North Carolina A&T State University

History

North Carolina A&T was established by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1891 as the Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race, one of seventeen Black land-grant colleges created under the Second Morrill Act of 1890. Its founding was an acknowledgment — however inadequate — that North Carolina's Black residents deserved access to the federally supported programs in agriculture and mechanical arts available to white students through the predominantly white land-grant institution.

The institution grew steadily through the early twentieth century, developing programs in engineering, agriculture, education, and business. Its engineering programs have been particularly distinguished: NC A&T has consistently been recognized as the leading producer of Black engineers with bachelor's degrees in the United States. Its engineering alumni have shaped American aerospace, technology, and manufacturing industries.

The events of February 1, 1960, are among the most significant in American civil rights history. Four NC A&T freshmen — Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond — sat down at the segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro and refused to leave when denied service. The next day, twenty-three students joined them. Within a week, the sit-ins had spread to other cities. Within two months, the movement had reached dozens of cities across the South. The four students' act of deliberate, disciplined nonviolent resistance catalyzed the direct-action phase of the civil rights movement.

NC A&T's growth in the twenty-first century has been remarkable. In fall 2025 its enrollment reached 15,275, making it the first HBCU in American history to enroll more than 15,000 students in a single semester. In fall 2026 enrollment rose to an estimated 15,700, anchored by a record first-year class of 3,214 students entering with an approximate 3.7 grade-point average, extending the university’s uninterrupted enrollment growth to thirteen consecutive years and its standing as the nation’s largest HBCU. First-year retention reached 81.2 percent, the Hairston College of Health and Human Sciences became the first A&T college to exceed 3,000 students, and Forbes again ranked NC A&T the nation’s No. 1 public HBCU. Under Chancellor James R. Martin II, its research expenditures have grown substantially; the university holds R2 (high research activity) doctoral status and in the 2025 Carnegie Classifications narrowly missed R1, falling three doctoral degrees short of the revised threshold.

February 1, 1960: The Greensboro Sit-Ins

On February 1, 1960, Ezell Blair Jr. (later Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond — four NC A&T freshmen — sat at the segregated lunch counter at the Woolworth's store in downtown Greensboro and asked to be served. They were refused. They stayed until closing time. They came back the next day with twenty-three more students. The movement they launched spread to 55 cities in 13 states within two months. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded in April 1960 in direct response to the sit-in movement. The lunch counter has been preserved at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The four students were eighteen and nineteen years old.

Notable Alumni

A representative selection. Alumni records are verified against institutional and published sources. Unverified entries are flagged explicitly — we do not fabricate records.

Source notes: William H. Chafe, Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom (1980); NC A&T institutional archives; Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Greensboro lunch counter documentation; NASA biographical records, Ronald McNair.