March 3, 1865

The War Department organized the Freedmen’s Bureau, just before the Civil War ended. Throughout its six-year existence, the bureau sold confiscated properties and raised money to help the freed slaves gain access to the rights that they were denied during slavery. Among these was the right to be educated. Philander Smith College in Little Rock (Pulaski County) was the first historically black four-year college in Arkansas and the first historically black college to be accredited by a regional accrediting institution. It remains the largest private historically black college in Arkansas.