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Georgia Baptist College
Georgia Baptist College was a private grade school and college in Macon, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1899 as Central City College and was renamed in 1938. It closed due to financial difficulties in 1956.
The idea for the school arose in the 1890s due to disagreements between some African American Baptists in the state and the American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS), a Baptist organization that was affiliated with the Atlanta Baptist Seminary (now Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta). They argued that Atlanta Baptist should have more African American representation in its leadership, and in 1899, Central City College was formed as an African American-led alternative to Atlanta Baptist, with the project spearheaded by noted Baptist preacher Emanuel K. Love of Savannah, Georgia. William E. Holmes, an instructor from Atlanta Baptist, served as its first president. The school functioned primarily as a primary and secondary school for its first few decades of operation, adding a college department in 1920. In 1921, a fire destroyed much of the school, though it was later rebuilt. The school struggled financially for much of its existence and in 1937, it went into foreclosure. The school continued on for several years after this, but finally closed in 1956.
The idea for the school originated in the 1890s due to internal conflicts among African American Baptists in the U.S. state of Georgia. At the time, the American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS), a New York City-based Baptist organization, was an influential group that supported several African American Baptist institutions throughout the state, including several institutions of higher learning such as the Atlanta Baptist Seminary. However, many African American Baptists were critical of the organization's leadership of these institutions, which were often led by white Americans. The Reverend Emanuel K. Love, a noted Baptist leader from Savannah, Georgia, was an outspoken advocate for more African American leadership in Baptist institutions and he had unsuccessfully sought positions on the board of trustees at both Atlanta Baptist and Spelman Seminary, another Baptist seminary located in Atlanta. Tensions were further inflamed in 1894 when Malcolm MacVicar, the white superintendent of education for the ABHMS, gave a speech where he said it would take a century before African Americans could be capable of managing their own churches and schools. In 1897, seeking to defuse the tension, the ABHMS agreed to work with African Americans to ensure increased representation on the colleges' boards of trustees. That same year, Atlanta Baptist was re-incorporated as a college, though African Americans were still largely excluded from leadership positions, a trend that would continue through 1899. That year, Love announced the formation of an African American Baptist college to rival the ABHMS-affiliated Atlanta Baptist.
Love, acting under the auspices of the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia (a statewide Baptist group that Love was the president of), acquired about 235 acres (95 ha) of land near Macon, Georgia to serve as the site of a new college. In September 1899, a representative of the school reached out to William E. Holmes, an African American faculty member from Atlanta Baptist, to offer him the position of president for this new college. Holmes had been the first African American faculty member at Atlanta Baptist and had worked there for over two decades at the time, and while he initially agreed to remain at Atlanta Baptist, he changed his mind and joined Love after then-Atlanta Baptist President George Sale asked him to publicly denounce the formation of the new school. Some time prior to this, Holmes had been involved in an effort to ouster Sale from his position as president, and Holmes's decision to accept the presidency at the new school may have been due in part to him being passed over for the presidency of Atlanta Baptist in favor of Sale in 1890. John Hope, a friend of Holmes's and fellow faculty member at Atlanta Baptist, opted to remain in Atlanta, where he was now the only African American faculty member. He would later become Atlanta Baptist's first African American president in 1906. Additionally, while there had been concerns that Holmes would recruit students from Atlanta Baptist to the new school, many opted to remain at Atlanta Baptist.
The new school, named Central City College, was officially established in October 1899. It was part of a regional trend of independent Baptist colleges that formed around the late 1800s and early 1900s to serve African Americans in the American South, with similar institutions including Guadalupe College and Morris College. In its initial form, the institution functioned primarily as a grade school, with the school offering a primary school, high school, and a three-year theology program. The school was coeducational, although the theology program was only offered to men, and only a small number of students participated in it. From its beginning, the school attempted to follow the educational model found in the liberal arts colleges of New England, in opposition to the industrial education favored by noted African American leader Booker T. Washington. The primary school offered sources in geometry, grammar, history, mathematics, penmanship, and reading, while the high school courses included additional history courses, advanced mathematics, bookkeeping, physiology, physics, and language courses on English, Greek, and Latin. Only two faculty members held college degrees—Holmes and the Reverend James M. Nabrit, who also held a bachelor's degree from Atlanta Baptist.
By the school's third year of operation, it had an enrollment of 365 students, and by 1908 it employed 11 teachers and enrolled 325 students. The school struggled financially for most of its existence, with one biography of the school by historian Willard Range stating that it "remained perpetually on the verge of bankruptcy and closure". By 1908, the school had an annual operating expense of about $4,000, while records from 1916 show that the school collected only $307 in school fees, equal to about $5 per student at the time. The school received some financial support from the Missionary Baptist Association to help it continue its operations, and additionally, the school farmed some of its large campus. By 1908, of the school's 325-acre (132 ha) campus, approximately 100 acres (40 ha) were used as farmland.
In 1914, the school was visited by members of the United States Office of Education, who were collecting information on African American education in the United States. As part of their report, they recorded an enrollment of 40 primary school students and 25 high school students, though they stated that the number was usually larger in the winter months, taught by four full-time teachers and two volunteer teachers. They valued the school's assets, including the property, buildings, and materials, at about $16,000 and noted that the school was in $5,000 of debt due mostly to back pay and other general expenses. Assessing the state of education in Bibb County, Georgia as a whole, the report stated that, "The Central City College, a private school located in the suburbs, is of slight educational value to the community", and additionally recommended "[t]hat the plant be sold and the work transferred to some of the stronger Baptist schools of the State".
In 1919, the school had 14 instructors. By the following year, the school officially began its college department, and the number of teachers had risen to eight. However, in May of the following year, Central City College's school buildings were destroyed in a fire. According to Holmes, the fire, which had been started by someone accused of insanity, destroyed most of the school's infrastructure, as well as "our Records and nearly everything else we had". In the aftermath of the destruction, community farmers sold some of their produce to raise money for the school's reconstruction, collecting about $164.34 for the school, while the Reverend T. J. Goodall (preacher at First African Baptist Church in Savannah and a board member of Central City College) personally donated $50 to the cause. For the fall semester that year, the school enrolled 204 students, with classes being held in tents set up on the campus. 161 students commuted, while the 43 who lived on campus stayed either in the president's house or in tents. Fundraising efforts continued through at least 1923.
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Georgia Baptist College
Georgia Baptist College was a private grade school and college in Macon, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1899 as Central City College and was renamed in 1938. It closed due to financial difficulties in 1956.
The idea for the school arose in the 1890s due to disagreements between some African American Baptists in the state and the American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS), a Baptist organization that was affiliated with the Atlanta Baptist Seminary (now Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta). They argued that Atlanta Baptist should have more African American representation in its leadership, and in 1899, Central City College was formed as an African American-led alternative to Atlanta Baptist, with the project spearheaded by noted Baptist preacher Emanuel K. Love of Savannah, Georgia. William E. Holmes, an instructor from Atlanta Baptist, served as its first president. The school functioned primarily as a primary and secondary school for its first few decades of operation, adding a college department in 1920. In 1921, a fire destroyed much of the school, though it was later rebuilt. The school struggled financially for much of its existence and in 1937, it went into foreclosure. The school continued on for several years after this, but finally closed in 1956.
The idea for the school originated in the 1890s due to internal conflicts among African American Baptists in the U.S. state of Georgia. At the time, the American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS), a New York City-based Baptist organization, was an influential group that supported several African American Baptist institutions throughout the state, including several institutions of higher learning such as the Atlanta Baptist Seminary. However, many African American Baptists were critical of the organization's leadership of these institutions, which were often led by white Americans. The Reverend Emanuel K. Love, a noted Baptist leader from Savannah, Georgia, was an outspoken advocate for more African American leadership in Baptist institutions and he had unsuccessfully sought positions on the board of trustees at both Atlanta Baptist and Spelman Seminary, another Baptist seminary located in Atlanta. Tensions were further inflamed in 1894 when Malcolm MacVicar, the white superintendent of education for the ABHMS, gave a speech where he said it would take a century before African Americans could be capable of managing their own churches and schools. In 1897, seeking to defuse the tension, the ABHMS agreed to work with African Americans to ensure increased representation on the colleges' boards of trustees. That same year, Atlanta Baptist was re-incorporated as a college, though African Americans were still largely excluded from leadership positions, a trend that would continue through 1899. That year, Love announced the formation of an African American Baptist college to rival the ABHMS-affiliated Atlanta Baptist.
Love, acting under the auspices of the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia (a statewide Baptist group that Love was the president of), acquired about 235 acres (95 ha) of land near Macon, Georgia to serve as the site of a new college. In September 1899, a representative of the school reached out to William E. Holmes, an African American faculty member from Atlanta Baptist, to offer him the position of president for this new college. Holmes had been the first African American faculty member at Atlanta Baptist and had worked there for over two decades at the time, and while he initially agreed to remain at Atlanta Baptist, he changed his mind and joined Love after then-Atlanta Baptist President George Sale asked him to publicly denounce the formation of the new school. Some time prior to this, Holmes had been involved in an effort to ouster Sale from his position as president, and Holmes's decision to accept the presidency at the new school may have been due in part to him being passed over for the presidency of Atlanta Baptist in favor of Sale in 1890. John Hope, a friend of Holmes's and fellow faculty member at Atlanta Baptist, opted to remain in Atlanta, where he was now the only African American faculty member. He would later become Atlanta Baptist's first African American president in 1906. Additionally, while there had been concerns that Holmes would recruit students from Atlanta Baptist to the new school, many opted to remain at Atlanta Baptist.
The new school, named Central City College, was officially established in October 1899. It was part of a regional trend of independent Baptist colleges that formed around the late 1800s and early 1900s to serve African Americans in the American South, with similar institutions including Guadalupe College and Morris College. In its initial form, the institution functioned primarily as a grade school, with the school offering a primary school, high school, and a three-year theology program. The school was coeducational, although the theology program was only offered to men, and only a small number of students participated in it. From its beginning, the school attempted to follow the educational model found in the liberal arts colleges of New England, in opposition to the industrial education favored by noted African American leader Booker T. Washington. The primary school offered sources in geometry, grammar, history, mathematics, penmanship, and reading, while the high school courses included additional history courses, advanced mathematics, bookkeeping, physiology, physics, and language courses on English, Greek, and Latin. Only two faculty members held college degrees—Holmes and the Reverend James M. Nabrit, who also held a bachelor's degree from Atlanta Baptist.
By the school's third year of operation, it had an enrollment of 365 students, and by 1908 it employed 11 teachers and enrolled 325 students. The school struggled financially for most of its existence, with one biography of the school by historian Willard Range stating that it "remained perpetually on the verge of bankruptcy and closure". By 1908, the school had an annual operating expense of about $4,000, while records from 1916 show that the school collected only $307 in school fees, equal to about $5 per student at the time. The school received some financial support from the Missionary Baptist Association to help it continue its operations, and additionally, the school farmed some of its large campus. By 1908, of the school's 325-acre (132 ha) campus, approximately 100 acres (40 ha) were used as farmland.
In 1914, the school was visited by members of the United States Office of Education, who were collecting information on African American education in the United States. As part of their report, they recorded an enrollment of 40 primary school students and 25 high school students, though they stated that the number was usually larger in the winter months, taught by four full-time teachers and two volunteer teachers. They valued the school's assets, including the property, buildings, and materials, at about $16,000 and noted that the school was in $5,000 of debt due mostly to back pay and other general expenses. Assessing the state of education in Bibb County, Georgia as a whole, the report stated that, "The Central City College, a private school located in the suburbs, is of slight educational value to the community", and additionally recommended "[t]hat the plant be sold and the work transferred to some of the stronger Baptist schools of the State".
In 1919, the school had 14 instructors. By the following year, the school officially began its college department, and the number of teachers had risen to eight. However, in May of the following year, Central City College's school buildings were destroyed in a fire. According to Holmes, the fire, which had been started by someone accused of insanity, destroyed most of the school's infrastructure, as well as "our Records and nearly everything else we had". In the aftermath of the destruction, community farmers sold some of their produce to raise money for the school's reconstruction, collecting about $164.34 for the school, while the Reverend T. J. Goodall (preacher at First African Baptist Church in Savannah and a board member of Central City College) personally donated $50 to the cause. For the fall semester that year, the school enrolled 204 students, with classes being held in tents set up on the campus. 161 students commuted, while the 43 who lived on campus stayed either in the president's house or in tents. Fundraising efforts continued through at least 1923.