In the years after the Civil War, there were millions of newly-freed Black children and adults who emerged from slavery worn, but eager and determined to get something they never had--a chance to learn how to read the Bible, write their names and words on a page, and be educated. Even before the Civil War, some Blacks in the North were pressing their way forward into church-basements-turned-schools and rough-hewn wood frame rooms established just for them mostly by benevolent White Christians. In 1837, the largess of a Quaker philanthropist established Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, which began as the African Institute, a school for Black children. But years later, religious leaders, local churches, missionaries, and denominations were descending across the South in the 19th century, believing that it was worth it to spend their time and money and do the right thing when they decided to establish seminaries, classrooms, colleges, and even medical schools for Blacks. Led by their "consciences and hearts," the Board of Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church declared they would act to rescue and educate Blacks. They did not wait for Southern states to decide whether they were going to "make some provision for the education of the colored children now growing up in utter ignorance in their midst." With the support of the Freedman's Aid Society, the United Methodist Church (UMC) responded by establishing 70 schools in the South and Southeast for Blacks between 1866 and 1882. Eleven of them remain. Today, Bennett College for women, Bethune-Cookman University, Claflin University, Clark Atlanta University, Dillard University, Huston-Tillotson University, Meharry Medical College, Paine College, Philander Smith College, Rust College, and Wiley College are affiliated with the UMC.