[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 32 (Wednesday, February 29, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1144-S1145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RECOGNIZING CHEYNEY UNIVERSITY

 Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I wish to recognize the 175th 
anniversary of Cheyney University. Founded on February 25, 1837, as the 
Institute for Colored Youth, Cheyney University is the oldest of the 
Nation's historically black colleges and universities.
  Born in an era that legally and commonly defined African Americans as 
property, the Institute for Colored Youth sought to provide a pathway 
for educational enrichment to a community wherein few opportunities 
existed.
  Established through the donation of Richard Humphreys, a Quaker 
philanthropist who settled in Philadelphia in 1764, the Institute for 
Colored Youth sought to prepare African Americans to educate their 
communities as teachers. Recognizing that African Americans lacked both 
means and access to higher education, the Institute for Colored Youth 
provided classes in classical education to young students at no cost in 
the first years of its creation.
  Over time, the vision of the Institute for Colored Youth grew into 
what we now know as Cheyney University.

[[Page S1145]]

Today, Cheyney University offers a diverse array of academic 
programming, including bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees 
in more than 30 fields, master of science and master of education, 
master of arts in teaching, and master of public administration. The 
ongoing evolution of Cheyney University is evidenced in continuous 
efforts to identify new methods and opportunities to prepare their 
students to succeed.
  As we celebrate African-American achievement and extraordinary 
accomplishments this month, we must also pay tribute to the 
institutions that are the foundations of these successes. Cheyney 
University's legacy of academic achievement spans throughout the Civil 
War, Reconstruction, the era of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement 
and continues today. Cheyney University, having grown from the darker 
chapters of American history, has served as a true instrument of change 
in the quest for equal access to opportunities. It is both an honor and 
a privilege to commemorate Cheyney University and its tremendous impact 
throughout Pennsylvania and across the Country.

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