Coker College - History

History

Coker College began in 1894 as Welsh Neck High School, founded by a local businessman and American Civil War veteran, Major James Lide Coker (1837–1918). In 1908, when South Carolina created a statewide public school system, Major Coker led the effort to convert the school to Coker College for Women.

From the 1920s until just after World War II, it was the only college between Columbia and Charleston accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.


Coker was once affiliated with the South Carolina Baptist Convention, but has been non-denominational since 1944. It officially became co-ed in 1969, although men had been attending since the end of World War II.

From 1988 to 2003, Coker students often interacted with students from South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics (SCGSSM) who lived and took their own courses on campus. In 2003, the SCGSSM moved to its own campus a few blocks away.

Read more about this topic:  Coker College

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    In front of these sinister facts, the first lesson of history is the good of evil. Good is a good doctor, but Bad is sometimes a better.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    ... in a history of spiritual rupture, a social compact built on fantasy and collective secrets, poetry becomes more necessary than ever: it keeps the underground aquifers flowing; it is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)