Coppin State, Cheyney University and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)

Point of Curiosity: What's Coppin State's context in Black History?

I just finished reading The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates.  In it was this mention of Coppin State and I wanted to understand the broader context.

We were one of six gifted classes on the Thurgood Marshall Team. I don't know how gifted any of us were - more likely we had parents in the race, mothers who worked for the city, got their degrees from Coppin State. They'd gone far enough to know what was out there and what they'd missed in the manner of their coming up. These are the parents the intellectuals erase in their treatises on black pathology. But I saw them in effect at Lemmel, that and teachers always with an eye for children who were two seconds faster and seemed to be bound for something more than the corner or Jessup.

Coppin State University (CSU) is in Baltimore, MD. It was founded in 1900 to train African-Americans for teaching in elementary schools. Over the course of the 20th century, it evolved from a one year program taught at a local high school to today where it offers 53 majors and nine graduate programs including Teaching and Special Education. One of its interesting projects is the reform and management of local Rosemont Elementary School starting in 1998. In 1997, the school was put on the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE)'s watch list as below acceptable standards. With guidance from CSU, it was removed from that watch list in 2003.

As I read about Coppin State, I hit on an interesting wonderlust tangent: Coppin State is one of 107 historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in the United States. Most were created after the Civil War and prior to the civil rights changes that came in the 1960s. Two were created for black education prior to the Civil War, and the founding of Cheyney University in particular caught my eye.

Emlen Hall Reading Room, ca. 1900s (src)

In 1837, Cheyney University was founded in Pennsylvania by a Quaker philanthropist named Richard Humphreys. He bequeathed $10,000 - one-tenth of his estate - to the endeavour, after the race riots of 1829. I would love to have learned about Humphreys in my American history classes in public high school, and about the men and women who first got their education at this institution. Humphreys, to me, is a patriot. My favourite patriots are the ones who saw problems unique to the United States and pro-actively enacted solutions at a grassroots level.

Per the history on Cheyney University's web site:

Born on a plantation in the West Indies, Richard Humphreys came to Philadelphia in 1764. Having witnessed the struggles of African Americans competing unsuccessfully for jobs due to the influx of immigrants, he became interested in their plight. In 1829, race riots heightened and it was that year Richard Humphreys wrote his will and charged thirteen fellow Quakers to design an institution: "...to instruct the descendents of the African Race in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanic Arts, trades and Agriculture, in order to prepare and fit and qualify them to act as teachers...."

I'm frustrated at the difficulty I'm having in finding more information about Humphreys and the Cheyney foundation that isn't just parroting the sparse Wikipedia article. A few to follow up on:
The Crisis Aug 1940 "CHEYNEY: Quaker Heritage"
Sing to me David by Thomas McCavour, which mentions that the education was provided free to qualified students.

Follow-up questions:

• Are there any biographies by early students of Coppin State or Cheyney University?
• Who are some of the interesting alumni of Coppin State and Cheyney University?
• Is there a book on Richard Humphreys or any of the 13 board members designated to design what would become Cheyney University?