A Street Named for Joseph Carter Corbin: Founder of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff By Dr. Gladys Turner Finney

Second Avenue in Pine Bluff was renamed Joseph C. Corbin by a Resolution by the City Council as part of Professor Joseph Carter Corbin Day celebrating the sesquicentennial founding of UAPB. At the Unveiling Ceremony, September 26, 2023 (1:00 P.M.), at the original site of the college, Second Avenue and Oak Street, the speakers were Dr. Gladys Turner Finney, Caleb Williams, representative of UAPB Student Government, and Senator Stephanie Flowers. Professor Joseph Carter Corbin opened Branch Normal College, the predecessor of UAPB on September 27, 1875 in a rented house at present day Second and Oak Street with seven students, age 9 to 15, none of whom could read beyond the third grade reader. Throughout his twenty-seven year tenure at the college, he maintained a preparatory school along with the collegiate. Professor Corbin changed the course of history in education in Arkansas for African-Americans. He produced the first African-Americans with Bachelor of Arts degrees in the state. He was a leader at both the collegiate and secondary level. He magnified Pine Bluff as a center of learning for African-Americans.