Holmes, another former slave who became pastor of First African Baptist Church. The support of Black ministers and community leaders proved to be crucial to the success of the school – of particular importance were Holmes; the Reverend Richard Wells of Ebenezer Baptist Church; and Pastor George Jackson from Halifax County, Virginia. After some initial misgivings and awkward moments the African-American Community of Richmond would adopt the fledgling institution as its own. Dr. Colver scheduled basic classes in Grammar, Arithmetic, Geography and Spelling/Reading as well as Biblical Knowledge during a six-hour day from 1867-68.

But Dr. Colver was over seventy, and in poor health and in 1868 handed over his burden as school principal to Dr. Charles Henry Corey, a former chaplain in the Union Army. In 1869 the ABHMS Board honored the departed headmaster by naming the School Colver Institute. Dr. Corey proved to be a dynamic leader and directed the school for 31 years, becoming revered by his students and earning the respect of the Richmond Community. In 1870, he succeeded in making the move from the rented facilities at Lumpkin’s Jail, which still held painful memories for many of the students, and purchased the former United States Hotel building at 19^th & Main Street for $10,000. In 1876, the school was incorporated by the Virginia General Assembly under the name Richmond Institute, Dr. Corey taking charge officially as president, with the support of a Board of Trustees which included Holmes and Wells. The Institute was the first in the South to employ African-American teaching assistants and faculty and in 1876 was offering curricula which were preparatory (elementary), academic (pre-college) and theological. Enrollment grew steadily and among its earliest students Richmond Institute numbered it first foreign graduate, Samuel M. Harden of Lagos, Nigeria (1879) and its first female graduate, Maria E. Anderson (1882). An Alumni Association under the leadership of Charles J. Daniel (class of 1878) was organized in 1879.

*Pickford Hall: which was named after former trustee board member C. J. Pickford and which served as the original classroom building. Later the basement would contain the “Old Pie Shop”, the first student “hangout” on campus. Pickford Hall currently houses the Presidential executive offices, the Campus Police, and the Sydney Lewis School of Business.

*Kingsley Hall: named for Chester Kingsley, past president of the ABHMS, and the original dormitory. It is now the site of the Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology.

*Coburn Hall: named after Maine governor Abner Coburn, it held the original chapel and the Library collection. Many legendary pastors, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Benjamin Mays; Dr. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr.; Dr. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.  and Dr. Ralph Abernathy, have preached at Coburn Chapel; and internationally-renowned scholars like Dr. W.E.B. Dubois have delivered lectures there. It burned in 1970 and, now restored, houses the Dr. Allix B. James Chapel.

*Martin E. Gray: named after a church deacon from Willoughby, Ohio who donated $25,000 towards its construction. It was the original dining hall and, though also damaged by fire in 1993, has been totally repaired and houses the School of Teacher Education & Interdisciplinary studies and the Division of the Social Sciences.

*Baptist Memorial Hall: which was originally the residence of Dean George Rice Hovey; and the subsequent residence of four University presidents. It is now the location of Sponsored Programs and Upward Bound.

*The “Power Plant”: which is currently unoccupied but which once was the Industrial Training School during the University’s early years. In the early days, the University generated its own power, had its own water supplies, and kept cows, horses, pigs and chickens at a nearby barn.

The first University president was Dr. Malcolm MacVicar, born in Argyleshire, Scotland in 1828. Known as “that man of iron and steel”, Dr. MacVicar waged a lifelong struggle against prejudice and ignorance. A slightly built, grandfatherly figure, the President was instrumental in securing the construction of a bridge spanning the Seaboard Railway and connecting the University campus with that of Hartshorn College. He passed away at his residence on Commencement morning, May 17, 1904.

His successor was Dr. George Rice Hovey from Massachusetts who had served as University Dean. A former athlete himself, Dr. Hovey laid the foundations for VUU’s Athletic Program. He purchased, for $8,483.55, an 11-acre tract of land on the opposite side of Lombardy Street from the main campus. Part of this was transformed into the main athletic field, later to be dubbed “Hovey Park” and “Hovey Stadium”. In 1909, VUU formed a basketball squad and in 1912 the University became a charter member of CIAA. On November 27, 1913, a new dormitory facility was dedicated and named Huntley Hall, for Trustee Board member Dr. Byron Huntley, who had designated $10,000 in his will towards its construction. The King Gate was dedicated during the following year’s Commencement exercises. Dr. Hovey resigned in 1918 and Dr. William John Clark from Albion, Nebraska was selected by the Board as the third president of Virginia Union University.

Among Dr. Clark’s accomplishments was the establishment of a School of Education; a Law School (1922-31); a Norfolk branch (later to become Norfolk State University); accreditation by the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges; and the merger of Hartshorn Memorial College in 1932. Hartshorn thus became the third institution in the “Union”; and the University became “co-ed”. Another dormitory, Hartshorn Memorial Hall, preserves the name and memory of VUU’s “sister” institution, which was the first African-American women’s college ever established, and which conferred the first bachelor’s degrees at an African-American women’s college. Among its most notable students were the heroic missionary to the Congo, Eva Roberta Coles Boone; the distinguished educator and Dean of Women at VUU, Leah Virginia Lewis; and the political activist Bessye Banks Bearden.

President Clark’s retirement was followed by the history-making election of Dr. John Malcus Ellison as VUU’s fourth chief executive. Dr. Ellison was the first University Alumnus and the first African-American to become president. Born in Northumberland County, Virginia on February 2, 1889, Ellison completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Virginia Union in 1917; attained his Master’s from Oberlin School of Theology in 1927; and was awarded a Doctorate in Christian Education and Sociology at Drew University in 1933. After serving as first campus pastor and professor of Sociology and Ethics at Virginia State College, he accepted a position on the Virginia Union faculty in 1936. Dr. Ellison’s most visible achievement was the successful prosecution of the Belgian Building project. The building itself was part of the Belgian Exhibition at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. When the Nazi invasion of Belgium made the dismantling and shipping of the building (which was architecturally in the avant-garde and included masterpieces of sculptural relief) back to Belgium impossible, Dr. Ellison campaigned unceasingly to raise funds for its relocation to the Union campus and oversaw the complex negotiations and operations that led to the installing of VUU’s best-known landmarks: the Belgian Friendship Building and the Vann Tower. The building itself was converted to house a gymnasium, Natural Sciences classrooms and laboratories; and the University Library (which was named the William John Clark Library and which remained there until 1997). The gym was officially designated as: Barco-Stevens Hall, in honor of Dr. John W. Barco, a graduate of the class of 1902 and VUU Vice-president from 1929-47; and Professor Wesley A. Stevens, teacher of mathematics and basketball/track coach. The Vann Tower was named in honor of a distinguished former VUU student, Robert L. Vann, a successful attorney who founded the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper.

 Under Dr. Ellison’s leadership VUU launched its graduate school of Theology in 1942; and in 1953 White Hall was built, originally to provide training to women for work in the missions field and/or religious education. Named for Blanche Sydnor White, executive secretary to the Women’s Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention, it now houses the Music Department. A new stadium was constructed at Hovey Field.

Dr. Ellison retired from the presidency in 1955 and was followed by Dr. Samuel Dewitt Proctor (VUU class of 1942), who had already served as Dean of the School of Theology and University Vice-President. The charismatic Proctor had to endure serious medical problems with family members and intimidation from white racists (including the Ku Klux Klan’s burning of a cross on the campus), as civil rights/desegregation unrest grew during the late 1950’s. However, Union prospered during his five years at the helm and added an additional women’s dormitory, Ora Johnson Newman Hall (named after a distinguished alumna & Richmond Public School educator).

In 1960, Virginia Union students and faculty marched to downtown Richmond department store lunch-counters in support of the Greensboro, North Carolina sit-ins to desegregate such facilities.

Upon Dr. Proctor’s resignation to assume the presidency of North Carolina A & T, the Board of Trustees tapped the University Dean, Dr. Thomas Howard Henderson, a 1929 VUU graduate, to fill the position. In 1964, Storer College of Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, which had been founded in 1867 by the Free Will Baptists, merged its assets with Virginia Union (the fourth component of the “Union”). Dr. Henderson’s administration coincided with the years of the civil rights movement and VUU students, faculty and alumni played a proactive role: Wyatt Tee Walker; Walter Fauntroy and Charles Sherrod being only the most conspicuous examples. An incredibly ambitious building program resulted in the construction of four major structures: John Malcus Ellison Hall, which is currently the major classroom building; the Thomas H. Henderson Center, which now contains the post office, bookstore, Office of Student Affairs and Cafeteria; Storer Hall, a men’s dormitory; and MacVicar Hall, a women’s dormitory. These buildings were of course named, respectively, after:  VUU’s fourth president; it’s sixth president; Storer College (which in turn had been named after John Storer, a prosperous merchant from Maine supporter of the Union during the Civil War who donated part of his fortune to the education of Freedmen); and the first president. 

Dr. James retired in 1979 and Dr. Dorothy Norris Cowling served as Acting President until the Board of Trustees selected Dr. David Thomas Shannon as the ninth VUU President. During Dr. Shannon’s term of office building of the British American Tobacco Corporation at the southwest corner of Leigh & Lombardy Streets was signed over to the University. It was named the C.D. King Building in honor of the recently- deceased Clarence D. King, a successful New York businessman, and Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. C.D. King houses the Business and Human Resources offices.

Dr. Shannon resigned to take up an administrative post at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, and Mrs. Carolyn Daughtry directed University affairs as Provost before the Board selected Dr. S. Dallas Simmons as VUU’s ninth president. Dr. Simmons served from 1985-99 and was instrumental in bringing the Police Academy and initiating a Criminal Justice Program on campus. Coburn Hall and Martin E. Gray Hall, which had both been gutted by fire, were restored and the

School of Theology was at last moved into Kingsley Hall. The Admiral Building, which was originally rented by the University to maintain the Teacher Preparation program while Martin E. Gray was being restored, was purchased by VUU to house the Athletics Department. However, the most spectacular project involved the construction (1996-7) of a new library facility: the L. Douglas Wilder Library and Learning Center, which honors the Honorable L. Douglas Wilder, a 1951 alumnus and Board member who served as Virginia’s first African-American governor (in fact, as the first African-American governor in the history of the nation).

In 1999, the Board named Dr. Bernard Wayne Franklin, president of St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina as Dr. Simmons’ successor. Upon Dr. Franklin's resignation in 2003 to take position with the NCAA, the Board named Dr. Belinda Anderson as Interim President.

Since the time of Wells, who was one of the first graduates of the institution while it was housed at Lumpkin’s Jail, Virginia Union alumni have distinguished themselves in fields of endeavor as diverse as: the Christian ministry; social activism; politics & government; journalism; sports & entertainment; education; the sciences and the military. So many individuals contributed so much in so many different ways; the space allows only a sampling. 

Eugene Kinckle Jones (’06): was a founder of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity; First Secretary of the National Urban League; and, along with such individuals as Dr. Mary MacLeod Bethune and A. Philip Randolph, a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unofficial “Black Cabinet” of advisors. 

Dr. Benjamin Mays, who attended for one year but did not finish at VUU, became President at Morehouse College, where he was the mentor and role model for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  

Henry L. Marsh, III, (’56) lawyer, served on Richmond City Council, became the first African-American mayor of Richmond in 1979, and was later elected to the Virginia State Senate.

Benjamin Lambert, III, (’59) became an optometrist and was elected to the Virginia Senate.

Dr. Jean Louise Harris (’51) went on to become the first African-American to graduate from the Medical College of Virginia; Virginia Secretary of Human Resources from 1978-82; and Mayor of Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Dr. Spottswood Robinson, III (’37) was a major participant in the legal battles against segregation and racial bias and became Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Dr. Lucille Brown (’50) enjoyed a successful career as teacher and administrator in the Richmond Public Schools system and served as Richmond City Schools Superintendent.

John Merchant (’55) broke ground as the first African-American graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, and has gone onto practice law in Connecticut.

Curtis W. Harris (’55), pastor of Union Baptist Church in Hopewell, Virginia, was president of the Virginia Unit of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and first African-American mayor in history (of Hopewell).

*The most distinguished political/public service career to date has of course been that of the Honorable Lawrence Douglas Wilder (’51), attorney, State Senator, Lieutenant Governor, and Governor of Virginia from 1990-94. 

Osborne Allen Payne (’50) has prospered as the owner of Broadway-Payne, a MacDonald’s franchise business, and founded Associated Black Charities of Baltimore, Maryland.

Dr. Howard S. Jones, Jr. (’43) has been one of the most prolific African-American inventors in the history of the United States, holding rights to no less than 31 patents. A specialist in the fields of Microwave Research and Electromagnetics, Dr. Jones held positions at the Department of the Army and the National Bureau of Standards.

Samuel Gravely (’48), president of the VUU International Alumni Association, capped a distinguished career of service in the US Navy by becoming the first African-American Admiral (holding the ranks of Rear & Vice Admiral) in the nation’s history.

Mary L. DePillars (’74) joined NationsBank and rose to become Senior Vice-President. 

Dr. Yvonne Maddox (’65) was named Deputy Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in 1995; and five years later, Acting Deputy Director for the National Institute of Health.

Dr. Frank Royal (’61) served as president of the National Medical association and is currently Chair of the VUU Board of Trustees.

Athletics, Authorship and Activism

Since joining the CIAA as a charter member the University and its coaches & players have constantly been in the forefront of athletic achievement. The coaches have gone down as legends in their own time:  Henry Hucles; Thomas “Tricky Tom” Harris; Dave Robbins; Willard Bailey. Some alumni athletes have gone on to distinguished careers in the professional leagues or in coaching. Among these there are currently three NBA stars: Charles Oakley; Terry Davis; and Ben Wallace (named defensive player of the year for 2002). Two of the greatest high school coaches in Richmond were alumni and spent their careers as archrivals: Fred “Cannonball” Cooper at Maggie Walker High School and Max Robinson, Sr. at Armstrong High School. Max Robinson, Sr.’s sons, also VUU graduates, went on to illustrious careers: Max Robinson, Jr. became the first African-American news anchorman for a major television network. Randall Robinson became a political and social activist, founding Trans-Africa, Inc., and authoring the best-selling books: The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks; Defending the Spirit; and The Reckoning: What Blacks Owe to Each Other.

Roslyn McCallister Brock (’87) went on to make an impact as Program associate for Health and Communications at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation; Director of Business & Community Developments for Bon Secours Richmond Health Systems; and Vice Chair of the National NAACP.

Cherekka Montgomery (’95) is Director of Global Outreach and Senior Policy Analyst with the Feminist Majority Foundation, and the co-author of The African-American Education Data Book, Volume III: The Transition from School to College & School to Work.

Bessye Banks Bearden (1888-1943) who attended Hartshorn Memorial College for two years before graduating from Virginia State became a noted journalist with the Chicago Defender and one of New York City’s most effective social activists and community Leaders. Along with her close friend, Mary McLeod Bethune, she was one of the primary women involved in the switchover of most of the African-American political support from the Republican to the Democratic Party during the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Leontine T. C. Kelly (’60) became the first woman of any major denomination to be consecrated as a bishop (of the United Methodist Church of San Francisco in 1984).

From the earliest years of the Twentieth Century, Greek societies have been a significant element in campus life at VUU. In point of fact, the oldest African-American Greek organization, the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity had been partially founded by VUU graduate, Eugene Kinckle Jones in 1906. On December 30, 1907, Jones himself initiated the fraternity’s Gamma Chapter on the campus of his Alma Mater.

Other such organizations have of course followed, and have established themselves as an integral part of the scene at Virginia Union; each preserves its own bit of “territory” on the campus grounds. Zeta Chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity was set up at VUU on October 28, 1919; Lambda Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity on May 9, 1921; and the first sorority chapter on campus was the Nu Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta on May 1, 1926. Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority – nationally the oldest of the Black Women’s Greek societies – made its appearance at the University on April 7, 1928 when the Alpha Eta Chapter was inaugurated. The Alpha Gamma Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity was chartered on April9, 1927; the Tau Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority on January 29,1930; and the Beta Epsilon Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority on December 4, 1937.

Chief Executive Officers at VUU Since 1899