Washington, District of Columbia · Founded 1867 · Bison
“The Mecca — the private HBCU in D.C. that birthed five of the Divine Nine, home of the Showtime Marching Band and the Yard.”
Classic Showtime 5th-quarter footage: the band playing 'Skin I'm In' against Morgan State — the fifth-quarter band-battle tradition at its rawest
Showtime entertaining the homecoming crowd on the Yard after a 21-20 Bison win over Morgan State, October 20, 2012
WUSA9 coverage of Showtime marching the presidential inaugural parade through D.C. — the band's national-stage moment
Howard's announcement that Showtime would escort its alumna Kamala Harris at the 59th presidential inauguration, January 20, 2021
2025 Sony Music collaboration with Pentatonix's Kevin Olusola — Showtime and the Concert Chorale under Director of Bands Chancellor Mills, directed by Jami Ramberan
The full October 25, 2025 homecoming halftime show vs Morgan State — the modern Showtime in peak form
From the Yard's video feed.
From the Yard's video feed.
From the Yard's video feed.
From the Yard's video feed.
From the Yard's video feed.
Class of 1986 — 49th Vice President of the United States; first woman, first African-American, and first Asian-American vice president.
1933, School of Law — first African-American justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Class of 2000 — actor, Black Panther; the College of Fine Arts now bears his name.
Class of 1953 — Nobel Prize for Literature; Pulitzer Prize winner.
Anthropologist and author, a defining voice of the Harlem Renaissance.
Class of 1995 — Academy Award-nominated actress.
Class of 1970 — actress; first African-American actress to win the Tony for Best Leading Actress in a Play.
Class of 1971 — dancer, actress, and producer/director of A Different World.
Class of 1950 — first African-American mayor of New York City (1990–1993).
Class of 1973 — longtime U.S. congressman from Maryland.
Class of 1941 — first African-American elected to the United States Senate.
Class of 1945 — U.S. Cabinet secretary (Health, Education and Welfare; Housing and Urban Development) and ambassador.
Class of 1964 — activist who coined 'Black Power'; chairman of SNCC.
Class of 1941 — civil rights activist, founder and first leader of CORE.
Singer whose voice defined a generation of soul.
Singer and songwriter, one of soul music's great voices.
Founder and executive of TV One and Radio One.
Attended Howard University — the school he famously calls ‘the Mecca’ in his writing — and left after five years to pursue journalism; author of The Beautiful Struggle (2008) and Between the World and Me (2015), the letter to his son that won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction and a MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant, plus the Atlantic’s landmark 2014 cover story ‘The Case for Reparations.’ His Howard classmate Prince Carmen Jones Jr., shot and killed by a police officer, is the book’s closing figure — Coates dedicated the National Book Award to him.
In November 1866, Dr. Charles B. Boynton proposed a theological school for freedmen at a meeting of the Missionary Society of the First Congregational Church in Washington. Ten men of socially concerned groups met on November 20, 1866 to plan it. At first it was called the 'Howard Theological Seminary,' soon changed to 'The Howard Normal and Theological Institute for the Education of Teachers and Preachers.' The first trustees imagined training colored preachers and teachers who would uplift four million recently emancipated slaves.
On January 8, 1867 the board voted to change the name to Howard University, honoring General Oliver Otis Howard, the Freedmen's Bureau commissioner who pushed Congress for the school's funding (Howard himself voted against the honor — the lone dissent). President Andrew Johnson signed the incorporation act on March 2, 1867. Classes opened May 1 in a rented frame building — a former German dance hall and saloon on Georgia Avenue — and the first student body was five young white women, daughters of trustees Robinson and Nichols, because admission standards were initially too high for the average Black applicant.
Oliver Otis Howard served as the university's third president from April 5, 1869 to December 25, 1874 — the Civil War hero and Freedmen's Bureau commissioner the school was named for, leading the institution he had willed into existence. He was quoted saying that in 1865–1867, opposition mobs across the South burned school buildings and churches used as schools, flogged or murdered teachers — the climate his university was built to defy. He remains the only person to be both the school's namesake and its president.
On January 15, 1908, Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded on Howard's campus — the first of five Divine Nine organizations born at Howard. Over the next twelve years they were joined by Omega Psi Phi (Nov 17, 1911), Delta Sigma Theta (Jan 13, 1913), Phi Beta Sigma (Jan 9, 1914), and Zeta Phi Beta (Jan 16, 1920), making Howard the birthplace of more Black Greek-letter organizations than any school on earth. The National Pan-Hellenic Council itself would be founded on Howard's campus on May 10, 1930.
The first sitting president to speak at Howard was Calvin Coolidge, who addressed the graduating class in 1924. His speech, 'The Progress of a People,' highlighted the accomplishments of African-Americans since the Civil War. Coolidge closed with a line the school still quotes: 'We can not go out from this place and occasion without refreshment of faith and renewal of confidence that in every exigency our Negro fellow citizens will render the best and fullest measure of service whereof they are capable.' It set a precedent — Howard's commencement stage would host presidents again and again.
Dr. Mordecai Wyatt Johnson began his tenure June 30, 1926 — the first African-American to lead Howard, a preacher who would serve 34 years, still the longest presidency in school history. He expanded enrollment and curriculum, anchoring Howard's identity as the center of Black higher education and civil-rights thought. His era included the founding of the Howard University Gallery of Art in 1928 and the school's survival through Depression-era budget cuts that fell below Hoover administration levels despite Eleanor Roosevelt's appeals.
On May 10, 1930, the National Pan-Hellenic Council was founded on Howard's campus — the coalition of Black fraternities and sororities later coined 'the Divine Nine.' Five of the nine were born at Howard itself, more than any other school on earth. The trees on the Yard are still painted with the orgs' letters; students still stake plots there. In 2022 the university had to investigate vandalism of the sacred plots — a measure of how seriously the Yard takes its Greek ground.
Beginning in 1942, Howard students pioneered the 'stool-sitting' technique — occupying stools at a local cafeteria that denied service to African Americans, blocking other customers waiting for service. By January 1943 they had organized regular sit-ins and pickets at cigar stores and cafeterias around Washington that refused to serve them because of their race. The protests continued until the fall of 1944. The tactic would play a prominent role in the later Civil Rights Movement — Howard students were rehearsing the sit-in years before the 1960s movement made it famous.
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered a commencement address to the graduating class, using Howard's stage to outline his plans for civil rights legislation. He endorsed aggressive affirmative action to combat the effects of years of segregation of Black Americans from the nation's economic opportunities. At the time, the voting rights bill was still pending in the House of Representatives. Howard's commencement had become a platform where presidents announced the nation's direction.
In 1975, the historic Freedman's Hospital closed after 112 years as the Howard University College of Medicine's primary teaching hospital — and Howard University Hospital opened the same year on the eastern end of campus, on the site of the old Griffith Stadium. That same year, Jeanne Sinkford became the first female dean of any American dental school when she was appointed dean of Howard's school of dentistry. A hospital closed and a barrier fell in the same twelve months.
John E. Newson joined as associate director of bands in 1986, when the band was known as the 'Soul Steppers.' After a 1988 trip to California, he rebranded it 'Showtime' — the name that became nationally famous. He became Sr. Director of University Bands in 1993 and held the post until his retirement after the 2018–19 school year.
In 1989, Howard gained national attention when students rose up against the appointment of Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater to the university's board of trustees. Student activists disrupted Howard's 122nd-anniversary celebrations and occupied the administration building. Within days, both Atwater and President James E. Cheek resigned — the protest ended a 20-year presidency and announced a new era of student power on the Yard.
The Showtime Marching Band performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade — one of a string of national appearances that also included the 1990 Shrewsbury Music Festival in London, Bermuda Day festivities, and NFL halftime shows for the Eagles, Jets, Bills, Steelers, and Ravens. Those national stages — Macy's, London, NFL halftimes — cemented the Showtime name far beyond D.C. Under John Newson, the band became a fixture of the American halftime landscape.
On January 20, 2009, the Showtime Marching Band marched in the 56th Presidential Inaugural Parade honoring Barack Obama — one of some 93 organizations chosen from across the country, with nearly 9,000 participants parading down Pennsylvania Avenue from the U.S. Capitol to the White House. Director John Newson called the performance one of the biggest highlights of his career, and the band rehearsed in the D.C. cold every day from the moment they returned from winter break. For the marching band of the Mecca, performing blocks from its own campus at the inauguration of the first Black president, it was a once-in-a-lifetime honor — the biggest stage on a resume that already included Macy’s, London, and NFL halftimes.
In 2018, a Medium post revealed that six university employees had been fired for 'double dipping' financial aid and tuition remission — 131 individuals were involved, the top 50 recipients accounting for 90% of the total, and the five most reimbursed individuals receiving $689,375 in refunds. Nearly 1,000 students held a nine-day sit-in demanding accountability; faculty voted no confidence in the president, COO, provost, and board. University officials promised to meet most of the students' demands. The scandal drew a Department of Education investigation that placed Howard on heightened cash monitoring, rescinded in December 2019.
Howard alumna Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice President on January 20, 2021. The Showtime drum line, dancers (Ooh La La) and Flashy Flags performed in the virtual inaugural parade — a small contingent, no wind instruments, because of the pandemic. The band had been rehearsing the music since Thanksgiving break in case she won.
In May 2021, the university announced that its newly re-established College of Fine Arts — led by Dean Phylicia Rashad, herself a Howard alumna — would be named the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. Boseman, class of 2000, had as a student led protests against the 1997 absorption of the College of Fine Arts into the College of Arts & Sciences. The naming came a year after his death from cancer in 2020. The college he fought to save now carries his name.
In October 2021, students protested mold, mice, and substandard conditions in campus residential buildings in the Blackburn Takeover, demanding better living conditions and representation on the board of trustees. In 2023, Howard issued a $300 million tax-exempt bond to tackle the housing woes, as part of the $785 million investment to renovate and construct academic centers. The protest is why Howard's building boom started with housing as well as classrooms.
Howard announced the largest construction investment in its history: $785 million for three new academic halls — a Health Sciences Complex (Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing), a Center for Arts and Communications (housing the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts and Cathy Hughes School of Communications), and a STEM Center — plus renovation of the historic Myrtilla Miner Building for the School of Education. The first new academic buildings on campus since 1984, driven by enrollment jumping from 9,399 in 2019 to 12,065 in 2021.
Under head coach Kenny Blakeney, Howard won 22 games and swept the MEAC regular season and tournament championships — the program's first MEAC title-game appearance in 21 years, its first NCAA Tournament trip since 1992, and its first outright regular-season crown since 1987. Blakeney won the 2023 Coach John McLendon Award as the nation's top collegiate head coach. Howard added MEAC tournament titles again in 2025 and 2026.
In 2022, head coach Larry Scott’s Bison went 4-1 in MEAC play to earn a share of the conference crown alongside North Carolina Central — which had beaten Howard 50-21 head-to-head and took the Celebration Bowl berth. Stung by the offseason talk that 2022 was only a ‘half ring,’ Howard came back in 2023 and finished the job outright: a 50-20 payback rout of NCCU at Greene Stadium, then a 14-7 win over rival Morgan State on November 18, 2023 to seal the outright MEAC championship — the program’s first winning season (6-5) since 2017. The title earned Howard’s first-ever invitation to the Cricket Celebration Bowl, where the Bison faced SWAC champion Florida A&M at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on December 16, 2023, broadcast nationally on ABC. Quarterback Quinton Williams, a starter since his true freshman year in 2019, led the back-to-back title run.
The 16th-seeded Bison beat UMBC 86-83 in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio — the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament win — advancing to face No. 1 seed Michigan. That January, Ted White was named head football coach at a January 14 press conference with President Frederick and VP of Athletics Kery Davis.
One of the oldest rivalries in HBCU football, dating to 1908, built on a century-long debate over which school is the 'Real HU' — two private Mid-Atlantic institutions with Black Ivy League reputations that spent a century in the same conferences. Hampton leads the all-time series 55–44–1 across 100 meetings: the Pirates once won 14 straight (1997–2010), a streak Barack Obama joked about at Hampton's 2010 commencement ('the last time Howard beat Hampton, The Fugees were still together'), while the Bison's best run was 12 straight (1969–1980), capped by a 51–0 rout in 1973. The game moved to Audi Field in D.C. in 2021 as the Truth and Service Classic — Hampton won the debut while Vice President Kamala Harris, Howard class of 1986, watched from the stands — and has since been rebranded the Battle of the Real HU; Howard took the September 20, 2025 meeting 34–7 before 18,672 fans.
Howard and Morehouse first met in 1923 — a 10–0 Howard win — and have played 37 times, with Howard leading 25–10–2; the two schools were both founded in 1867 and have been tied together ever since, with Howard's first Black presidents Mordecai Johnson and James Nabrit Jr. both Morehouse men. The series was revived as the AT&T Nation's Football Classic at RFK Stadium from 2011–2014, which Howard swept (35–17 in the 2014 finale), and later headlined the HBCU New York Football Classic. The rivalry returns to campus for Howard's 2026 homecoming on October 17 at Greene Stadium — a fitting stage, since head coach Ted White engineered a 27–19 homecoming win over Morehouse at RFK on October 28, 1995.
On the field and in the fifth quarter, Morgan State is Howard's other measuring stick: Showtime's postgame band battles with Morgan's Magnificent Marching Machine are a Howard tradition, and the band's 'Skin I'm In' performance against Morgan is classic fifth-quarter footage. The October 20, 2012 homecoming win over Morgan State, 21–20, is preserved as one of the great Showtime performances on the Yard — the full band letting loose after a one-point win.
🥁 Showtime Marching Band
Showtime is a 150-plus member outfit in red, white, and navy — high-step marching, precision drills, the Ooh La La! dance line, the Flashy Flags, and the Dazzlin' Diamonds twirlers. One of its women players went on to become a drum major — among Howard's first female drum majors. Rivalries with Hampton's The Force, NCAT's Blue and Gold, and Morgan State's Magnificent Marching Machine. Every home crowd expects a brand-new show weekly: 'We can't repeat a show here at home, we would probably get booed,' Newson joked in 2010.
Associate director 1986–1992, Sr. Director of University Bands 1993–2019. Inherited the 'Soul Steppers,' renamed them 'Showtime' after a 1988 California trip. Took the band to Macy's 1990, London's Shrewsbury festival, and NFL halftimes; an old-school 25-year run per annarbor.com
Associate director 1995–2019, director 2019–2022. Led Showtime through the Kamala Harris inauguration (2021); conductor of the Wind Symphony; has done three presidential inauguration parades
Southern University alum; Howard assistant band director for two years, then named Director of Bands. Louisiana and Atlanta high-school builder (Lutcher, Banneker, Langston Hughes HS); featured with Kevin Olusola in the 2025 'Hallelujah at Howard University' Sony Music collaboration
No school has a deeper claim on Black Greek life: five of the Divine Nine were literally born at Howard — AKA (1908), Omega (1911), Delta (1913), Sigma (1914), Zeta (1920) — and the National Pan-Hellenic Council itself was founded on Howard's campus on May 10, 1930. The Yard's trees are painted with the letters, and in 2022 the university had to investigate vandalism of the sacred fraternity and sorority plots — a sign of how seriously they take them.
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Largest construction investment in school history: three new academic halls (Health Sciences Complex; Center for Arts and Communications for the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts and Cathy Hughes School of Communications; STEM Center) plus renovation of the historic Myrtilla Miner Building (one of the first high schools for Black women) to house the School of Education and HU Middle School. First new academic buildings since 1984, slated for completion by 2026.
Howard issued a $300 million tax-exempt bond to tackle student housing conditions — part of the $785 million investment — after the 2021 Blackburn Takeover protests over mold, mice, and substandard residential buildings. The bond funds renovations and new construction aimed at the housing backlog.
Howard moved to convert two functionally obsolete 1949 dorms — Carver Hall (men's, named for George Washington Carver) and Slowe Hall (women's, named for Lucy Diggs Slowe), built to house single Black civilians working WWII-adjacent jobs — into 166 studio-to-two-bedroom apartments via 99-year ground leases, part of the master plan's shift toward upperclass apartment-style residences.
78,000-GSF historic adaptive reuse of the landmark Myrtilla Miner Building for the School of Education and the Howard University Middle School of Mathematics & Science. Groundbreaking was February 1, 2023; renovation was substantially complete with a grand reopening in Q4 2024, preserving a landmark of Black teacher training while creating a 'living laboratory' linking PK-to-Ph.D. educator and STEM pipelines.
New student-focused campus epicenter at 2301 Georgia Ave NW with development partner Greystar: a mixed-use 'fusion' hub with about 280 beds, a dining hall, a wellness center, and ground-floor retail on Georgia Avenue. Preliminary rezoning was approved December 2024, with selective tenant vacation and demolition in progress.
Construction started summer 2025 with delivery slated for fall 2026: a ~183,200-GSF overhaul with owner-rep AECOM, builder Gilbane, and architects Perkins & Will. Physics gets a full-gut renovation, Chemistry a major modernization and equipment renewal, and Biology a cosmetic refresh with selective systems upgrades.
Renovation and repurposing of Building 40 (current home of Howard's Middle School of Mathematics and Science, which moves into the Miner Building), scheduled Q3–Q4 2025 to Q3–Q4 2026. New programming: Office of Undergraduate Studies staff on the third level, Career Services on the second, classroom space serving as interim swing space for the College of Fine Arts, and student advising on the lower level.
Charles Drew Hall will get a new sprinkler system, ADA-compliant bathrooms, a renovated lobby, and a clubroom with a gaming area and podcast recording studio. The kitchen becomes a catering space for campus events, plus a banquet space for formal gatherings and new study and conference rooms.
Howard Plaza Towers East and West get targeted updates: a 'social laundry' area adding 40 new washer and dryer units to expand capacity and cut wait times, plus refreshed computer labs to better serve students' academic needs.
Cook Hall's shared spaces get modernized: a renovated lobby and main common areas, an upgraded clubroom, new furniture, fixtures, and equipment throughout, and a refreshed computer lab.
The Harriet Tubman Quadrangle gets refreshed academic and meeting spaces: an updated computer lab and new conference room furnishings to support individual study and group work.
Fine Arts lives under the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts (named for the actor and Howard alumnus); the band program runs through its Office of Choirs and Bands.
Howard faculty since 1996; former dean of the College of Pharmacy; holds a PhD in pharmacy practice and administration from the University of Maryland
At Howard since 2015 as AD, elevated to the newly created VP role in 2025 (historic first). Oversaw 33 national/conference/regular-season titles, the Jordan Brand 20-year deal (2021, Howard the only HBCU and non-Power 5 school so sponsored in football and basketball), and the Steph Curry-funded golf programs
MEAC tournament titles 2023, 2025, 2026; three NCAA appearances (program's first ever); 2023 John McLendon Award; former Duke guard under Mike Krzyzewski
Named January 14, 2026 at a press conference with President Frederick and VP Kery Davis
Howard's campus sits in the Shaw/LeDroit Park corridor of D.C., and the school's official news site calls it 'The Mecca' without explanation — everyone just knows. Fall is Showtime season: the band is open to all Howard students by audition only and builds a brand-new halftime show every week. Homecoming draws alumni from everywhere, and the Yard is the gravitational center.