Lincoln University formally began its 160th year of serving students from Missouri and around the world during its annual Founders Day Convocation on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Mitchell Auditorium.
In 1866, enlisted men and officers of the 62nd and 65th United States Colored Infantry regiments founded the institution “to ensure the right to education for freed Black Americans.”
Keynote speaker Valerie Daniels-Carter, Lincoln University Class of 1978, asked students in attendance, “How will you honor what they sacrificed?”
“You honor it by learning. You honor it by leading. You honor it by serving. You honor it by daring to imagine a future as bold as those who imagined it in 1866.”
Daniels-Carter is president and CEO of V&J Holding Companies, the nation’s largest woman-owned restaurant franchise organization. She is also a minority owner of the Milwaukee Bucks and a board member of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers.
She called her decision to attend Lincoln “one of the most important choices of her life,” and told students to embrace the belief that “vision has no boundaries.”
“It’s about being a 2026 Blue Tiger who looks forward with the same boldness that defined our beginning,” she said.
The university also recognized the Cooper family of East St. Louis, Illinois, as the 2026 Family of the Year. The family’s multigenerational legacy includes six graduates and two current student leaders.