Wilberforce University

the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church). The school was established as a coeducation school of higher education for African-American students with its original name stylized as Wilberforce University. The use of the word university in the title was debated during the process of the school's founding, but ultimately it was decided that it should be used as an important aspirational gesture for what the founders hoped the school would become. They called this act a "pledge of victorious faith".
WU was named after the British abolitionist and statesman William Wilberforce; a name suggested by Uriah Heath at MEC's Cincinnati Conference which was officially adopted on August 26, 1856. Prior to this, the working title of the school during its development period was Ohio African University; a name adopted on May 22, 1856 that was permanently abandoned after the vote in August 1856. The MEC purchased 52 acres of land for $15,000 in what was then known as Tawawa Springs for the purposes of establishing the …