Missouri bicentennial: Black soldiers worked to establish Lincoln University

This is the seventh in a series of articles with Kellerman Foundation for Historic Preservation board chairman Frank Nickell, an emeritus faculty member of Southeast Missouri State University, commenting on Show Me State history on the 200th anniversary of Missouri being received as America’s 24th state in 1821.

In recognition of Black History Month, the Southeast Missourian remembers Lincoln University, a historically black college/university (HBCU), started in 1866 in Missouri’s state capital, Jefferson City.

“Lincoln University is a great symbol, in my mind, to the desire of Abraham Lincoln to fulfill the goals of the Civil War: emancipation, freedom and the right to be citizens,” said Frank Nickell, who taught in Southeast’s history department for 43 years.

Nickell said gratitude for service during the Civil War was at the heart of the establishment of a school originally called Lincoln Institute.

The school was renamed Lincoln University after a bill introduced by Missouri’s first Black lawmaker, Walthall Moore, passed the General Assembly.

“(Lincoln) is the only university founded by soldiers, members of the 62nd and 65th Colored Infantry regiments, many of whose war enlistments were longer than those of white men,” Nickell said.

Local tie

“A lot of Lincoln schools got started after that, including one in 1890 in Cape Girardeau,” he added, a reference to what became known in 1925 as the John S. Cobb School at the corner of Merriwether and Ellis streets.

The Cobb School, re-named for a former slave and one of Cape Girardeau’s initial Black educators, closed after a fire in 1953.

Cobb’s former gymnasium later housed the Southeast Missouri Crime Lab.

Idea and funding

“A white officer, Richard Foster, was so impressed with the dedication of Black soldiers that he suggested a school to educate the now-free African Americans who served,” Nickell said.

The State Historical Society of Missouri, in its bicentennial timeline website, www.missouri2021.org, said the aforementioned Black U.S. Army regiments raised $6,400 (more than $105,000 in 2021 dollars) to start the university with an original goal of training Black teachers.

“The state government also responded financially in the early days of the school, kicking in $5,000 annually,” Nickell said.

Timeline

In 1890, Missouri designated the school as a land grant university emphasizing mechanics, agriculture and teaching.

In 1921, Lincoln began to offer graduate programs.

In 1954, Lincoln allowed applicants of all ethnicities.

Impact

“For a small university (2,436 students in Fall 2019), (Lincoln) has seen a wealth of success — in agriculture, in music, in dance and in athletics,” Nickell said.

A celebrity associated with Lincoln University is Althea Gibson, one of the first Black players to cross the color line in international tennis.

Gibson taught physical education at the school from 1953 to 1955.

Later, Gibson won five singles titles in Grand Slam tennis: twice at Wimbledon, twice at the U.S. Open and once at the French Open.

“(Lincoln University) is a great monument to the State of Missouri and recalls our 16th president, honoring those Black soldiers who sacrificed greatly by providing an opportunity to receive higher education,” Nickell said.