1833     Oberlin College is founded in 1833. Located in Oberlin, Ohio this institution was one of the first to admit students "without respect to color," and the very first college in the United States to admit women.

1837    The Institute for Colored Youth is founded by Richard Humphreys in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ICY would change its name to Cheyney Training School for Teachers in 1914. James McCune Smith becomes the first African American to earn a medical degree (M.D.) and practice medicine in the United States (University of Glasgow).

1838     Andrew Harris becomes the first African American to graduate from the University of Vermont.

1844    George Boyer Vashon becomes the first African American to graduate from Oberlin College. Vashon was the valedictorian of his graduating class, and he delivered the commencement address for that year.

1854    Ashmun Institute, the first school of higher learning for African American men is founded by John Miller Dickey and Sarah Emlen Cresson, his wife. In 1866 this institution would be renamed Lincoln University, for President Abraham Lincoln.

1856    Robert Tanner Freeman becomes the first African American to earn a doctorate in Dentistry (D.D.S., Harvard University).

1862    Mary Jane Patterson becomes the first African American woman to earn a B.A. degree.

1863 Daniel A. Payne becomes the first African American college president (Wilberforce University).

1864    Rebecca Lee Crumpler becomes the first African American woman to earn an M.D. degree (New England Female Medical College).