Knoxville College is an unaccredited private historically black college in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1875 by the United Presbyterian Church of North America. The college is a United Negro College Fund member school.
A slow period of decline began in the 1970s and by 2015 the school had an enrollment of just 11 students. In May 2015, the college suspended classes until Fall 2016 term in hopes of reorganizing. On May 17, 2018, the Tennessee Higher Education Commission gave its approval for Knoxville College to reopen and offer classes. On July 1, 2018, Knoxville College website announced resumption of enrolling students for fall 2018 semester. In May 2022, three students graduated.
History
Origins and establishment Knoxville College is rooted in a mission school established in Knoxville in 1864 by R. J. Creswell of the United Presbyterian Church to educate the city's free Black and formerly enslaved people.Cynthia Fleming, "Knoxville College: A History and Some Recollections of the First Fifty Years," East Tennessee Historical Society Publications, Vol. 58-59 (1986-1987), pp. 89-111. This school initially met in the First Baptist Church building (which at the time was located on Gay Street) before moving to a permanent facility in East Knoxville in 1866. Despite low support from city leadership and threats from poor whites, the school's enrollment gradually grew to over 100. In addition to black students, the school also had many white students until 1901, when Tennessee passed a law forcibly segregating all schools.
In the 1870s, the church's Freedmen's Mission, which had established mission schools for freed slaves across the South, refocused efforts on building a larger, better-equipped school in Knoxville, in part due to stiff competition from other denominations in Nashville. In 1875, the church sold its East Knoxville property and purchased its current property, which at the time consisted of a hill that had been occupied by a Confederate battery during the Civil War.Digby Gordon Seymour, Divided Loyalties: Fort Sanders and the Civil War in East Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 1963), p. 108. The school's first building, McKee Hall, named for O.S. McKee, was completed in 1876, and the school opened in December of that year. Former governor William G. Brownlow and gubernatorial candidate William F. Yardley spoke at the opening ceremonies.East Tennessee Historical Society, Lucile Deaderick (ed.), Heart of the Valley: A History of Knoxville, Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1976), p. 41.
John Schouller McCulloch was named the school's first principal and Eliza B. Wallace was named the school's principal of female students.East Tennessee Historical Society, Mary Rothrock (ed.), The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1972), pp. 318-319. The new school was primarily a normal school, which trained teachers, but also operated an academy for the education of local children. In 1877, the school was designated a college by the state, to the surprise of McCulloch, as few of the school's students were ready for a college-level curriculum. In 1890, the state designated the school the recipient of its Morrill Act funds for blacks, with which the school established mechanical and agricultural departments.Lois Clark and Lowell Giffen, "Knoxville College," An Encyclopedia of East Tennessee (Oak Ridge, Tenn.: Children's Museum of Oak Ridge, 1981), pp. 274-275.
Medical department (1895–1900)
There were no medical schools for African Americans prior to the American Civil War, which lasted to 1865. Knoxville College had an early medical department for black students, open from 1895 until 1900. The Knoxville College medical department was created through the donation of the "Colored Department" at the University of Tennessee; the "Colored Department" had been founded by the United Presbyterian Church in 1887 for medical training. William Wallace Derrick had been an African American faculty member at Knoxville College and helped establish the short lived medical department. The Knoxville College Hospital was opened in 1907 at 1825 College Street.
After the department closed, the city of Knoxville organized a replacement black medical school in the winter of 1900, named the Knoxville Medical College and led by the city physician, Henry Morgan Green.
Development and expansion
In 1901, Knoxville College finally received a state charter. Six years later, the school established the Eliza B. Wallace Hospital, which served a dual purpose of training nurses and tending to the health needs of the local black community. This proved invaluable during the city's Influenza outbreak of 1918.
In 1913, John Henry Michael, the head of the school's mechanical department, designed the "Negro Building" for the National Conservation Exposition, which was held across town at Chilhowee Park. The building, which is no longer standing, was constructed with the help of Knoxville College students. During World War I, Knoxville College students helped raise money for liberty bonds and the Red Cross. In the aftermath of the Riot of 1919, one of the city's worst racial episodes, the school's administration (comprising black and white members) staunchly defended the city's African American community, and praised its students' restraint.
J. Kelly Giffen, president of the institution from 1918 to 1936, spearheaded development of an internationally acclaimed music program with students performing at concerts across the United States; the revenues raised aided an expansion of the campus. In 1925, students staged a month-long boycott of classes to protest the school's strict behavioral code, culminating in an all-night negotiating session between student leaders and the school's dean, Herbert Telford. Telford agreed to relax some rules, and allowed the creation of a student council. Under Giffen, the athletic program was further developed; a football field and stadium were built in 1924, followed by a gymnasium in 1927, which allowed the introduction of varsity basketball.
The college was significantly challenged by the Depression and World War II, with the effects exacerbated by leadership instability. In October 1940, John A. Cotton was appointed temporary president, becoming the college's first Black leader and the first alumnus to lead the institution. In May 1942, following an incapacitating heart attack, he resigned on health grounds and died from another heart attack the following year. In November 1942, William Lloyd Imes became the second alumnus and first regular Black president of Knoxville College, taking office the following April. Imes resigned to return to his ministry in June 1947, and was succeeded by John Reed Miller, who oversaw the modernization of the college's buildings; under Miller, Knoxville College secured an "A" rating in December 1949 from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). By Miller's departure in August 1950, however, the college had sold portions of its land to raise funds and was on the verge of bankruptcy.
James A. Colston, who assumed the presidency in June 1951, orchestrated a successful turnaround and expansion of the college. During his 15-year tenure, Knoxville College enjoyed financial stability and unprecedented growth. In 1957, it became among the first predominantly black institutions admitted to full membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Throughout the summer of 1960, students engaged in a series of sit-ins to protest segregation at lunch counters in downtown Knoxville, eventually convincing most downtown businesses to integrate. The school's charter was amended in 1962 to allow the admission of white students. In the decade after Colston took office, Knoxville College saw enrollment more than double from 267 students to 652 in 1961, with the number of faculty rising from 20 to 39. By 1964, a faculty residence, a student union and cafeteria, four dormitories, and a science building had been built. In 1966, Colston left to become the president of Bronx Community College; by then, Knoxville College had ten new buildings, a population of 907 students, and 198 faculty.
Instability, decline, and period of rejuvenation In November 1966, Robert L. Owens III, formerly dean of the graduate school at Southern University, succeeded Colston as president and took office in February 1967. His controversial tenure, ending with his forced resignation in June 1971, burdened the college's finances. As the college lacked modern athletic facilities, Owens oversaw construction of a new gymnasium and football stadium. The construction projects, however, increased the college's debt burden, notably the construction of the 10-story Martin Luther King Jr. Towers, a coeducational dormitory and dining facility that opened in November 1969 and cost approximately $4 million. To recover the costs of the new dormitory towers, Knoxville College under Owens recruited students, raising enrollments to a peak of about 1,300 students in 1970, but placing strains on the college's environment; it was subsequently found that some of those enrolled were ineligible for admission, forcing the college administration to expel over 200 students. The college reportedly came close to losing accreditation in 1970.
As with other HBCUs during the 1970s, Knoxville College's existing financial challenges were worsened by competition from better funded and predominantly white institutions, general increases in operating costs, and the effects of the 1973–1975 recession. In addition, funding from the Presbyterian Church declined, and a succession of short and unstable administrations sent the institution into an over decade-long decline.
Accreditation loss, reorganization attempts, and closure June 1, 1997, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools withdrew Knoxville College's accreditation; enrollment dropped precipitously and the school's financial situation became dire. As enrollment plummeted, the school's debt skyrocketed and it was soon unable to pay its faculty or electric bills. Throughout the rest of the 1990s, as enrollment plummeted, most campus buildings were shuttered and abandoned, with most degree programs being discontinued. In August 2005, the school's Board of Trustees fired the school's president, Barbara Hatton.
Following Hatton's removal, the school's alumni association embarked on an aggressive fundraising campaign in 2006 and 2007 to save the college and return it to solvency. In January 2010, the school hired Horace A. Judson as interim president. Judson implemented a new strategic plan with the following goals: (1) regain accreditation, (2) achieve fiscal stability, (3) develop academic program distinctiveness, (4) develop a department of enrollment management, (5) develop a quality student-centered living and learning environment, and (6) establish new relationships and strengthen former ones among key constituents.Horace Judson, President's Update, Knoxville College Today, 28 March 2010. Retrieved: 7 April 2011.