etermine his limitations. Besides, such
opportunity was necessary for the training of leaders and must not be
denied. Howard University was a child of this movement and the
greatest embodiment of this idea.

The situation out of which this institution evolved requires some
comment. The abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and
later throughout the South resulted in a large influx of freedmen into
the National Capital until they formed one third of its population,
thus constituting the largest urban group of Negroes in the world. The
educational problem presented by this group was quickly realized by
various freedmen's aid organizations and philanthropic individuals
with the result that day and night schools were immediately
established for persons of all ages, providing instruction in the
elementary studies.[210] In the opinion of many the situation had
been fully met by the establishment of these elementary schools. The
task had been difficult and attended with much opposition and even
open violence. The problem of the future was the maintenance and
extension of such schools at their present grade. Others, on the other
hand, considering the task only half done, believed that their duty
would be fully discharged only when an institution of higher learning
had been established at the capital of the nation, where Negro youth
could be trained for positions of leadership.

"Such an Institution," said one of the founders of Howard University,
"was demanded by the necessities of the great educational movement
which was inaugurated among the freed people at the close of the late
war. When primary, secondary and grammar schools were being opened
throughout the South, for the benefit of a class hitherto wholly
deprived of educational advantages, it became evident that
institutions of a higher grade were needed for the training of the
teachers and ministers who were to labor in this field. It was with a
view of supplying this need that Howard University was founded."[211]
On November 17, 1866, at the Columbia Law Building opposite Judiciary
Square in Washington, was uttered the first word from which the idea
of Howard University evolved. Using this building as a temporary house
of worship, members of the First Congregational Church[212] were on
that date holding a meeting on missions with Dr. C. B. Boynton, the
pastor of the church. After remarks by several persons concerning
various phases of the duty of the country