The United States Civil War, which took place from April 1861 to April 1865 was the single most important factor leading to the creation of conditions favorable for the establishment and development of the educational institutions for the Negro in the Southern States. The end of the war marked the close of a 244-year era (1519-1863), during which the Negro was held in slavery. It was an era in which it was considered a criminal offense to instruct the Negro in any but the most rudimentary domestic skills.
In 1862, the United States
Congress passed the first Morrill Act which provided for the establishment of a
Land-Grant institution in each state to educate citizens in the fields of
Agriculture, Home Economics, the Mechanic Arts, and other useful professions. In
the South, under the races, the Negro was not permitted to attend the
institutions first established under the Morrill Act of 1862. Although the law
did provide for separate but equal facilities, only Mississippi and Kentucky
established first Morrill Act, and only Alcorn University was designated
"Land-Grant."
Even with the enactment of
the Morrill Act of 1862, the Federal government was unable to gain cooperation
from the Southern States in the provision of land-grant support to the Negro
institutions. To overcome this problem, a second Morrill Act was passed in 1890
specifically to support the negro Land-Grant institutions. Thus, the Negro Land-
Grant institutions are referred to today as "The 1890 Institutions. " Those
Southern States which did not have Negro institutions by 1890 each established
one later under this Act.
Tuskegee Institute was created by an Act of the Alabama Legislature; however, 12 years later, the state established and incorporated a Board of Trustees and named the school private. Thus, it is not a Land-Grant College, in spite of the fact that it was granted 25,000 acres of land by the United States Congress in 1899. The triple-mission of the land-grant institutions is the concept of research, instruction, and extension service. The 1890 institutions and Tuskegee Institute came into existence in the following sequence:
| Date | Name | Sponsor |
| 1866 | Lincoln University | Civil War Negro Infantry |
| 1871 | Alcorn State University | State Legislature |
| 1872 | South Carolina State University | State Legislature |
| 1873 | University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff | State Legislature |
| 1875 | Alabama A&M University | Group of Ex-slaves |
| 1876 | Prairie View A&M University | State Legislature |
| 1880 | Southern University | State Legislature |
| 1881 | Tuskegee Institute | State Legislature |
| 1882 | Virginia State College | State Legislature |
| 1886 | Kentucky State University | State Legislature |
| 1886 | University of Maryland Eastern Shore | Methodist Episcopal Church |
| 1887 | Florida A&M University | State Legislature |
| 1891 | Delaware State College | State Legislature |
| 1891 | North Carolina A&T University | State Legislature |
| 1895 | Fort Valley State College | Citizens' Group |
| 1897 | Langston University | Territorial Legislature |
| 1909 | Tennessee State University | State Legislature |