At the time, public policy and certain statutory provisions prohibited the education of blacks in various parts of the nation and slavery was entrenched across the south.

The second site of the Institute for Colored Youth at Ninth and Bainbridge Streets in Philadelphia was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Born on a plantation in the West Indies, Humphreys came to Philadelphia in 1764, where he became concerned about the struggles of free African Americans to make a living.

News of the Cincinnati riots of 1829 prompted Humphreys to write his will, in which he charged thirteen fellow Quakers to design an institution "to instruct the descendants of the African Race in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanic Arts, trades and Agriculture, in order to prepare and fit and qualify them to act as teachers...." Using the money Humphreys bequeathed, the Quakers formed an organization in 1837.

She converted the boarding school to one for only African American girls, but was jailed for her efforts and a Black Law was passed in the state.

[8] At the same time the all-white board eliminated the collegial program, fired all the teachers (including Edward Bouchet) and replaced them with instructors who followed Booker T. Washington's doctrine of industrial education.