Question: What name did Biddle University later change to?
Answer: Founded in 1867 as Biddle Memorial Institute in Charlotte by the Presbyterian Church to educate freed slaves, the school, named after Union Major Henry J. Biddle, was renamed Biddle University by 1923. That year, a $720,000 donation from Jane Berry Hall, the widow of philanthropist Johnson C. Smith, funded rebuilding the university after a fire, prompting the trustees to rename it Johnson C. Smith University in his honor.
