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Lincoln University (California)

university in Oakland, California

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ6551169
Source-derived summary

Lincoln University is a private university in Oakland, California, United States. It enrolls more than 500 students in undergraduate- and graduate-level programs in business administration as well as an English-language program, certificate programs, and bachelor of science programs.

History

Named to honor President Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln University was founded in 1919 and chartered under the laws of California in 1926. The first university officers were Benjamin Franklin Lickey, president, and Edward J. Silver, vice president and educational director. Lickey with his wife Susan had in 1919 founded a law study program in San Francisco for veterans returning after the First World War and other working adults, which offered evening classes to part-time students, while he was working as the western representative of the Law Department of the La Salle Extension University of Chicago which offered degrees through correspondence courses. The program developed into a tutorial center with a broader curriculum. One of its early slogans was "The Shortcut to Success"; it offered "reasonable terms" and a "money-back guarantee".

By 1927 Lincoln University was operating on the Arcade Floor of the Phelan Building on Market Street in San Francisco with Colleges of Law and Commerce and a Department of Special Courses and Coaching, offering both day and evening classes as a co-educational institution.

An advertisement of that year showed Lincoln University offering college courses in law, commerce, foreign trade, and business administration and special courses and coaching in bar examination preparation, advertising, journalism, and public speaking. It also maintained a junior college and high school program, which operated a preparatory school and special preparation for College Board examinations.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Lincoln University (California)” as university in Oakland, California. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lincoln, University and California.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1919, 1926, 1927—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1926-01-01, 1919—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Lincoln, University and California providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Lincoln University (California)”, the useful work is to connect “university in Oakland, California” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6551169. Authority coordinates are 37.805, -122.270. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 1926 and 1927.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lincoln University (California)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lincoln University (California) primary sources, Lincoln University (California) archive and Lincoln research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lincoln University (California)”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Lincoln University (California)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.