Under a Pennsylvania state charter, the first institute of higher learning for African-Americans in the United States was incorporated. It opened its doors to students in rural eastern Pennsylvania on January 1, 1857 and was called the Ashmun Institute after American Colonization Society pioneer Jehudi Ashmun. John Pym Carter served as its first president. On April 4, 1866, the Ashmun Institute was renamed Lincoln University. (By John Osborne)