Horace Mann Bond, who earned his degree from Lincoln University at just 18 years old, became the first Black president at his alma mater, the nation’s first degree-granting HBCU (historically black colleges and universities), nearly a century after its founding, writes Avi Wolfman-Arent for Billy Penn.

Bond was appointed president at Lincoln in 1945, and his research on Black education in America was critical to Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court case that determined that racial segregation at schools was unconstitutional.

Bond also had a close relationship with Albert Barnes, the wealthy doctor from Lower Merion who amassed a world-class art collection. When Barnes died, Lincoln was willed control of the Barnes Foundation.

Bond’s civil-rights legacy lived on through his late son, Julian Bond, who co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center and served as chairman of the NAACP from 1998 to 2010.

Read more about Horace Mann Bond at Billy Penn.