Brian McClure
May 18, 2026
SoHBCU
WELCOME TO SOHBCU!!
SoHBCU is ourvillage’s dedicated space for research, commentary, policy, and storytelling focused on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Formerly known as State of HBCUs, this work continues our commitment to exploring the history, impact, challenges, and possibilities of Black colleges and universities across the country. Be sure to follow our work on our Substack or on ourvillage website.
OVERVIEW
South Carolina is home to eight Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), including: Allen University, Benedict College, Claflin University, Clinton College, Denmark Technical College, Morris College, South Carolina State University, and Voorhees College. Together, they span more than 150 years of institutional history, enroll thousands of students across six cities, and have graduates making a difference in communities around the globe.
For more than 150 years, these institutions have served as engines of innovation, educational attainment, civic leadership, and Black institutional power in South Carolina and across the South.
Born largely in the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction, HBCUs emerged to educate freedmen and women who had formerly been enslaved and systematically excluded from most American educational institutions that existed at the time. Many of these schools were founded through partnerships between Black churches, freedmen’s organizations, Northern missionary societies, and Black community leaders who understood education as central to freedom, citizenship, and economic self-determination.
What developed in South Carolina was one of the South’s most important Black educational ecosystems: a network of colleges that continues to shape the country’s social, economic, and political DNA. HBCUs are responsible for creating agents of change–graduates that went on to among other things–become trained teachers, ministers, civic leaders, and educated generations of Black professionals that helped build the Black middle class.
A CENTURY OF INSTITUTION BUILDING
These institutions responded to the immediate needs of the emerging Black communities. In doing so, they emerged as vital centers of political resistance and professional advancement. Their impact can be traced through generations of Black leaders shaped within these institutions. Folks like James E. Clyburn, a graduate from South Carolina State University, and one of the longest serving and most influential members of Congress. Civil rights activists like Cleveland Sellers emerged from the same institution and became closely tied to the student movement surrounding the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre. And educational innovators like Ernest A. Finney Jr., a graduate of Claflin University, the first Black Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court since Reconstruction.
The institutions themselves were often built under extraordinary conditions. Elizabeth Evelyn Wright founded Voorhees College in 1897 despite racial violence, financial scarcity, and intense political resistance. Leaders like Modjeska Monteith Simkins drew from the intellectual and organizing traditions rooted in South Carolina’s Black colleges while leading statewide efforts around voting rights, public health, and educational equity.
For more than a century, South Carolina’s HBCUs have functioned as lasting institutions of Black civic infrastructure — places where leadership, professional networks, political movements, and community advancement were cultivated across generations.
SOUTH CAROLINA’S EIGHT HBCUS AT A GLANCE
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Despite chronic underfunding, aging infrastructure, and historic inequities in state and federal investment, South Carolina’s HBCUs continue to produce outsized social and economic impact. The history of South Carolina’s HBCUs is ultimately a story about institutional imagination under conditions of exclusion. These schools were created because Black communities understood that education was inseparable from freedom, citizenship, and power.
For more than a century, South Carolina’s HBCUs have educated generations of leaders while sustaining communities that larger systems often neglected or excluded. Their survival through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, desegregation, and chronic underinvestment is itself evidence of institutional resilience.
APPENDIX.
OVERVIEW OF SOUTH CAROLINA’S EIGHT HBCUS
Allen University
Founded in 1870 by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Allen University was established to educate newly freed African Americans during Reconstruction. Named after AME founder Richard Allen, the institution has long emphasized faith, leadership, and social justice.
Benedict College
Founded in 1870 by formerly enslaved woman Bathsheba Benedict through the American Baptist Home Mission Society, Benedict College became one of the South’s major centers for Black higher education. The college has historically focused on liberal arts, leadership development, and community engagement.
Claflin University
Founded in 1869, Claflin University is the oldest HBCU in South Carolina. Established by Methodist missionaries, Claflin became nationally recognized for academic excellence and remains one of the country’s leading private HBCUs. The university’s alumni include legal pioneer Ernest A. Finney Jr., whose career symbolized the dismantling of barriers that institutions like Claflin were created to confront.
Clinton College
Founded in 1894 by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Clinton College has historically emphasized religious education, teacher preparation, and community uplift. Its mission has remained closely tied to faith-based educational leadership.
Denmark Technical College
Founded in 1947, Denmark Technical College is South Carolina’s only public two-year HBCU. Originally created to expand vocational and technical education opportunities for Black students during segregation, the college continues to focus on workforce development and technical training.
Morris College
Founded in 1908 by the Baptist Educational and Missionary Convention of South Carolina, Morris College has long served students from rural and underserved communities while emphasizing liberal arts education and leadership development.
South Carolina State University
Established in 1896 as the state’s land-grant institution for Black students under segregation, South Carolina State University became one of the South’s most important public HBCUs. The university played a defining role in the Civil Rights Movement, particularly through student activism connected to the Orangeburg Massacre. It also produced national leaders like James E. Clyburn and Cleveland Sellers, reflecting the university’s long tradition of civic leadership and political engagement.
Voorhees College
Founded in 1897 by Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, a student of Booker T. Washington, Voorhees College was created to provide industrial and academic education for Black students in rural South Carolina. Wright built the institution under extraordinary conditions of racial hostility and economic scarcity, making Voorhees itself a lasting monument to Black institutional vision and self-determination.