# Virginia Union University

Virginia Union University is a private historically black university in Richmond, Virginia.

## History

The American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) founded the school as Richmond Theological Institute in 1865 shortly after Union troops took control of Richmond, Virginia, at the end of the American Civil War, for African-American freedmen to enter into the ministry. The college had the first academic library at a historically black college or university (HBCU), building the library in 1865 which was the same year the college was established.
Its mission was soon expanded to offer courses and programs at college, high school, and preparatory levels, to both men and women. This effort was the beginning of Virginia Union University. Separate branches of the National Theological Institute were set up in Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia, with classes beginning in 1867. In Washington, the school became known as Wayland Seminary, named in commemoration of Francis Wayland, former president of Brown University and a leader in the anti-slavery struggle. The first and only president there was George Mellen Prentiss King, who administered Wayland for thirty years (1867–1897). Famous students there included Booker T. Washington and Adam Clayton Powell, Sr.
Beginning in 1867, Colver Institute was housed in a building long known as Lumpkin's Jail, a former "slave jail" owned by Mary Ann Lumpkin, the African-American widow of the deceased white owner. It became Richmond Theological Institute (formerly Colver) and joined with Wayland Seminary of Washington in 1899 to form Virginia Union University at Richmond.
In 1932, the women's college Hartshorn Memorial College, established in Richmond in 1883, became a part of Virginia Union University. Storer College, a historically black Baptist college in West Virginia founded in 1867, merged its endowment with Virginia Union in 1964.
List of presidents :
| Name | Term |
| Malcolm MacVicar | 1899–1904 |
| George Rice Hovey | 1904–1918 |
| William John Clark | 1919–1941 |
| John Malcus Ellison* | 1941–1955 |
| Samuel Dewitt Proctor | 1955–1960 |
| Thomas Howard Henderson | 1960–1970 |
| Allix Bledsoe James | 1970–1979 |
| David Thomas Shannon | 1979–1985 |
| S. Dallas Simmons | 1985–1999 |
| Bernard Wayne Franklin | 1999–2003 |
| Belinda C. Anderson | 2003–2008 |
| Claude G. Perkins | 2009–2016 |
| Joseph F. Johnson | 2016–2017 (acting) |
| Hakim J. Lucas | 2017–present |
| *first alumnus and African-American to serve as president of the university ||

## Academics

The university is divided into four main schools:
* Evelyn Reid Syphax School of Education and Interdisciplinary Studies
* School of Arts and Sciences
* Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology
* Sydney Lewis School of Business

### Theology program

Virginia Union University's Theological training program is called The Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology. James Henry Harris, the early American civil rights advocate, was a graduate. The school is a member of the Washington Theological Consortium.

## Student activities

There are over 20 student organizations, including several fraternities and sororities.

## Athletics

Virginia Union competes in the NCAA Division II in the Eastern Division of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The school has varsity teams in men's basketball, football, cross country, golf, tennis and track and field, and in women's basketball, bowling, cross country, tennis and track and field, softball and volleyball.
In 2018, both Virginia Union University's DII Men & Women's Basketball Teams won the CIAA Championship. Virginia Union plays basketball and volleyball in the Barco-Stevens Hall, built as the Belgian Building for the 1939 New York World's Fair. The building, which has stone reliefs depicting the Belgian Congo, was one of thirteen facilities designated as "unique" by NCAA News in 2005. The building was awarded to the university in 1941 and moved to its present location in 1943. The basketball team began using the facility in early 1947.

## Affiliations

It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA.

## Notable alumni

* Charles S. Johnson
* Spottswood William Robinson III
* Douglas Wilder
* Ben Wallace
* Donald McEachin
| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Roger Anderson | | NFL player |
| James Atkins | 2002 | Former NFL player |
| Mamye BaCote | 1961 | Virginia House of Delegates (2004-2016) |
| Darius Bea | attended two years | Negro league outfielder and pitcher |
| Bessye J. Bearden | 1900s | Journalist and social activist; mother of artist Romare Bearden |
| Leslie Garland Bolling | 1924 | Early 20th century wood carver |
| Simeon Booker | 1941 | award-winning journalist and the first African-American reporter for The Washington Post |
| Michael Brim | 1988 | former National Football League player |
| Roslyn M. Brock | 1987 | Chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) |
| Homer S. Brown | | judge, civil rights leader, and state representative in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Henry Allen Bullock | 1928 | Historian, winner of the Bancroft Prize |
| Tamarat Makonnen | 1994 | Film director, producer and writer |
| Emmett C. Burns, Jr. | | Maryland House of Delegates (1995–2006) |
| Terry Davis | 1989 | Former NBA player |
| Robert Prentiss Daniel | 1924 | President of Shaw and Virginia State universities for more than 30 years in total |
| Will Downing | attended | R&B Singer |
| AJ English | 1990 | former Professional Basketball Player |
| Walter Fauntroy | 1955 | Civil rights leader, minister, former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, from Washington, D.C.'s At-large district and was a candidate for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination |
| Anderson J. Franklin | | Professor of Psychology at the School of Education at Boston College |
| Samuel Lee Gravely, Jr. | 1948 | first African-American to reach the rank of admiral in the United States Navy |
| Abram Lincoln Harris | 1922 | Economist; chair, Economics Dept. Howard University (1936–1945); professor, University of Chicago |
| Pete Hunter | 2002 | former National Football League player |
| Cornelius Johnson | 1967 | Former NFL player |
| Eugene Kinckle Jones | 1906 | Member of the Black Cabinet under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a founder of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity |
| Dwight Clinton Jones | 1967 | Mayor of Richmond, Virginia (2009–2016) |
| Charles Spurgeon Johnson | 1916 | first black president of Fisk University |
| Lyman T. Johnson | 1930 | integrated the University of Kentucky |
| Leontine T. Kelly | 1960 | a bishop of the United Methodist Church |
| Henry L. Marsh | 1956 | first African-American mayor of Richmond, Virginia and member of the Virginia Senate from the 16th district |
| Benjamin Mays | 1916-1917, transferred to Bates College | President of Morehouse College, mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr. |
| Bai T. Moore | | Liberian author and poet |
| Delores McQuinn | 1976 | Virginia House of Delegates (2009-present) |
| Charles Oakley | | Professional basketball Player |
| Chandler Owen | 1913 | Writer, editor and early member of the Socialist Party of America. |
| Wendell H. Phillips | | member, Maryland House of Delegates (1979–1987) |
| Samuel DeWitt Proctor | 1942 | President of VUU and president of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where he made close acquaintance with then student body president Jesse Jackson |
| Randall Robinson | | Attorney; founder of TransAfrica |
| James R. Roebuck, Jr. | 1966 | member of Pennsylvania House of Representatives, District 188 |
| Spottswood William Robinson III | 1937 | Prominent civil rights attorney, dean of Howard University Law School, first African American to be appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia |
| Frank S. Royal | 1961 | chairman of VUU's board; director of public companies; former president of the National Medical Association |
| Herbert Scott | 1974 | National Football League player, 2-time All-Pro, 3-time Pro Bowl; Dallas Cowboys |
| Clarence L. Townes Jr. | 1948 | businessperson, politician, and civic activist from Richmond, Virginia |
| Wyatt T Walker | | Activist, civil rights motivator, musician, Theologian who gave letter to Martin Luther King from Coretta; close confidant and preacher |
| Ben Wallace | 1996 | Professional Basketball Player, NBA Defensive Player of the Year, NBA Champion, Member of Basketball Hall of Fame; Detroit Pistons |
| Douglas Wilder | 1951 | first African-American governor of Virginia (1990–1994) and Mayor of Richmond (2005–2009) |
| N. Scott Phillips | 1983 | member, Maryland House of Delegates |