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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by KLindblom (talk | contribs) at 19:56, 20 June 2020 (→‎History). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

History

Founding

Fisk Free Colored School opened on January 9, 1866. It was founded by John Ogden, Erastus Milo Cravath, and Edward Parmelee Smith of the American Missionary Association for the education of freedmen in Nashville. Fisk was one of several schools and colleges that the AMA helped found across the South to educate freed slaves following the Civil War. The school is named for Clinton B. Fisk, a Union army general and assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau of Tennessee. Fisk provided a site to house the school and $30,000 for its endowment.[1][2]

Fisk is the oldest higher education institution in Nashville.[3]

19th Century

Enrollment rose to 900 in the first several months following the school's opening, indicating the strong desire for education among local freedmen. Student ages ranged from seven to seventy.

In 1867, the Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation to enable free public education, which caused a need to increase teacher training. The Fisk Free Colored School was reorganized and incorporated as Fisk University to focus on higher education the same year.[4][5] James Dallas Burrus, John Houston Burrus, Virginia E. Walker, and America W. Robinson enrolled in 1867 and were its first four students. In 1875, the two Burruses and Walker became the first African-American students to graduate from a liberal arts college south of the Mason–Dixon line.[6][7]

In 1870 Adam K. Spence became the school's principal. Spence developed plans to expand and move the school to a larger campus in north Nashville.[8] To raise money for the school's initiatives, his wife Catherine Mackie Spence traveled throughout the United States to set up mission Sunday schools in support of Fisk students, organizing endowments through the American Missionary Association.[9] With a strong interest in religion and the arts, Adam Spence supported the founding of a student choir; they were the start of the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

With the school facing financial distress, in 1871 the choir went on tour to raise funds for the university, led by professor and university treasurer George L. White.[5][10] They toured the U.S. and Europe and became a sensation, singing before Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Twain, Queen Victoria, popularizing spirituals, and changing racial stereotypes[11][12][13] Their tour raised nearly $50,000 and funded construction of the renowned Jubilee Hall on Fisk's current campus in north Nashville. It was the first building built for the education of freedmen in the South and is now a National Historic Landmark.[14]

Cravath returned to Fisk in 1875 and became the university's first president.[INSERT CITATION] He oversaw an active construction program and expansion of the school's curriculum offerings to include liberal arts, theology, and teacher training. By the turn of the 20th century, the university had strengthened its reputation, built several campus buildings, added black teachers and staff to the university, and enrolled a second generation of students.[15][INSERT CITATION]

20th Century

From 1915 to 1925, Fayette Avery McKenzie was President of Fisk. McKenzie's tenure, before and after World War I, was during a turbulent period in American history. In spite of many challenges, McKenzie developed Fisk as the premier all Black university in the United States, secured Fisk's academic recognition as a standard college by the Carnegie Foundation, Columbia University and the University of Chicago, raised a $1 million endowment fund to ensure quality faculty and laid a foundation for Fisk's accreditation and future success.[16] McKenzie was eventually forced to resign when his strict policies on dress code, extracurricular activities, and other aspects of student life led to student protests.

In 1947 Fisk selected its first African-American president, Charles Spurgeon Johnson. Johnson was a premier sociologist, a scholar who had also been the editor of Opportunity magazine, a noted periodical of the Harlem Renaissance.

In 1952, Fisk was the first predominantly black college to earn a Phi Beta Kappa charter. Organized as the Delta of Tennessee Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society that December, the chapter inducted its first student members on April 4, 1953.

On April 8, 1967, a riot occurred on the college campuses of Fisk University and Tennessee State University after Stokely Carmichael spoke at Vanderbilt University.[17] Although it was viewed as a "race riot", it had classist characteristics.[17]

From 2004 to 2013, Fisk was directed by its 14th president, Hazel O'Leary, former Secretary of Energy under President Bill Clinton. She was the second woman to serve as president of the university. On June 25, 2008, Fisk announced that it had successfully raised $4 million during the fiscal year ending June 30. It ended nine years of budget deficits and qualified for a Mellon Foundation challenge grant.[18][19] However, Fisk still faced significant financial hardship, and said that it may need to close its doors unless its finances improve.[20]

H. James Williams, served as president from February 2013 to September 2015. Williams had previously been dean of the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University in Michigan and, before that, an accounting professor at Georgetown University, Florida A&M and Texas Southern University.[21][22] Williams stepped down in September 2015.[23]

Williams was replaced by interim president, board member, Frank Sims.[24] In March 2017 the Fisk board of trustees announced that Kevin Rome would be Fisk university's next president.[25]

In June 2017, a service in memory of 1892 lynching victim Ephraim Grizzard was held in the Fisk University Memorial Chapel. In addition, a plaque memorializing Grizzard, his brother Henry, and Samuel Smith, a third lynching victim, was installed at St. Anselm's Episcopal church in Nashville.[26]

One year later, the university's regional accreditor placed the university on probation. The accreditor cited failings related to financial responsibility, control of research funds, and federal and state responsibility.[27]



  1. ^ Randal Rust. "Fisk University". Tennessee Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  2. ^ "Fisk University History". Fisk University. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  3. ^ "Fisk University". UNCF. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  4. ^ "Fisk University History". Fisk University. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  5. ^ a b Randal Rust. "Fisk University". Tennessee Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  6. ^ Richardson, Joe M. "A negro success story: James Dallas Burrus". The Journal of Negro History 50, no. 4 (1965): 274–282.
  7. ^ "Blacks and the American Missionary Association". United Church of Christ. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  8. ^ Cohen, Rodney T. (2001). Fisk University. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-0677-7.
  9. ^ Biographical note: Adam Knight Spence, Spence Family Collection, Fisk University Library, accessed 3 Mar 2009. Link via the Internet Archive, accessed 15 August 2013.
  10. ^ Thanki, Juli. "141 years later, Fisk Jubilee Singers return to England". The Tennessean. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  11. ^ Mitchell, Reavis L., Jr., Fisk University, The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002, accessed 3 Mar 2009
  12. ^ "Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory | American Experience | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  13. ^ Thanki, Juli. "141 years later, Fisk Jubilee Singers return to England". The Tennessean. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  14. ^ "Fisk University", The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002, accessed 3 Mar 2009. Quote: "When the American Missionary Association declined to assume the financial responsibility of the Jubilee Singers, Professor George L. White, Treasurer of the University, took the responsibility upon himself and started North in 1871 with his troupe. On April 12, 1873, the Jubilee Singers sailed for England where they sang before a fashionable audience in the presence of the Queen, who expressed her gratification at the performance."
  15. ^ "Fisk University", The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002, accessed 3 Mar 2009. Quote: "When the American Missionary Association declined to assume the financial responsibility of the Jubilee Singers, Professor George L. White, Treasurer of the University, took the responsibility upon himself and started North in 1871 with his troupe. On April 12, 1873, the Jubilee Singers sailed for England where they sang before a fashionable audience in the presence of the Queen, who expressed her gratification at the performance."
  16. ^ Christopher L. Nicholson, To Advance a Race: A Historical Analysis of the Personal Belief, Industrial Philanthropy and Black Liberal Arts Higher Education in Fayette McKenzie's Presidency at Fisk University, 1915–1925, Loyola University, Chicago, May 2011, p.299-301, 315–318.
  17. ^ a b Frizzell, Scott (Spring 2011). "Not Just a Matter of Black and White: The Nashville Riot of 1967". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 70 (1): 26–51. JSTOR 42628733.
  18. ^ "Institutional Support : Fisk University | The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation". mellon.org. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
  19. ^ "Institutional Support : Fisk University | The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation". mellon.org. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
  20. ^ "Fisk University Struggles Through Financial Crisis", NPR, September 16, 2010
  21. ^ "President" Archived 2013-08-29 at the Wayback Machine, Fisk University webpage. Retrieved 2013-07-29
  22. ^ Phillips, Betsy, "H. James Williams Named New President of Fisk University", Nashville Scene, December 7, 2012. Retrieved 2013-07-29.
  23. ^ Tamburin, Adam (September 21, 2015). "Fisk University president resigns". The Tennessean. Retrieved 2015-10-05.
  24. ^ [1], Fisk University, May 14, 2017
  25. ^ "President", Fisk University webpage. Retrieved 2017-05-14
  26. ^ Scheu, Katherine (June 7, 2017). "Nashville's Episcopal Church remembers 1892 lynchings in city". The Tennessean. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  27. ^ Lederman, Doug (June 25, 2018). "Southern Accreditor Places 4 Institutions on Probation". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
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