[CrimsonTide4]

Spelman College

http://www.spelman.edu/

History Excerpt comes from http://www.spelman.edu/academics/cat...CollegeHistory

Spelman, one of the nation's most highly regarded colleges for women, was founded by Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles, two friends who were commissioned in 1879 by the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society to study the living conditions among the freedmen of the South. Appalled by the lack of educational opportunity for Black women, the missionaries returned to Boston determined to effect change. On April 11, 1881, they opened a school in the basement of Atlanta's Friendship Baptist Church with $100 provided by the congregation of the First Baptist Church of Medford, Massachusetts. The first eleven pupils, ten women and one girl, were mostly ex-slaves, determined to learn to read the Bible and write.

Totally dedicated, Misses Packard and Giles returned to the North in 1882 for more funds. At a church meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, they were introduced to Mr. John D. Rockefeller who emptied his wallet during the collection and questioned the two women's intentions:

"You know," he said, "there are so many who come here and get us to give money. Then they're gone, and we don't know where they are Ñ where their work is. Do you mean to stick? If you do, you'll hear from me again."

Determined to succeed, the women took an option on an Atlanta site that had been used as barracks and drill grounds for federal troops during the Civil War. Sustained by their faith, Misses Packard and Giles worked diligently to gain additional financial support. Subsequently, title of the property was transferred to the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, and in February 1883, the school relocated to its new nine-acre site, which included five frame buildings with both classroom and residence hall space. In an effort to liquidate the debt, more than $4,000 was raised by the Black community, $3,000 by the Negro Baptists of Georgia, and another $1,300 from individual contributions. Other important gifts and contributions kept operating costs at a minimum. Teachers volunteered their services, and gifts of furnishings, supplies, and clothing were sent from the North. As enrollment steadily increased, the normal school curriculum was expanded to include sewing, cooking, millinery, and other preeminently practical subjects.

In April 1884 on the third anniversary of the founding of the school, Mr. John D. Rockefeller was indeed heard from again. Visiting the school with Mrs. Rockefeller, her sister and her mother, and Mrs. Lucy Henry Spelman, Mr. Rockefeller was enormously impressed with the seminary and settled the debt on the property. Later, the name of the school was changed to Spelman Seminary in honor of the Spelman family, longtime activists in the Anti-Slavery Movement.

In addition to stabilizing a tenuous financial situation, the Rockefeller gift established an interest and recognition that otherwise might have taken years to achieve. Financial support from new sources helped to broaden the school's involvement in community, social, and church work. The Slater Fund, already underwriting the cost of teaching new trade subjects, provided the money to set up a printing department. The Spelman Messenger (1884), the first major publication, became an important instrument for disseminating practical information, especially for families in rural areas.

As the mushrooming enrollment taxed the school's modest facilities, Mr. Rockefeller responded by donating funds for a magnificent $40,000 brick building, the first major construction on the Spelman campus. In 1887, Rockefeller Hall, named for its donor, was succeeded by another major building, Packard Hall. Completed in 1888, the building was dedicated to the work, vision, and self-sacrifice of Sophia Packard, who worked assiduously to acquire a state charter for the school. In 1888 the charter was granted, and the Board of Trustees officially expressed its gratitude by appointing Miss Packard as Spelman's first president.

During the first 10 years, the school flourished with 800 pupils, 30 teachers, and property valued at $90,000. Harriet E. Giles succeeded Sophia Packard and served as president of Spelman for the next 18 years, a period marked by maturation and progress. The Seminary conferred its first college degrees in 1901. A year later, the Seminary celebrated its 25th anniversary as an institution that had filled a spectrum of needs for thousands of Black women Ñ from grade school through college. Miss Giles' death on November 12, 1909, marked the end of a remarkable era.

Lucy Hale Tapley was elected to the presidency in March 1910. Miss Tapley, who had worked with the founders for 20 years, proved a formidable leader for the times. The 17 years of her administration saw the school answer the challenges of a new century and gradually move away from the concept of an all-purpose academy. When the public sector began to provide educational opportunities for Black children, Spelman concentrated on higher level offerings as the Board of Trustees voted to discontinue the elementary school in 1927.

Spelman's brisk and positive president believed that training teachers constituted the most efficient use of the school's resources, and with the help of the Rockefellers, she acquired the facilities to strengthen the program offering elementary and secondary education, and home economics courses. On June 1, 1924, the name of the school was officially changed to Spelman College.

Within a 10-year period, four major buildings were erected. Sisters Chapel, named in honor of Laura Spelman Rockefeller and her sister Lucy Maria Spelman, was the crowning achievement of Miss Tapley's administration. The building, with a seating capacity of 1,050, still remains one of the largest in the Atlanta University Center. Miss Tapley resigned in June 1927 and was named President Emerita.

Florence Matilda Read, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, was elected president, effective September 1, 1927. As a condition of her acceptance, Miss Read requested that Spelman establish an endowment fund and use the interest to help defray the cost of operations. The trustees used her request to solicit funds that eventually totaled more than $3,000,000. By 1930 Spelman had become one of only six Black colleges to hold membership in the American Association of Colleges and by 1932 had received an "A" rating from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

One of the most significant events in the College's history was the signing of the Agreement of Affiliation between Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Atlanta University in April 1929. The agreement set up a university system in which Spelman and Morehouse served as undergraduate institutions and Atlanta University as the graduate school. Eventually, Morris Brown and Clark Colleges joined the affiliation in 1957, the Interdenominational Theological Center in 1959, and the Morehouse School of Medicine in 1983. The largest consortium of Black colleges was ultimately renamed the Atlanta University Center (AUC).

In 1929 the nearly unique system strengthened the schools by an interchange of facilities, faculties, students, and curricula. The addition of Atlanta University as the graduate school gave the undergraduate institutions immediate access to graduate facilities in an era when Blacks were still denied entrance to southern universities. Under the new system, Spelman's high school division was turned over to Atlanta University and thereafter operated as the Atlanta University Laboratory School.

A little more than a year after the Agreement of Affiliation had been signed, the General Education Board, a Rockefeller agency, donated the funds for a magnificent library for the collective use of members and prospective members of the new university system. Designed by James Gambrell Rogers (architect for Yale, Northwestern, Cornell, et al.) and strategically located on the Atlanta University campus between Spelman and Morehouse, the new structure was completed in 1932 and later was named for Trevor Arnett, chairman of Spelman's Board of Trustees and a distinguished administrator.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Spelman continued to strengthen its core curriculum, but there was a noticeable emphasis on the arts because exclusionary practices in the South denied Blacks cultural exposure. In most instances, Spelman gave its students their first real exposure to the fine arts, especially in music, art, drama, and dance.

World War II helped to alleviate some of the traditions of discrimination. As an integral part of the war effort, Spelman allowed the Army to use Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Building as Branch #7 of the Army Administration School. During its operation, nearly 1,500 soldiers were graduated from the school. Spelman graduates served in the WAC (Women's Army Corps) and the Army Nurses Corps as camp librarians and in the American Red Cross, government, and industry.

At the end of the war, after a thorough survey of the school, the prestigious American Association of Universities, an elite organization of graduate schools, placed Spelman on its approved list of colleges and universities, a recognition which was tantamount to giving qualified Spelman women access to the best graduate schools in America. By the end of 1947, only seven Black schools had met the association's requirements, and three of the schools were in Atlanta: Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Atlanta University.

On July 1, 1953, an enormously productive and distinguished career ended when Florence Read retired as president of Spelman. Named President Emerita, she was succeeded by Dr. Albert E. Manley, who had been dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at North Carolina College in Durham since 1946.

A graduate of Johnson C. Smith University, Dr. Manley earned his Ed.D. at Stanford University. He was the first Black and the first male to serve as president of Spelman College. From the first day of his administration, Dr. Manley demonstrated his belief that women were as capable of leadership as men and that for such leadership to be effective, it must be backed by knowledge. He emphasized the achievement of excellence in all aspects of life.

As opportunities for Black women increased, Spelman women were encouraged to enter the fields of medicine, law, international affairs, engineering, business, and industry. They were prepared and encouraged to enter the best graduate and professional schools in the country. Although the decade of the 1960s severely tested all institutions of higher learning and threatened the continuity and purposes of the predominantly Black colleges, Spelman's strong emergence from those challenges attests to the quality of its leadership and the fiber of the whole college community.

The Albert Manley administration created opportunities for students to travel and study abroad, encouraged leadership training, developed an effective student government association, and strengthened the tradition of excellence in the fine arts. A new fine arts building, named for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was built to house the departments of drama, music, and art. As the College continued to grow, three new dormitories were built and classroom buildings were renovated or updated to meet the demands of an expanding curriculum.

When Dr. Manley retired in 1976, Dr. Donald M. Stewart became the sixth president of the College. Dr. Stewart, with the A.B. degree from Grinnell, the A.M. degree from Yale, and the M.P.A. and D.P.A. from Harvard, brought new strengths and experiences to the Spelman presidency. He provided leadership as Spelman women were educated to face broader opportunities and more complex responsibilities.

During his tenure, Dr. Stewart continued Spelman's long tradition of academic excellence. By establishing a full-fledged chemistry department and by strengthening its General Education requirements, Spelman broadened its majors and added career oriented minors. A writing workshop was initiated to help students improve their thinking and writing skills. To further enhance the academic environment, the Comprehensive Writing Program, the Honors Program and the Women's Research and Resource Center were developed.

Notable alumnae
Marian Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children's Defense Fund

Keshia Knight Pulliam, Actress on The Cosby Show

Esther Rolle, Actress <member of Zeta Phi Beta>

Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist

Audrey F. Manley, president emerita of Spelman College and former Acting Surgeon General

Latanya Richardson, Actress on The Fighting Temptations

Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock

Pearl Cleage, novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and journalist

Tina McElroy Ansa, writer

Varnette Honeywood, creator of the Little Bill character

Kathleen McGee-Anderson, television producer and playwright
(Soul Food, Touched By An Angel, Any Day Now)

Rolonda Watts, journalist, actor, writer, talk show host

Danica Tisdale, Miss Georgia 2004 (first African-American to hold the title) <member of Alpha Kappa Alpha>

Marcelite J. Harris, first African-American woman general in the U.S. Air Force

GCer Alumnae:
Abaici
AKA_Monet
WenD08
Eclipse
Ms DJ80

More about Spelman here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelman_College



[color=royal blue]Bennett College[/color]
http://www.bennett.edu/

History taken from: http://www.bennett.edu/about/history.htm

In 1873, Bennett College had its beginning in the unplastered basement of the Warnersville Methodist Episcopal Church (now known as St. Matthew’s Methodist Church). Seventy young men and women started elementary and secondary level studies. In 1874 the Freedmen’s Aid Society took over the school which remained under its auspices for 50 years.

Within five years of 1873, a group of emancipated slaves purchased the present site for the school. College level courses and permanent facilities were added. In 1926, The Women’s Home Missionary Society joined with the Board of Education of the church to make Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C., formerly co-educational, a college for women. The challenges that were overcome to establish Bennett demand that today’s challenges be met and overcome to ensure her survival.

For more than 128 years women have found Bennett to be the ideal place to foster the constant rhythm of ideas. Each student’s individual need for self-expression and desire for achievement is constantly nurtured. The College fosters a strong respect for every student. Today, in the midst of a very active renaissance, Bennett is preparing contemporary women to be well educated, productive professionals, informed, participating citizens, and enlightened parents. The College offers twenty-four areas of study in Education, the Social Sciences, the Humanities, and in Natural and Behavioral Sciences and Mathematics. Numerous opportunities to study at other higher education institutions at home and abroad are available to continue the educational enrichment of Bennett’s students.

The goals of the College continue to focus on the intellectual, spiritual and cultural growth of young women who must be prepared for lifelong learning and leadership. Since 1930 more than 5,000 women have graduated from Bennett College. Known as Bennett Belles, they continue to be among contributing women of achievement in all walks of life.

From Wikipedia:
David Dallas Jones was appointed the first president of the women's college -- under his leadership, the high school campus at Bennett was closed to focus the attentions of the staff fully on expanding and enriching the college curriculum. After Jones's death, Willa B. Player assumed the presidency -- under her guidance, Bennett College became one of the first 15 four-year Negro colleges to be admitted to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

From Bennett's site:
Dr. Willa B. Player, Bennett's first woman president and the first African American woman president of a four year liberal arts college in the U.S.

Among Bennett's more distinguished alumnae are:

Dr. Glenora M. Putnam, the first African-American woman to serve as president of the national YWCA

Faye Robinson, an accomplished and internationally well-known opera singer

Dr. Hatie Carwell, a noted research scientist and expert in the study of radiation

Barbara Hamm, the first African-American woman to serve as a television news director in the United States

Patricia Brown, serving as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) as of 2004

GCer to become an alumna this spring: GRITS