Originally named the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua for the Colored Race, NCCU was founded by Dr. James E. Shepard, a pharmacist and religious educator. The institution was chartered in 1909 and opened its doors to students in 1910. In the following years, the school’s name became the National Training School in 1915, Durham State Normal School in 1923, North Carolina College for Negroes in 1925 (when it became the nation’s first state-supported liberal arts college for African-American students), North Carolina College at Durham in 1947, and finally North Carolina Central University in 1969. NCCU has been a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina System since 1972.