The main campus of Howard University, a private school, is located at 2400 Sixth Street, NW. In the 2009-2010 school year, the institution had a fall enrollment of 10,491 students. With a main campus located at 4200 Connecticut Avenue, NW, the University of the District of Columbia is a public university that had a total enrollment of 5,683 students during the spring of 2010.
Congress enacted the Howard University charter, which was approved on March 2, 1867, by President Andrew Johnson. Much of the university's early funding came from the Freedmen's Bureau, a U.S. bureau established following the Civil War to aid former slaves in their transition into lives of freedom. Howard's first black president, Dr. Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, took office in 1926, and helped guide Howard's then-unaccredited eight schools and colleges into becoming 10 fully-accredited schools and colleges by the time of his retirement.
The University of the District of Columbia had its beginnings in the consolidation of two separate schools, one black and one white, as a result of desegregation. Established in 1851, Myrtilla Miner's school for black girls became Miner Normal School in 1879. Established in 1873, Washington Normal School, for white girls, became Wilson Normal School in 1913. After both became teachers colleges in 1929, together they became the District of Columbia Teachers College in 1955. With the District of Columbia Teachers College consolidating with two other schools, Federal City College and the Washington Technical Institute, the University of the District of Columbia was formed in 1975.
The University of the District of Columbia offers both associates degrees and undergraduate programs within a College of Arts and Sciences, School of Business and Public Administration, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Graduate programs are also offered within the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Business and Public Administration.
Howard University offers the following colleges/schools: Arts and Sciences; Business; Communications; Dentistry; Divinity; Education; Engineering, Architecture & Computer Sciences; Law; Medicine; Pharmacy, Nursing & Allied Health Sciences; Social Work; and a graduate school.