.	114-0006
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	November 12, 1969
Designated NHLD	May 30, 1974[33]
Designated VLR	September 9, 1969[34]

A 15-acre (61,000 m²) portion of the campus along the Hampton River, including many of the older buildings, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark District. Buildings included are:

• Mansion House, original plantation residence of Little Scotland
• Virginia Hall built in 1873
• Academic Hall
• Wigwam
• Marquand Memorial Chapel, a Romanesque Revival red brick chapel with a 150-foot (46 m) tower

In addition, Cleveland Hall, Ogden, and the Administration building are also included in the district.[35]

The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969,[32] and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974.[33][35]

In 2015, nearly two-thirds of the student body was female and the other third male. Approximately 90% of the population identified as Black and only about 30% were Virginia residents.[36]

Hampton's colors are reflex blue and white, and their nickname is "The Pirates". Hampton sports teams participate in NCAA Division I (FCS for football) in the Big South Conference. They joined this in 2018 upon leaving the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Before joining the Big South, Hampton won MEAC titles in many sports, including football, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's track, and men's and women's tennis. Hampton is one of two NCAA Division 1 HBCU institutions (along with Tennessee State University, in the Ohio Valley Conference) to not be a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference or Southwestern Athletic Conference.

In 2016, Hampton became the first and only HBCU to field a Division I men's lacrosse team. ESPN held a broadcast on campus preceding the inaugural game in Armstrong Stadium.[49][50]

Hampton is the only HBCU with a competitive sailing team.

Hampton University athletics logo

In 2001, the Hampton basketball team won its first NCAA Tournament game, when they beat Iowa State 58–57, in one of the largest upsets of all time. They were only the fourth fifteen-seed to upset a two-seed in the tournament's history. They returned to the tournament a year later, as well as in 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2016, having won their conference basketball tournament. Their NCAA tournament record is 2–6, including the play-in game.

The "Lady Pirates" basketball team has seen great success as well, and made trips to the NCAA tournament in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2010–2014, and 2017. In 1988, as a Division II school, the Lady Pirates won the NCAA Women's Division II Basketball Championship, defeating West Texas State. In 2011, as a number-13 seed, the Lady Pirates nearly upset Kentucky, but fell in overtime, 66-62. In 2015, the Lady Pirates played in the Women's NIT, where they defeated Drexel 45-42 in the opening round. However, in the second round, the team lost to West Virginia 57-39.

The Pirates won their conference title in football in 1997, shared the title 1998 and 2004, and won it again outright in 2005 and 2006. From 2004 to 2006, the team won three MEAC Championships and three SBN-Black College National Championships, and was ranked in the Division I FCS top 25 poll each year. The Pirates also sent five players to the NFL Combine in 2007, the most out of any FCS subdivision school for that year. They have also been dominant in tennis, winning the MEAC from 1996 to 1999, 2001–2003 and 2007 for the men, and 1998 and 2002–2004 for the women.

Major rivals include Norfolk State University, located across Hampton Roads in downtown Norfolk, and Howard University in Washington, D.C.

In 2019, Hampton revived their rivalry with Virginia Union University from Richmond, Virginia.

Pirate athletics are supported by a plethora of groups, including "The Force" Marching Band. The marching band has appeared at several notable events, including a Barack Obama Presidential Inauguration parade in Washington, DC. "The Force" was chosen out of a large pool of applicants to participate in the parade as the representative for the state of Virginia. "The Force" is complemented by the "Ebony Fire" all-women danceline, as well as "Silky", the flag team, and as of 2018, "Shimmering Sapphire Elegance" the majorette team.

On January 1, 2020, The Force made history by being the first HBCU to perform in Rome, Italy and the Vatican City in the Rome New Years Day Parade as part of the World Day of Peace.[51]