Episcopal clergy founded Saint Augustine's University in 1867. It is a private, unaccredited, historically Black Christian college here in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1867 by Episcopal Church clergy to educate formerly enslaved Black people, the institution has traditionally focused its mission around first-generation college students and students "who otherwise wouldn't get the opportunity" to receive a college education.
Over time it moved from a normal school to a junior college and eventually to a four-year liberal arts institution. From the early 1990s the school faced legal problems, low graduation rates, significant enrollment declines, and corresponding revenue shortfalls. After years of serious financial mismanagement and general instability, its accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), derecognized it for noncompliance on July 14, 2025, automatically revoking its accreditation.
A subsequent injunction temporarily secured provisional accreditation, and the college later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Although it kept "university" in its name, it discontinued academic degree offerings in 2026. That evolution is an explicit part of its history.
The buildings and grounds mark this layered past spreading out before you.