“Colored school on Back River Road”

The Hampton History Museum has “Several plats depicting the “colored” public school (Butler Farm School) and nearby property off of Back River Road and Old Butler Farm Road.” The five plat maps in the Girard Chambers, Jr. Collection are watermarked in the online display.

Norfolk’s Journal and Guide reported the 1937 cornerstone-laying ceremony was attended by members of the community, school officials, and staff. It noted that the school’s first principal was a Civil War veteran. “Back River School is Dedicated,” Journal and Guide, 27 November 1937, p. A13

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“Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va., 1899 – Students in Ancient History class studying Egypt”

“Immediately following the Civil War the venerable town of Hampton on the northern shore of Hampton Roads harbor became a gathering place for many freed slaves. With this large concentration of Negroes under the protection of the Union Army, it was almost natural that. an institution for the teaching and training of freed slaves be established here. It was through the urging of Samuel Chapman Armstrong, a twenty-seven year old Brevet Brigadier General, then chief of the local Freedmen’s Bureau, that the local American Missionary Association purchased the 165-acre farm where the Federal Government had maintained a hospital during the war. It was Armstrong’s idea to create on this land a school to train young selected men and women “who should go out and teach and lead their people, first by example … and in this way then build up an industrial system for the sake, not only of self-support and intelligent labor but also for the sake of character. The school opened in 1868 with two teachers, fifteen pupils and General Armstrong as principal. In 1870 the school was chartered as the Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute.”
National Register of Historic Places – Nomination Form – Hampton Institute – Hampton, Virginia 

Today more than 4,000 students attend Hampton University  They come from 43 states and 28 countries. The university offers degrees in the School of Business,  School of Engineering and Technology, School of Liberal Arts and Education, School of Nursing, School of Pharmacy, and School of Journalism. The school motto is “The Standard of Excellence, An Education for Life.”

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