Bennett College - History

History

Bennett College was founded in 1873 as a normal school for seventy African American men and women (former slaves). Albion Tourgee an activist in the second half of the 19th century who championed the cause of racial equality contributed greatly to the colleges' inception. The school held its inaugural classes in the basement of Warnersville Methodist Episcopal Church North (now St. Matthew's United Methodist) in Greensboro. Bennett as a coeducational school at the time (offered both high school and college level courses), and remained so until 1926. The year after its founding, the school became sponsored by the Freedman's Aid Society and Southern Education Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Bennett remained under the Freedman's Aid Society for 50 years. In 1878, newly emancipated slaves purchased the land which colleges rest today on 55 acres. The school remained in temporary quarters for several years. Hearing of what was being done New York businessman Lyman Bennett provided $10,000 in funding to build a permanent campus. Bennett died soon thereafter, and the school was named Bennett Seminary and a bell was built in his honor.

In 1888, Bennett Seminary elected its first African-American school president, the Reverend Charles Grandison. Grandison spearheaded a successful drive to have the school chartered as a four year college in 1889. Under his direction, and the direction of the president who followed him (Jordan Chavis), Bennett College grew from 11 undergraduate students to a total of 251 undergraduates by 1905. The enrollment leveled out in the 1910s at roughly 300. In 1926, The Woman's Home Missionary Society and the Board of Education joined together to make Bennett a college for women.