Edward Waters University: Florida's Oldest HBCU
Near Jacksonville, Florida
Edward Waters University is the first independent institution of higher education in Florida, and the state's first historically Black college. It was founded in eighteen sixty-six by members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, just one year after the Civil War ended, initially called Brown Theological Institute to serve the children of newly freed people. The name was changed in eighteen ninety-two to honor Edward Waters, a bishop in the AME Church.
The school survived the Great Jacksonville Fire of nineteen oh one, which destroyed the campus entirely, and began rebuilding on new land by nineteen oh four. The institution has since become a university. For over a hundred and fifty years it has stood in Jacksonville as a center of Black education, resilience, and community.
