Knoxville College

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. 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.

thumb|Knoxville College, as it appeared on an 1886 map of Knoxville

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. 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.

John Schouller McCulloch was named the school's first principal and Eliza B. Wallace was named the school's principal of female students. 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.

Medical department (1895–1900)

alt=Knoxville College Hospital (circa 1907)|thumb|Knoxville College Hospital (circa 1907)

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.

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

right|thumb|Knoxville College in the early 20th century

In 1901, Knoxville College finally received a state charter. 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 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. 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. The school's charter was amended in 1962 to allow the admission of white students. By 1964, a faculty residence, a student union and cafeteria, four dormitories, and a science building had been built.

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. 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.

However, Judson soon left and the college continued to struggle. On June 9, 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency seized control of the long-shuttered A.K. Stewart Science Hall to conduct an emergency clean-up of toxic chemicals that the college had improperly stored in laboratories; In early 2015 state accreditation for the college was withdrawn, further complicating the college's already strained finances. In April 2015, the school announced it was suspending classes for the Fall 2015 term in hopes of reorganizing. Enrollment had dwindled to just 11 students, and the college was struggling to pay back a $4.5 million loan from 2003 and more than $425,000 to the federal government for the Stewart Science Hall cleanup. In May 2015, the school announced classes would resume in the Fall 2016 term.

In May 2016, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation recommended the college become a state Superfund site due to ongoing contamination concerns from the Stewart Science Hall. In September 2016, the City of Knoxville demanded that Knoxville College make repairs to fourteen of its buildings within 90 days or face condemnation. City crews subsequently boarded up the buildings. The Knoxville Fire Department responded to between four and five fires at abandoned buildings on campus in 2016, and estimated that since the buildings began falling into disuse after 1997, they had responded to twenty or thirty such fires there.

, most of the campus sits abandoned, in an advanced state of disrepair. Most buildings are open to vagrants and vandals. This has caused severe damage to the buildings. The former college center has been set on fire twice. Since early 2018, the college administrative offices are back on campus again, occupying the college Annex which is next to McMillan Chapel. Plans have been made to renovate McMillan Chapel and the Alumni Library.

In 2023, Knoxville College's Vice President Dasha Lundy has been on a team working in collaboration with the University of Tennessee, Morris Brown College in Atlanta and other schools, to regain their accreditation by 2024 which is Knoxville College’s main priority now. In August 2024, the college applied for accreditation with the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools.

Campus

Knoxville College is situated on a 17-building, campus, located atop a hill overlooking the Mechanicsville neighborhood, just northwest of Knoxville's downtown area. Along with administration and classroom buildings, the campus includes a performing arts center, a gymnasium, a library, a chapel, and a student center. The school maintains dormitories for on-campus students, as well as a president's house, and cottages and apartments for faculty.

Knoxville College Historic District

In 1980, eight buildings on the Knoxville College campus received recognition for having a role in minority education on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. Many of the earliest buildings were constructed using student labor, student-made bricks, and lumber donated by alumni. The district includes the following buildings:

McKee Hall, the oldest building on campus, originally built in 1876, largely rebuilt in 1895 following a fire. The building is named for O.S. McKee who had established the first school for African-American children in Nashville in 1862. This building currently houses administration offices.
The President's House, built in the late 1880s. The house was originally built of wood, but brick siding was added in 1905.
Two Faculty cottages, 1005 and 1009 College Street, both built in the Bungalow style in 1906.
Giffen Memorial Gymnasium, built in 1929.

Freedmen's Mission Historic Cemetery

The Freedmen's Mission Historic Cemetery, at the corner of Booker and College, is a historic African-American burial ground on the campus.

Administration

A 16-member board of trustees oversees Knoxville College. Its chairman is Dr. Eric Barnes. However, she left the role after less than a year.

Leaders

|+(* indicates alumnus)

!Name

!Tenure

|J. P. Wright (Superintendent)

|September 1875 – August 1877

|John S. McCulloch (President)

|August 1877 – July 1899

|Rutherford H. Adkins

|August 1976 – January 1981

Student activities included a dance team, a debate team, a choir, and a trivia team (which competed with other HBCUs in the Honda Bowl Competition). The school's newspaper, The Aurora, was published for over a century. The college also maintained a student ambassador program and wellness program that provided volunteer services for the surrounding community.