Claflin University. Office of the President

Founded as Claflin University on Dec. 18, 1869 in Orangeburg, S.C. by the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church; est. largely through the generosity of Boston philanthropist, the Hon. Lee Claflin and his son, Massachusetts Governor William Claflin; occupies the former site of the Orangeburg Female Seminary; in 1871 merged with Baker Biblical Institute, founded in 1866 in Charleston, S.C., and recently moved to Orangeburg, and with a training school in Camden, S.C.; from 1872 to 1896 Claflin was affiliated with the South Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanics Institute For Colored Students (later to become South Carolina State University) which began as a department of Claflin University, organized by the State of South Carolina to educate its Negro citizens in order to receive federal funds for education; name changed to Claflin College in 1979 and back to Claflin University in 1999.