Rate this HBCU Day 76: Allen University

[DrBanneker]

We last covered Texas Southern University which received an average score of 7.

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Allen University is one of two HBCUs in Columbia, SC (Benedict College, to be covered, is the other). Allen, being the smaller of the two, is often overshadowed by Benedict. It was founded by the AME Church in 1870, originally in Cokesbury, SC. It was moved to Columbia in 1880 and renamed Allen University after the founder of the AME Church Bishop Richard Allen (it was formally called the Payne Institute).

Up until the 1930s it had both a grammar school and high school attached to it so local students could go from 1st grade all the way to graduating from the university. Allen has also long had a mathematics department and graduates about half a dozen mathematics majors per year which probably gives it the most mathematics students per capita amongst all HBCUs.

Allen University went through turbulent financial times starting in the 1970s but has been recovering. It brought back its football and marching band programs in 2018 and joined the SIAC.


Founded: 1870

City, State: Columbia, SC

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

Nickname: Yellow Jackets

Enrollment and percent Black enrollment: 621 (563 undergraduate), 97% Black

Part-time student percentage: 3%

First Generation Student Percentage: 51%

Percentage of students from households under $30k/over $100k: 73% / N/A

Out of State Percentage: 36%, (Top States: Georgia, Florida, Alabama, California, Illinois)

Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 15:1

Admissions Acceptance Rate: 57%

4-yr/6-yr graduation rates: 9% / 23%

Transfer out rate: 17%

Male/Female percentages (Female:Male Ratio): 60% male/ 40% female (0.67:1 ratio)

Tuition: $13k

Median Federal Debt After Graduation: $35k

Median Parent PLUS Loans After Graduation: $13k

Median Earning 10-Years after 10 years from freshman year: $29k

Median Earnings for specific majors after 3 years after graduation:
Social Sciences: $28k, Biology: $27k

Top Majors by Degrees:
Business Administration, Sports Management, Mathematics, Social Sciences


Endowment: ~$0.3M

Alumni Engagement: 2.5% of alumni give back

Athletic Conference: SIAC (NCAA Div II)

Mascot: Yellow Jackets

Notable Alumni:
Hall Johnson - composer and popularizer of Negro spirituals internationally

Luna Mishoe - PhD mathematician, Tuskegee Airman, president of Delaware State

Rev. Clementa Pinckney - former SC state senator and pastor of the Emanuel AME Church killed by Dylan Roof

Bettye Collier-Thomas - scholar of African-American womens' history

Main Campus:

Sports

John Hurst Adams Gym

Band of Gold

Cheerleaders

Golden Jackette Dancers

Miss Allen University

@CodeBlaMeVi @homiedontplaydat @poppastoppa @Woodwerkz
@invalid @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 @Anerdyblackguy

 

[Rollie Forbes]

R.I.P., Rev. Pinckney

 

[keond]

They had some nice looking ladies back in the day

 

[get these nets]

R.I.P., Rev. Pinckney

Yes. Scrolling down in the profile, seeing that was definitely startling.
Rest in Peace to him.

 

[get these nets]

Great profile.
Interesting that they have a flagship Mathematics Dept.
Great to see the rare school with more males than females. Been seeing Cali and IL frequently as out-of-state students in the series which is great. Multiple pipelines to multiple schools

Sports

I like this picture of their athletes. Trying to figure out what sport the woman to the left of the cheerleader plays.

 

[CodeBlaMeVi]

Thanks for the profile. My cousin will be one of the students to succeed with those less than inspiring graduation numbers.

 

[DrBanneker]

R.I.P., Rev. Pinckney

Yes. Scrolling down in the profile, seeing that was definitely startling.
Rest in Peace to him.

Yeah it was sad but notable. I also forgot to put he was a former SC State senator too so I added that.

 

[poppastoppa]

Doing the best with what they have. Just hard being right across the street to Benedict college

 

[get these nets]

AME Bishop Frederick James, civil rights advocate and HBCU champion, dies at 102​

Bishop Frederick James of the AME Church died April 18, 2024, at age 102.
https://www.postandcourier.com/users/profile/Adam Parker

Bishop Frederick Calhoun James, a prominent AME Church leader and staunch social justice advocate who gained a national profile as a civil rights activist, educator and presidential advisor, died April 18 in Columbia. He was 102.

Bishop Frederick C. James was born on April 7, 1922, in Prosperity, South Carolina, to Rosa Lee Gray and Edward James. James received his A.A. degree in 1941 from Bettis Junior College, in Trenton, South Carolina, his B.A. degree in history and English in 1943 from Allen University, in Columbia, South Carolina, and his M.Div. degree in 1947 from the Howard University School of Divinity, in Washington, D.C
.
He returned to South Carolina that year and became pastor of Wayman AME Church in Winnsboro. In 1950, he moved to Chappelle Memorial AME Church in Columbia, and in 1953 he assumed the helm of Mount Pisgah AME Church in Sumter. He remained in that last position for 19 years.

He found his footing in Sumter, where in 1960 James became the AME Church’s director of social action. Soon after he helped organize, then chaired, the Sumter Citizens Committee. In 1963, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the state, he became president of the Effective Sumter Movement organization, assisting Freedom Riders and young protestors.

That was just the beginning of a dynamic and distinctive career.

“He was a leading architect of the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina and beyond,” said historian Bobby Donaldson, director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina.

James was not only among the architects of the movement, but an active participant. He was at the 1963 March on Washington and at the 1965 Selma-Montgomery March. He was an associate of Martin Luther King Jr. and can be seen in a photograph of King when he visited Kingstree in 1966.
In 1972, he was elected a bishop of the AME Church and assigned a post in Cape Town, South Africa. He oversaw church efforts in South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia and Mozambique, establishing schools, churches and other institutions.

In 1976, he returned to the U.S. to work in Arkansas and Oklahoma. While in Little Rock, he forged a friendship with Bill Clinton, then attorney general, and oversaw the accreditation of Shorter College. In 1984, he came to South Carolina’s 7th Episcopal District, focusing on housing and education and rescuing the church’s Allen University in Columbia, which was in dire straits at the time. By 1992, it was fully accredited.

“He was always in politics,” Donaldson said. “He was well-connected. He was not timid about making phone calls.”
James became close with Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., and other political leaders, building bridges and championing racial conciliation, Donaldson said.

In the early 1990s, James was assigned to stabilize the troubled Second Episcopal District, which includes Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Washington, D.C., according to the AME Church’s The Christian Recorder.

In 1994, Clinton made James a member of the U.S. delegation that attended the presidential inauguration of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Soon after, James joined the White House Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Board on Religious Freedom. He also became national vice president of the Interfaith Alliance.
“I am so sad to hear of the death of Bishop James,” said dikk Riley, former governor of South Carolina and former U.S. secretary of education. Riley was a cabinet member in the Clinton administration during the same period that James found himself working in Washington, D.C. “He was a great friend of mine, and I will miss him.”
Riley marveled at James’ “very long, wonderful, successful life” of service.

“He was well known for his effective leadership in support of our nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” Riley said. “Bishop James served South Carolina and our nation with great distinction. … I am honored to have enjoyed his leadership and his friendship.”
James was a lifetime member of the NAACP, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and a 33-degree Mason, according to the AME Church. He was inducted into the South Carolina Black Hall of Fame in 1991 and found his place on the Columbia Housing Authority Wall of Fame in 1994. In 2003, he received The Order of the Palmetto, the state’s highest honor.
He retired from active service in the church in 1996 and moved to Columbia. His wife, Theressa Gregg James, an Episcopal supervisor of the church, died in January 2021. The couple had been married 76 years.