North Carolina A & T State University

the Second Morrill Act. Aimed mainly at the Confederate states, the Second Morrill Act of 1890 required that each state show that race was not an admissions criterion, or else to designate a separate land-grant institution for persons of color. In order to comply with the Second Morrill Act and yet prevent the admission of African Americans to the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, now known as North Carolina State University, the college's board of trustees were empowered to make temporary arrangements for students of color.
On March 9, 1891, the Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race was established by an Act of the North Carolina General Assembly as an annex of the private Shaw University in Raleigh. The Act read in part: "That the leading objective of the college shall be to teach practical agriculture and the mechanic arts and such learning as related thereto, not excluding academic and classical instruction." The college, which started with four teachers and 37 students, …