Lincoln University to Celebrate 160 Years at 2026 Founders’ Day

Lincoln University celebrates 160 years at the 2026 Founders’ Day with keynote Valerie Daniels-Carter ’78, honored by Essence as one of the “50 Most Inspiring” African Americans.

Lincoln University of Missouri, one of the nation’s oldest HBCUs, is preparing to celebrate 160 years of higher education rooted in its founding mission to uplift, educate and expand opportunity. Restaurant entrepreneur and Lincoln alumna Valerie Daniels-Carter of V&J Holdings will headline the January morning convocation as keynote speaker. Featuring such brands as Auntie Anne’s, Burger King, Captain D’s, Cinnabon, Pizza Hut and others, V&J is the largest female-owned restaurant franchise organization — and one of the largest restaurant franchise companies — in the United States.

V&J president and CEO, Daniels-Carter started her business with one Burger King restaurant in Milwaukee in 1982; her brother John W. Daniels Jr. was her only investor. Over the next 16 years, Daniels-Carter built a restaurant empire, growing V&J from one restaurant in Milwaukee to 132 locations in eight states with more than 4,500 employees. V&J Holdings is now a multibrand, multistate enterprise that also operates real estate and corporate venture businesses.

Daniels-Carter is also a minority owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and a board member of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers. Essence magazine calls her one of “the 50 Most Inspiring” African Americans in the United States.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration at Lincoln in 1978. She also holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University and several honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees, including one from Lincoln University, bestowed in 2016. Daniels-Carter has authored four books on business strategies and entrepreneurship.

Founders’ Day celebrates Lincoln’s 160 years of education service. Established in January 1866 with contributions from Civil War veterans of the 62nd and 65th United States Colored Infantries, Lincoln Institute opened in Jefferson City on Sept. 17, 1866, with two students. In 1887, Lincoln added college-level classes to the curriculum. Under the second Morrill Act of 1890, the school became a land-grant institution. A name change in 1921 to Lincoln University accompanied the school’s expansion to a four-year institution; graduate studies were added in 1940. In 1954, the historically Black university opened its doors to white students and today serves a diverse student population of nearly 2,300 with an array of academic offerings.

Free and open to the public, Daniels-Carter’s Founders’ Day address will take place on Thursday, Jan. 15, at 11 a.m. in the Robert and Charlene Mitchell Auditorium at Richardson Fine Arts Center, 710 E. Dunklin St., Jefferson City, Missouri.