Founded on December 1, 1865, Shaw University is the oldest HBCU to begin offering courses in the Southern United States.

[5] The main campus resides on 24 acres in the East Raleigh-South Park Historic District in downtown Raleigh.

Shaw Hall was built with a 165-foot frontage, four stories high and possessing a tower, was the most commodious school building in all of North Carolina at that time.

The course was offered on the premise that such a skill would broaden the opportunities for a black lawyer to work in a legal firm in a clerical position or as an office assistant should discrimination impede their ability to practice law.

[20] North Carolina politician John S. Leary was an important figure in the founding of the law school and served as its dean[21] starting in March 1890.

[22] He was followed as dean by Edward A. Johnson, who was the law school's first graduate[23] and later the first African-American member of the New York State Assembly.

[25] At first, the station used an antenna on top of a building on the downtown campus, but in the late 1990s a new tower was built in southeast Raleigh near Interstate 40.

The university sold the station to Educational Media Foundation effective July 26, 2018, who subsequently renamed it WRKV.

[26] The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was one of the organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

It emerged from a student meeting organized by Ella Baker that was held at Shaw University in April 1960.

The university also began construction on the Center for Early Childhood Education, Research and Development.

[28] The RIMI Program is designed to establish a research capacity-building infrastructure program, with benchmarks for training students, and developing a cadre of clinical, biomedical and behavioral research scientists who possess the skills, knowledge and abilities to engage in leading, cutting-edge and innovative research and training that will ultimately contribute to reducing and eliminating health disparities in the United States.

As a result of the storm, two dormitories, the student union, and the roof of Estey hall were severely damaged.

Shaw University led a research study to investigate why not a single African-American soldier who served in World War II had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The 272-page study recommended ten soldiers whose military records suggested they deserved the Medal of Honor.

In April 1996, officials at the Defense Department agreed that seven of the ten soldiers recommended in the report, should be awarded the Medal of Honor.

Edward A. Carter Jr. of Los Angeles, California; 1st Lt. John R. Fox of Boston, Massachusetts; Pfc.

[32] Shaw University consists of 32 buildings and nine additional campuses across the state of North Carolina.

As of July 2011, Durham County Stadium will remain the home of the Shaw University Bears football team until construction plans towards building a new facility on Shaw Farm (a 40-acre lot donated to the university under James Cheek's administration on Rock Quarry Rd.

Other resources available on or adjacent to the campus are McDonald's, The Willie E. Gary Student Center which houses the Bear's Den (Game Room and Grill), and the Cyber Cafe'.

[10] The first building of higher education for African American women in the country was built and still resides on the campus of Shaw.

[11] Shaw is the alma mater of one United Nations General Assembly President, three founders of other North Carolina HBCUs, and numerous entertainers, lawyers, politicians, and educators.Shaw University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Council on Social Work Education, and the American Psychological Association.

Shaw has historical, symbolic, and ongoing affiliations with the American Baptist Churches, USA.

Shaw University's quiz bowl team competed in the national Honda Campus All-Star Challenge tournament in 2015.

Shaw University's Basketball team participates in the CIAA annual Basketball Tournament, which is the third most attended athletic event in collegiate sports after the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big East tournaments [citation needed].

Also in 2011 both men's and women's teams won the CIAA Tournament making Shaw the last school since Norfolk State in 1975 to win the big three championships in the same year.

The Shaw University Lady Bears have won the CIAA Tournament four years in a row twice (2003–2006) (2011–2014).