Just two years after the end of the Civil War, in 1867, Johnson C. Smith University began educating African-American students in Charlotte, and its entrance opens ahead of you: one of the most important historically Black colleges and universities in the American South. The university was founded by Presbyterians as Biddle Memorial Institute, named for Major Henry Biddle, a Union officer whose widow donated funds for the school. It was later renamed Johnson C. Smith University in honor of a philanthropist whose gifts supported its growth.
The campus, with its brick buildings and mature trees, occupies a prominent hill just west of uptown, visible from much of the city. JCSU has produced generations of Black professionals, educators, clergy, and civic leaders who shaped Charlotte and communities across the country. The university sits at the heart of the Biddleville neighborhood, a historic African-American community that grew up around the campus and provided the social and commercial infrastructure for the Black community that the segregated city denied elsewhere.
Walk the campus perimeter and read the building names — each one carries a story about the philanthropists, educators, and community members who built this institution.