; Whereas notable figures of the civil rights era attended and graduated from Alabama State University, including the Reverend Ralph David Abernathy, attorney Fred Gray and the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth; Whereas in the case of Barber-Scotia College, Scotia Seminary was founded in Concord, North Carolina, by the Reverend Luke Dorland in 1867 and chartered in 1870 to educate newly freed female slaves; Whereas Scotia Seminary was the first historically Black female institution of higher education established in the United States; Whereas Scotia Seminary was renamed as Scotia Women’s College in 1916, and merged with Barber Memorial College in 1930 to become Barber-Scotia Junior College for women; Whereas Barber-Scotia became a 4-year women’s college in 1946 and a coeducational institution in 1954; Whereas one of the distinguished graduates of Barber-Scotia College was Mary McCleod Bethune, the founder of Bethune-Cookman College; Whereas in the case of Fayetteville State University, on November 29, 1867, 7 African-American men formed the Howard School by paying $136 for 2 lots on Gillespie Street in Fayetteville, North Carolina; Whereas the Howard School would be formally renamed Fayetteville State University in 1969; Whereas Fayetteville State University holds the distinction of being the second oldest public school in North Carolina; Whereas in the case of Howard University, the institution was chartered by Congress on March 2, 1867, in Washington, DC; Whereas Howard University stands today as the most comprehensive historically Black college and university in the Nation in terms of undergraduate and graduate programs of study; Whereas Howard University has produced numerous Rhodes scholars, Truman scholars, Fulbright scholars, Picking Fellows, and a Marshall scholar throughout its history; Whereas Howard University has graduated some of the most accomplished African Americans in history—including, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, author Toni Morrison, and United States Ambassador Andrew Young