Clark Atlanta University (CAU) is a private, historically black university in Atlanta, Georgia. It was formed in 1988 with the consolidation of Clark College and Atlanta University (AU). Clark Atlanta University is a member of the United Negro College Fund. The university’s main campus houses 37 buildings on 126 acres and is about 1.5 miles from the center of downtown Atlanta, Georgia.
Clark Atlanta University was formed by the consolidation of AU, which offered only graduate degrees, and Clark College, a four-year undergraduate institution oriented to the liberal arts. Before consolidation, Atlanta University, which was founded in 1865 by the American Missionary Association, was the nation’s oldest graduate institution serving a mostly African-American student body. Clark College was founded in 1869 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, which later became the United Methodist Church. It was named after Davis Wasgatt Clark, who was an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
