Atlanta University is the first all-black American graduate school. The University began as an undergraduate institution for post-baccalaureate studies in 1929, with John Hope as the president, from 1929 until the time of his death in 1936.

Actually, the history of Atlanta University began in classes established immediately after the end of the Civil War, for the children of slaves whose humanity had been acknowledged by the winning of that terrible war. These classes said, in effect, that there had been a purpose to all the war's suffering, that the situation of the children of the slaves was not hopeless, that they would be led to the highest expression of their humanity. These first classes were held in a church and in a railroad boxcar, which was to be the "future Atlanta University".

Today, the catalogue of Atlanta University lists five schools with various programs for candidates for the Master's Degree: Arts and Sciences, Social Work, Business Administration, Education, and Library Service.

The Atlanta University Center is comprised of Morehouse College, an Undergraduate School for Men; Spelman College, an Undergraduate School for women; and Atlanta University, a Co-educational Graduate School, which was founded in 1929. In later years, three other Black Colleges were established in Atlanta: Clark, Morris Brown, and a Theological Seminary joined the complex, making it the largest educational center for African-Americans in the world.