Rate this HBCU Day 62: Livingstone College

[DrBanneker]

We last covered Arkansas Baptist College which received an average score of 5.5.

See the updated leaderboard here

Livingstone College has a unique history in being one of the first colleges established by the AME Zion Church. The reasons for its founding were ones of self-determination. As has been described in many other HBCU profiles, after the Civil War, many HBCUs were established with the financial and personnel help of Northern missionaries, especially the American Missionary Association. While this was a boon to Black education, it came at the cost of control of the schools by northern Whites. While wanting to educate Blacks, the education was largely paternalistic and northern Whites resisted increased Black control of these HBCUs feeling Blacks were incapable of managing their own education.

AME Zion decided to establish its own school under Black control from the start since it constantly clashed with the mainline Methodists over HBCUs they controlled. So in 1879, many AME Zion leaders, especially Cicero Richardson Harris, decided to fund the Zion Wesley Seminary in Concord, NC. Initial tuition rates were $1/month. Its focus was religious and liberal arts instruction instead of vocational education. Several years later, at Harris' suggestion, the school moved to Salisbury. The school struggled for a while but eventually received a $10,000 gift from England after a Methodist conference there. In honor of this, the school was renamed Livingstone College after the English explorer and missionary in Africa, David Livingstone.

Livingstone College eventually grew a deep relationship with Africa after the AME Church sent missionaries to Africa and set up two churches in the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Starting in 1897, the Afro-American bishop there would bring over African students to study at Livingstone. Many eventually became prominent in African education, nationalism, and pan-Africanism.

Livingstone College has continued as a small liberal arts institution with a decently high (for HBCUs) alumni giving rate of 6%. It is also working to add departments and graduate programs in order to become a university.


Livingstone College in 1888

Founded: 1879

City, State: Salisbury, North Carolina

Type: 4-year Private not-for-profit (AME Zion affiliated)

Nickname: Blue Bears

Enrollment and percent Black enrollment:890 (all undergraduate), 98% Black

Part-time student percentage: 2%

First Generation Student Percentage: 39%

Percentage of students from households under $30k/over $100k: 65% / 4%

Out of State Percentage: 41% (Top States: Washington DC, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Virginia)

Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 13:1

Admissions Acceptance Rate: 51%

4-yr/6-yr graduation rates: 14% / 23%

Transfer out rate: N/A

Male/Female percentages (Female:Male Ratio): 55% male/ 45% female (0.9:1)

Tuition: $18k

Median Federal Debt After Graduation: $33k

Median Parent PLUS Loans After Graduation: $29k

Median Earning 10-Years after 10 years from freshman year: $32k

Median Earnings for specific majors after 3 years after graduation:
Criminal Justice: $38k, Biology: $33k, Liberal Arts: $32k, Business Administration: $31k

Top Majors by Degrees:
Business Administration, Social Work, Sports Management, Biology Criminal Justice

Endowment: ~$3M

Alumni Engagement: 6.4% of alumni give back

Athletic Conference: CIAA (NCAA Div II)

Mascot: Blue Bear

Notable Alumni:

Elizabeth Duncan Koontz - first Black president of the National Education Association and Director of the Woman's Bureau in the Department of Labor under Nixon

Roy Davage Hudson - neuropharmacologist and former president of Hampton University

James B. Dudley - first president of North Carolina A&T (born in slavery)

James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey - prominent early Ghanian educator, nationalist, and Pan-Africanist.

Main Campus

New Football Stadium

Trent Gymnasium

Marching Band

Cheerleaders

Honey Bears Dance Squad



Miss Livingstone College

@Bryan Danielson @42 Monks @Wiseborn
@ab.aspectus @Originalman @#1 pick @Ziggiy @SupaVillain @Tug life @Idaeo @get these nets @MostReal @Bryan Danielson @Rollie Forbes @Sonic Boom of the South @staticshock @Charlie Hustle @BigAggieLean. @Optimus Prime @How Sway? @DropTopDoc @Johnny seawolf

 

[Rollie Forbes]

A "98% Black" student body; that's a beautiful thing.

 

[Dad]

First HBCU football game. Johnson C Smith vs them

 

[get these nets]

Great profile. Rather unique back story. School has deep ties to international Black students, and to other HBCUs...having alumni serve as Presidents of other institutions.

New Football Stadium

Black college football's genesis was a game between Livingstone and (now) Johnson C. Smith

 

[AggiePride336.]

They didn’t impress me, I’ll tell you that. My baby cousin graduated from there, and I went to her graduation. Just wasn’t very organized, and got off to a very late start. Thankfully, the restaurant we went to in Salisbury, for a late graduation lunch, was accommodating.

Other than that, my cousin says she had some good times. My uncle paid her tuition, so she had a full ride. Campus ain’t but so big. Most folks go to Charlotte for fun, and Winston is like 45 mins away, so you can hit up WSSU for fun too. She ended getting her biology degree from Stone, but went to UNC for dentistry.

Livingstone; strong history. One of the few schools where the male population is greater than the female.

 

[Bryan Danielson]

Man….. y’all don’t want me to even begin with this college

I had a few friends that went there

 

[AggiePride336.]

Man….. y’all don’t want me to even begin with this college

I had a few friends that went there

Was waiting on you to enter the thread

 

[DrBanneker]

First HBCU football game. Johnson C Smith vs them

Great profile. Rather unique back story. School has deep ties to international Black students, and to other HBCUs...having alumni serve as Presidents of other institutions.


Black college football's genesis was a game between Livingstone and (now) Johnson C. Smith

Wow, I wasn't aware. Thanks for the info.

 

[Bryan Danielson]

Was waiting on you to enter the thread

Man….. this school brought some fukkery in my life


And it was due to some dumb shyt some of my childhood friends did there that caused some ripples later on

 

[get these nets]

Wow, I wasn't aware. Thanks for the info.

You're Welcome.

 

[DrBanneker]

I forgot one big alum--Philip Payton whose Afro-American Realty Company literally created Black Harlem by buying up property after a housing bust and moving in Black tenants.

 

[get these nets]

+1 because an HBCU Caucus was formed recently in the North Carolina General Assembly. Individually and as a collective, the schools have a voice to lawmakers in the state. Helps them with funding, and accountability moving forward.

 

[Bryan Danielson]

Man….. I’m trying to be respectful of this school and thread.


All I got is comedy and jokes though. I don’t wanna come off disrespectful but I saw what I saw!

 

[DrBanneker]

Man….. I’m trying to be respectful of this school and thread.


All I got is comedy and jokes though. I don’t wanna come off disrespectful but I saw what I saw!

If you have something concrete about the school, its academics, or how it is run, I think comments are fair game as long as it isn't personal attacks or exaggerated. If it is about dumb dudes or ratchet chicks, yeah that probably is at every school.

 

[Bryan Danielson]

If you have something concrete about the school, its academics, or how it is run, I think comments are fair game as long as it isn't personal attacks or exaggerated. If it is about dumb dudes or ratchet chicks, yeah that probably is at every school.

Ok it’s 2 things… now I’m sure it changed as this was years ago. But to set it up;

1- I’m from Winston…. Back then we had a rep of being a wild gully bunch that was always a problem.

Some of my childhood friends went to LS.

Our Freshman year, they got in this huge fight at the school that got them expelled and a few to this day can still never step on campus again.

Years later (like my Jr year) when I was messing with this chick that went there. Whenever I came down to visit. At the gate when identifying guest each time after they saw my license, they used to force us to have our cars searched, search us, press us on reasons for visits, threaten us of calling cops on us or etc. a couple of times they refused to let us even park on campus.

And it’s like DAMN we wasn’t in the fight