Wilberforce University is a private historically black university in Wilberforce, Ohio. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), it was the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans. Central State University, also in Wilberforce, Ohio, began as a department of Wilberforce University. The college was founded in 1856 to provide classical education and teacher training for black youth. It was named for the English statesman William Wilberforce, who achieved the end of the slave trade in the British Empire.