Howard University

With a hall of fame that includes former mayors and Supreme Court justices, Howard University has a legacy to brag about. It was chartered in 1867 as a theological seminary to train black ministers to teach slaves emancipated by the Civil War. By 1940, half of African-Americans in college studied here, including much of the leadership that planned the legal assault on Jim Crow segregation. Howard holds some of the best collections on African history and art in the country at the Howard University Museum on the first floor of the Founders Library.