Education

Fisk Free Colored School, predecessor of Fisk University, was established on January 9, 1866, in Nashville to offer education--as a means of building better lives--to formerly enslaved African Americans. African Americans, both slave and free, exhibited two related overriding concerns…

When the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was established under the U.S. War Department by the Congress in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln proposed General Clinton B. Fisk as an appointee. The appointment was not made prior to Lincoln's…

Tennessee Governor James B. Frazier was born at Pikeville in Bledsoe County, the son of Thomas Neil and Margaret M. Frazier. His great-grandfather, Samuel Frazier, and grandfather, Abner Frazier, fought at the battle of Kings Mountain during the American Revolution.…

Named in honor of former presidents A. G. Freed and N. B. Hardeman, Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson represents the culmination of a succession of private schools reaching back to 1869. It is affiliated with the Churches of Christ. In 1907…

Episcopal bishop Thomas F. Gailor was born at Jackson, Mississippi, the son of Frank Marion Gailor and Charlotte Moffett. He graduated from Racine College, Wisconsin, in 1876, and then entered the General Theological Seminary, New York City. Gailor received his…

One of the premier philanthropic foundations of the twentieth century, the General Education Board (GEB) invested heavily in Tennessee education. John D. Rockefeller Sr. created the GEB in 1902 in response to son John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s enthusiastic report of…

Designated as the George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University since 1979, this distinguished institution has a 213-year lineage through seven name changes. In 1784 Nashville set aside three land tracts for a collegiate institution; Davidson Academy (1785-86) was chartered by…

The Girl Scouts came to Tennessee as word of the movement spread across the United States during World War I. Individual, or lone troops, unaffiliated with any council, established independently in Tennessee cities during this era of patriotic fervor. Girls…

The Girls Preparatory School is the largest independent secondary day school for girls in the country. Three highly respected public school teachers established the school in 1906. Tommie Duffy, a history and science specialist, Eula Jarnagin, a language teacher, and…

William J. Hale was president of Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial College from its founding date (1912) until his retirement in August 1943. Under his leadership Tennessee A&I State College became a notable African American institution and one of Tennessee's best…

Harpeth Hall School opened in 1951 in Nashville on a twenty-six-acre campus that had previously been the Estes estate. While new in name and location, the school continued in spirit and manner the education of girls and young women that…

Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, George E. Haynes was the only child of Louis and Mattie Sloan Haynes. At a young age he moved with his parents to New York, where he spent his youth. In 1903 he received his…

Alexander Heard, chancellor of Vanderbilt University during the tumultuous years from 1963 to 1972, was committed to pluralism, freedom of expression, and self-government. His views helped to open up the staid campus, which avoided many of the painful and divisive…

Historians studying the status of higher education in Tennessee in the closing years of the twentieth century can be more optimistic about the future than Lucius Salisbury Merriam was when his study Higher Education in Tennessee was published in 1893.…

Hiwassee College is a two-year coeducational liberal arts institution located near Madisonville in Monroe County. Originally a Methodist campground school known as Bat Creek, the college was established in 1850 as one of Tennessee's oldest educational facilities. A typical school…

Educator and president of the University of Tennessee Andrew D. Holt was born in Milan, Tennessee, on December 4, 1904. In 1927 Holt earned his bachelor's degree from Emory University in Atlanta and went on to receive his master's and…

Julia Britton Hooks, an African American clubwoman known as the "Angel of Beale Street," was born free in 1852 in Frankfort, Kentucky. Her parents, Henry Britton, a carpenter, and Laura Marshall Britton, encouraged her training in classical music. In 1869…

John Hope, educator and university president noted for his ability to impart encouragement and stimulation to his students, began his distinguished academic career in Tennessee during the racially turbulent 1890s. John Hope was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1868, into…

Founder and first president of Meharry Medical College George W. Hubbard was born on August 11, 1841, in North Charlestown on the Connecticut River in New Hampshire. His paternal grandfather, David Hubbard, had been among the first settlers of the…

In 1902 Mary Grimes Hutchison established a place of learning that today is known as Hutchison School. The Old Love Place on Union Avenue was the site of Miss Hutchison's School for Girls from 1916 until 1925, when increased enrollment…