Western University ( Kansas ) Western University ( Kansas ) ( 1865 – 1943 ) was a historically black college ( HBCU ) established in 1865 as the Quindaro Freedman ' s School at Quindaro , Kansas after the Civil War . The earliest school for African Americans west of the Mississippi River , it was the only one to operate in the state of Kansas . In the first three decades of the 20th century , its music school was recognized nationally as one of the best . The Jackson Jubilee Singers toured from 1907 - 1940 , and appeared on the Chautaqua circuit . Among the university ' s most notable alumni were several women who were influential music pioneers in the early 20th century , including Eva Jessye , who created her own choir and collaborated with major artists such as Virgil Thomson and George Gershwin in New York City . Nora Douglas Holt was a composer , music critic and performer who toured in Europe as well as the United States . Etta Moten Barnett became known for singing the lead in " Porgy and Bess " in revival and on tour . Expanded around the start of the 20th century with an industrial department modeled after Booker T . Washington ' s Tuskegee Institute , the university served African Americans for several generations . It struggled financially during the Great Depression , as did many colleges , and finally closed in 1943 . None of its buildings are still standing . History . The first classes of what became Western University were started by Eben Blachley in his home in 1862 , who taught the children of freedmen . Most of the homesites of Quindaro were on the bluff ; the port ' s commercial district was in the bottomland near the level of the Missouri River below the bluffs . The area of the Quindaro settlement was annexed by Kansas City in the early 20th century . The town had been started in 1856 by abolitionist s , Wyandot , free blacks and settlers from the New England Emigrant Aid Company . The latter had come from Massachusetts and other northeast states to help Kansas become a free rather than slave state - a question to be settled by its voters . They started construction of buildings in January 1857 and a hundred were built in the first year . As a stop on the Underground Railroad , Quindaro absorbed escaped slaves before the Civil War and many contraband , especially from Missouri , during the war . After the war , a committee of white men in the community , former abolitionists , organized a school to educate freedmen who had resettled in Quindaro and the Kansas City area . In 1865 the committee registered their county charter for what they called Quindaro Freedman ' s School . In 1867 the state legislature approved funds for the school . In 1872 the state increased funding to establish a four - year normal school curriculum for the training of teachers . Charles Henry Langston , a prominent activist and politician ( and the future grandfather of poet Langston Hughes ) , was named principal of the normal school . Freedmen and blacks free before the war believed that education was key for advancement of their race . State financial difficulties caused it to reduce support following the Panic of 1873 , and the school had to reduce its enrollment . Blachley continued to support it , bequeathing of land in the 1870s to help support the college that had developed from his first classes . In the 1880s , Exodusters and other migrants added significantly to the African - American population in Kansas . The college began to be active again . In the late 19th century , the African Methodist Episcopal ( AME ) Conference began to help provide financial support for the school . Quindaro added a theological course and constructed Ward Hall in 1891 to accommodate it ; the hall was named after a bishop of the AME Church . In 1890 the expanded college ' s first African - American president was appointed . Programs . In 1896 William Tecumseh Vernon , a young AME minister , was appointed as president . He worked to increase state funding . In 1899 he gained legislative approval and financial support to add industrial education to the college , which prompted building numerous structures for the new classes , as well as dormitories . Industrial courses were on the model of Booker T . Washington ' s Tuskegee Institute : commercial business courses , drafting , printing , carpentry , and tailoring ; later , blacksmithing and wheelwrighting were added to prepare students with desired skills for making a living . The campus was expanded with training buildings to house livestock , and another for a laundry . Later a building was added for teaching auto mechanics and repair . A central steam plant was added , as were additional dormitories . The music school was developed after 1903 by Robert G . Jackson , who created the Jackson Jubilee Singers . From 1907 to 1940 , the group was extremely popular . It toured the United States and Canada , performing on the Chautaqua circuit , where it helped create goodwill and raise money for the college through fundraising . In addition , the group ' s studies and performances helped preserve the spirituals of African - American tradition . The late historian and Western alumnus Orrin McKinley Murray , Sr . wrote about the Jackson Jubilee Singers in his 1960 book " The Rise and Fall of Western University " : " So great was their success in rendering spirituals and the advertising of the music department of Western University , that all young people who had any type of musical ambition decided to go to Western University at Quindaro . " The music school ' s most famous alumni were women who became influential pioneers of the 20th century in composition and music performance , including choral conducting . They included Nora Douglas Holt , Eva Jessye , and Etta Moten Barnett . Nora Holt was a composer , music critic and performer in the US and Europe . Eva Jessye went to New York and founded her own choir , which was featured in her collaboration with composer Virgil Thomson and writer Gertrude Stein on " Four Saints in Three Acts . " She was selected by George Gershwin as his choral director for his opera " Porgy and Bess " . Moten Barnett was a singer who made " Bess , " of " Porgy and Bess , " a signature role after performing it in the Broadway revival and on tour . In the early 20th century , Western University was lauded for its outstanding music program . " Western University at Quindaro , Kansas , was probably the earliest black school west of the Mississippi and the best black musical training center in the Midwest for almost thirty years during the 1900s through the 1920s . " Closing . The Great Depression reduced available financial support , and the university faced increasing competition to attract students . Finally Western University closed in 1943 . Nothing but cornerstones of the earliest two halls still exist at the townsite . Some buildings were lost to fire , others to demolition as the sites were redeveloped . The last historic structures remaining were three faculty houses , which were demolished near the end of the 20th century .