The Path to Founding an HBCU

Born into slavery, William Hooper Councill founded one of the nation's first HBCUs, Alabama A&M University.

Negotiating the racial politics of Reconstruction and the dawn of Jim Crow was dangerous work. Councill was a peer of Booker T. Washington's and is remembered for his accommodating stance toward whites.

His complicated story helps us understand the times he lived in and the legacy of HBCUs.

From The Washington Post: Her grandfather was a born a slave. Almost 200 years later, she visited the HBCU he built