Knoxville College’s past shows why its future matters

The aftermath of the Nov. 4 fire that destroyed Knoxville College’s 126-year-old Elnathan Hall has raised questions about the college’s future. The nearly 150-year history of this historically black college shows why what comes next is so important.

A decade after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, two representatives from the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America arrived in Knoxville, the Daily Press and Herald reported in 1875. Their goal was to create a “normal school,” a term for schools that trained teachers—in this case, training former slaves for careers as teachers. Tenders for the school construction works were opened the same year.

The founding of the school was part of a post-Civil War movement in which missionaries, often from the North, worked to create educational opportunities for freed slaves, which led to the establishment of some colleges and black universities, according to TennesseeEncyclopedia.net.

Centennial Hall was dedicated in 1876, the Knoxville Daily Tribune reported that year, at what was then called Knoxville Freedmen’s College.

The college grew rapidly

Centennial Hall was a three-story “handsome brick structure” containing seven “recitation” rooms and surrounded by just over five acres of land, according to the Daily Tribune article. The school was built on Clinton Pike, where “The Secret Garden” author Frances Hodgson Burnett once lived, historian Jack Neely wrote in the Knoxville Mercury.

The school initially operated with an elementary school department, as many participants had previously not had access to education, according to a 2022 column in the Knoxville News Sentinel by the historian, former state legislator and Knoxville College graduate Robert Booker.

The Rev. J. W. Witherspoon, one of the Presbyterian representatives who had participated in the initial efforts to establish Knoxville College – today the only HBCU in East Tennessee – returned in March 1881 to assess the success of the institution and was very satisfied with what he found.

“The rapid progress, the increasing number of students, and the training of superior classes have been so great that the Secretary has concluded that an additional faculty is absolutely necessary and will recommend the appointment of a professor in natural sciences,” the Knoxville Daily Chronicle. reported that year. Witherspoon also observed the need for additional dormitories, plans for which were announced two months later in the Daily Tribune.

The school graduated its first college of two upon its commencement in 1883, Booker wrote in his 2022 column.

Knoxville College experienced a handful of setbacks in its early days, some of which have been repeated in the 21st century. In 1896, a fire broke out in the original Elnathan Hall, destroying the building, resulting in a total loss of about $22,000, the Journal and Tribune reported that year.

The school has largely continued to function well. In 1912, the average student body size was about 500, with a faculty of about 35, the Knoxville Sentinel reported. “Knoxville College ranks among the best institutions for colored youth in the entire South,” the newspaper said. In 1930, a News Sentinel article indicated that the institution had amassed an endowment of half a million dollars.

In 1932, the school had 12 buildings spread over 90 acres, “where it (had) stunning views of the city, natural drainage on all sides and the beautiful campus is shaded by large oaks, maples and cedars”, a reported the Knoxville Journal. that year. The article described the university’s music department and medical program as particularly strong, and that year it had students from 23 different states in attendance.

Over the years, the school has been home to such figures as Frederick Douglass, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, Jackie Robinson, George Washington Carver and W. E. B. DuBois, according to a 2003 News Sentinel column by Booker.

“A country is only free when its citizens are free”

At Knoxville College’s 1960 commencement ceremony, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed the graduates, as well as a crowd of about 1,000 people, the News Sentinel reported in May of that same year. “We are on the edge of the Promised Land of integration. Despite the loud cries of ‘Nothing will ever happen,’ I am convinced that segregation is on its deathbed and that the only thing uncertain is the day when she will be buried,” King told the audience.

Knoxville College students became essential to the success of the civil rights movement in the city. In November 1960, they demonstrated peacefully in front of the Knox County Courthouse, holding signs reading “Real Americans Despise Religious and Racial Prejudice.” And you ? and “Defend the rights of all men. A country is only free when its citizens are free,” the News Sentinel reported that year.

On March 23, 1963, Knoxville College students participated in protests for the integration of the Tennessee and Bijou theaters, after which a total of 53 people were arrested, including student Jerry Porter, the News Sentinel reported the next day .

Knoxville College faces challenges

By 1974, the college had 17 buildings on its campus, as well as housing for staff and faculty, the News Sentinel reported that year. Notable graduates included Richard V. Moore, who was the third president of HBCU Bethune-Cookman, and John E. Reinhardt, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, and Director of States -United. Intelligence agency.

But the 1970s also marked the time when Knoxville College’s enrollment began to decline. In 1997, the college lost its accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which it had held since 1948, according to the commission’s website. Accreditation was withdrawn due to financial difficulties, low registration rates and administrative difficulties.

In 2015, with an enrollment reduced to 11 students and debts in the millions, the institution lost its state accreditation and suspended classes with the intention of reorganizing, eventually moving to online classes.

The city demanded the campus be closed the following year, and in 2017 the two buildings still used by administrators were deemed unsafe.

Amid renewed concerns about safety at the unused campus following the Elnathan Hall fire, the future of Knoxville College remains uncertain with a reaccreditation application and search for a new president announced during the ‘summer.

Hayden Dunbar is the story-telling journalist. Email [email protected].

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville College’s past shows how much its future matters