[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 69 (Friday, April 27, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E561-E562]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          HONORING THE SESQUICENTENNIAL OF HAMPTON UNIVERSITY

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 27, 2018

  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor an 
institution that has been at the forefront of education in America for 
the last 150 years. This April, Hampton University is celebrating the 
150th anniversary of its founding. To mark the occasion, I would like 
to take a moment and recognize the wonderful legacy of this institution 
of higher education that lives on today.
  The seeds from which Hampton University grew were planted in 1861. 
During the Civil War, Fort Monroe, the Union-controlled coastal 
fortress, was a beacon to slaves in Hampton, Virginia and the 
surrounding towns. General Benjamin Butler, Commanding Officer of

[[Page E562]]

the fort, had issued a declaration that any slaves that made it to 
Union lines would not be returned to their masters, but declared 
``contraband of war.'' Overrun with slaves desiring their freedom, the 
Union created a camp for the refugees a few miles northwest of the 
fort. It was in this camp that Mary Smith Peake, a free black woman 
held classes for escapees under a large oak tree, in violation of 
Virginia law prohibiting the education of free or enslaved blacks. This 
tree would later be named the Emancipation Oak, as it was the first 
place in the South when the Emancipation Proclamation was read aloud to 
a crowd. The classes and meetings held under the Emancipation Oak were 
the beginning of education on the campus of what was to become Hampton 
University.
  After the war, there were no existing pathways for freedmen to rise 
from their station in slavery. Recognizing this, Brigadier General 
Samuel Chapman Armstrong, head of the Freedmen's Bureau in Hampton 
Roads, founded the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in April 
1868. While nominally the school's mission was to train black teachers 
to fill the demand for the education of black Americans, the school's 
founder suggested the true purpose of the school was ``to train 
selected Negro youth who should go out and teach and lead their people 
first by example, by getting land and homes; to give them not a dollar 
that they could earn for themselves; to teach respect for labor, to 
replace stupid drudgery with skilled hands, and in this way to build up 
an industrial system for the sake not only of self-support and 
intelligent labor, but also for the sake of character.''
  Hampton became a model for the creation of other schools designed to 
uplift Black America. Within nine years of arriving on Hampton's campus 
for his education, Booker T. Washington was founding Tuskegee Institute 
in Alabama. Hampton continued to produce black educators and skilled 
craft and tradesmen. Many of the campus buildings of this era were 
built by Hampton students. Hampton expanded its programs, increasing 
its course offerings to include business, nursing, and other arts and 
sciences classes. In 1930 the school was renamed Hampton Institute, 
recognizing its growth from its agricultural and teacher training 
roots. And in 1984, after a thorough nine-month study of Hampton's 
rapid growth and development and acknowledging its commitment to 
attracting quality students and talented faculty, offering a robust 
selection of academic programs, as well as its status as a premier 
research institution, it was recommended that Hampton Institute change 
its name to Hampton University.
  Hampton's current legacy has been shaped over the past 40 years by 
President Dr. William R. Harvey. Dr. Harvey came to Hampton in 1978 as 
the 12th President of the school. Under his leadership, Hampton has 
remained an innovative institution of higher education. If Dr. Harvey's 
tenure were measured solely by the creation of traditional campus 
facilities, the construction of the Convocation Center, Student Center, 
Sports Facilities, Libraries, schools of journalism and physical 
sciences would be a fitting tribute to his tenure. But Dr. Harvey has 
also had the vision to ensure that Hampton was at the forefront of 
innovative new technologies and opportunities. Hampton University's 
Proton Therapy Institute is the only one of its kind in Virginia, and 
through its partnerships with NASA, Hampton is currently the only 
historically black college and university in control of a NASA 
satellite mission.
  Over 150 years, Hampton University, ``Our Home by the Sea,'' has 
grown from an outdoor academy for newly freed slaves to an established 
research university and one of the bedrock institutions of the Hampton 
Roads region. Its athletic teams have won scores of championships in 
multiple sports. Its alumni have achieved acclaim in the arts, 
sciences, business, and politics. And Hampton has held a place of 
reverence in the story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities 
in America. I would like to commend Dr. Harvey, the faculty, staff, 
students, and alumni of Hampton University on the occasion of their 
sesquicentennial, and I wish them another 150 years of success, growth, 
and achievement as a pinnacle of higher education in our country.

                          ____________________