[CrimsonTide4]

Wiley College in Marshall, Tx

http://www.wileyc.edu/

from Wikipedia:
Wiley College is the first and oldest historically black college west of the Mississippi River and is located on the west side of Marshall, Texas. The college was founded in 1873 by the Methodist Episcopal Church's Bishop Isaac Wiley and was certified in 1882 by the Freedmen's Aid Society. Melvin B. Tolson, a contemporary of the Harlem Renaissance, was an English professor at the college. James L. Farmer, Sr. was the first black Texan to hold a doctorate and also was a professor at Wiley.

Farmer's son, James L. Farmer Jr. was a graduate of Wiley and went on to become one of the "Big Three" of the Civil Rights Movement; organizing the first sit-ins and Freedom Rides in the United States. Wiley, along with Bishop College, was instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement in Texas. Wiley and Bishop students launched the first sit ins in Texas in the rotunda of the Old Harrison County Courthouse.

Wiley was the first college in East Texas to issue laptop computers to its students.

Notable Alumni
James L. Farmer, Jr. - Civil rights leader

Emmett Jay Scott - Civic leader

Heman Marion Sweatt - Plaintiff in famous U.S. Supreme Court
Case, Sweatt v. Painter; helped found Texas Southern University



Kentucky State University

From Kentucky State's website:
On October 22, 1887, dedicatory exercises were held in Frankfort, Kentucky for the State Normal School for Colored Persons, which had been sanctioned by the 1886 Kentucky General Assembly. The opening of the school and its successive evolution into Kentucky State University in 1972 is another saga that is largely untold. Its progress amid criticism from unfriendly quarters is not unusual for historically black institutions. However, it is unusual for such an institution to serve in a state that persistently lost its black population from 1900 forward.

It is also unusual for what was founded as a black institution to thrive and prosper despite repeated efforts to close it, thus depriving students of all races, whom Kentucky State University now serves, of an opportunity to acquire a college education based on academic excellence.

Excerpt from Onward and Upward: A Centennial History of Kentucky State University 1886-1986 by John A. Hardin.

The University: A History of Public Service

From its modest beginnings as a small normal school for the training of black teachers for the black schools of Kentucky, Kentucky State University has grown and evolved to become the state’s unique, small, liberal studies institution, serving students without regard to their race, age, sex, national origin, or economic status.

The University was chartered in May 1886 as the State Normal School for Colored Persons, only the second state-supported institution of higher learning in Kentucky. During the euphoria of Frankfort’s 1886 centennial celebration, when vivid recollections of the Civil War remained, the city’s 4,000 residents were keenly interested in having the new institution located in Frankfort. Toward that end, the city donated $1,500-a considerable amount in 1886 dollars-and a site on a scenic bluff overlooking the town. This united display of community enthusiasm and commitment won the day. The new college was located in Frankfort in spite of competition from several other cities.

Recitation Hall (now Jackson Hall), the college’s first building, was erected in 1887. The new school opened on October 11, 1887 with three teachers, 55 students, and John H. Jackson as president.

In 1890 the institution became a land grant college, and the departments of home economics, agriculture, and mechanics were added to the school’s curriculum. The school produced its first graduating class of five students in the spring of that year. A high school was organized in 1893. This expansion continued into the twentieth century in both name and program. In 1902, the name was changed to Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute for Colored Persons. The name was changed again in 1926 to Kentucky State Industrial College for Colored Persons. In the early 1930's the high school was discontinued, and in 1938 the school was named the Kentucky State College for Negroes. The term ''for Negroes'' was dropped in 1952. Kentucky State College became a university in 1972, and in 1973 the first graduate students enrolled in its School of Public Affairs.

Over the past 20 years more than 30 new structures or major building expansions have enhanced Kentucky State University’s 511-acre campus, which includes a 203-acre agricultural research farm.

Kentucky State University is the smallest of Kentucky’s public universities with an enrollment of approximately 2,300 students and 130 full-time instructional faculty members.

Kentucky State's Timeline

from Wikipedia:
The school was chartered in 1886 and opened in 1887 as the State Normal School for Colored Persons. In 1890, the state of Kentucky gave the school a land grant. In 1902, the name of the school was changed to the Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute for Colored Persons, which was changed again in 1926 to the Kentucky State Industrial College for Colored Persons. In 1938, the school became known as the Kentucky State College for Negroes (the "for Negroes" was dropped in 1952). The college became a full-fledged university in 1972. In 1973, Kentucky State offered its first graduate programs.

An adjoining high school was in operation from the late 1890s until the early 1930s.


Notable alumni
Ersa Hines Poston, first black person to head the United States Civil Service Commission

Moneta Sleet Jr., photographer for Ebony, won a Pulitzer Prize for his picture of Coretta Scott King at the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Honeykiss1974