Charles McMicken

Charles McMicken, born 1782, was the founding donor of the University of Cincinnati. He was also an enslaver. McMicken lived for much of his life in Louisiana where slaves ran his household and where he transacted property sales in both land and human beings. McMicken is known to have fathered at least two children with a woman he held in slavery and to have supported sending Black Americans to Africa through the American Colonization Society. His dying wish was to use the monetary value of his estate to establish “two colleges for the education of white boys and girls.” In appreciation of McMicken’s 1858 bequest, UC named McMicken Hall after him and later attached his name to the College of Arts and Sciences. This is McMicken Hall, which houses the offices of the College of Arts and Sciences. Though the building still retains McMicken’s name, the college dropped the preceding “McMicken” in 2019 to distance itself from McMicken’s legacy of racism.