Spelman College
Spelman College is a private, historically Black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is a founding member of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman awarded its first college degrees in 1901 and is the oldest private historically Black liberal arts institution for women.
History
Founding
The Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary was established on 11 April 1881 in the basement of Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta by two teachers from the Oread Institute of Worcester, Massachusetts: Harriet E. Giles and Sophia B. Packard. Giles and Packard met while Giles was a student, and Packard the preceptress of the New Salem Academy in New Salem northeast of Springfield, Massachusetts and fostered a lifelong friendship there. The two traveled to Atlanta specifically to begin a school for Black freedwomen and found support from Frank Quarles, the pastor of Friendship Baptist Church.Giles and Packard started the school with 11 African-American women and $100 given to them by the First Baptist Church in Medford, Massachusetts in addition to a promise of further support from the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, a group with which they were both affiliated in Boston. Although their first students were mostly illiterate, they envisioned their school becoming a liberal arts institution–the first circular of the college said that they planned to offer "algebra, physiology, essays, Latin, rhetoric, geometry, political economy, mental philosophy, chemistry, botany, Constitution of the United States, astronomy, zoology, geology, moral philosophy, and evidences of Christianity". Over time they attracted more students; when the first term ended they had enrolled 80 students in the seminary. The WABHMS made a down payment on a nine-acre site in Atlanta relatively close to the church where they began, which originally had five buildings left from a Union Civil War encampment, to support classroom and residence hall needs.
In 1882 the two women returned to Massachusetts to bid for more money and were introduced to businessman John D. Rockefeller who was an industrialist and a Northern Baptist at a church conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Rockefeller was impressed by Packard's vision. In April 1884, Rockefeller visited the school. At the time the seminary had 600 students and 16 faculty members. The school's existence was enabled by donations from the Black community in Atlanta and the efforts of volunteer teachers.
Rockefeller was so impressed that he settled the debt on the property. His wife, Laura Spelman Rockefeller; her sister, Lucy Spelman; and their parents, Harvey Buel and Lucy Henry Spelman also supported the school. The Spelmans were longtime activists in the abolitionist movement. In 1884 the name of the school was changed to the Spelman Seminary in honor of Laura Spelman Rockefeller and her parents. Rockefeller donated the funds for the oldest building on campus, Rockefeller Hall, which was built in 1886.
Packard was appointed Spelman's first president in 1888, after the charter for the seminary was granted. She died in 1891, and Giles was the president until her own death in 1909. A diploma granting institution in its early years, Spelman awarded its first college degrees in 1901.
Growth
From 1910 to 1953 the seminary had a substantial amount of growth and transition. After Giles' death, Lucy Hale Tapley became president. Although the college was somewhat progressive, neither the founders nor the current administration were interested in challenging the status quo of young women as being primarily responsible for the family and the home. Tapley said, "Any course of study which fails to cultivate a taste and fitness for practical and efficient work in some part of the field of the world's needs is unpopular at Spelman and finds no place in our curriculum." The nursing curriculum was strengthened, a teachers' dormitory and a home economics building were constructed; and Tapley Hall, the science building, was completed in 1925. The Granddaughters' Club, a club for students whose mothers and aunts had attended Spelman was created and the club is still in existence today.In September 1924, Spelman Baptist Seminary officially became Spelman College. Florence Matilda Read became the president in 1927. Soon afterwards, Spelman entered into an "agreement of affiliation" with nearby Morehouse College and Atlanta University by chartering the Atlanta University Center in 1929. Atlanta University would provide graduate education for students; Morehouse and Spelman were responsible for undergraduate education. At a time during which Black students were often denied access to graduate studies at predominantly white southern research universities, access to Atlanta University allowed the undergraduate students at Morehouse and Spelman immediate access to graduate courses.
In 1927, one of the most important buildings on campus, Sisters Chapel, was dedicated. The chapel was named for its primary benefactors, sisters Laura Spelman Rockefeller and Lucy Maria Spelman. The Spelman College Glee Club was founded in 1925, beginning the popular Atlanta tradition of the annual Spelman-Morehouse Christmas Carol Concert. The Atlanta University Summer Theater was staged by the University Players, a drama organization for AUC students. In 1930 the Spelman Nursery School was created as a training center for mothers and a practice arena for students who planned careers in education and child development. Spelman celebrated its 50th anniversary in April 1931. This milestone was accompanied by the construction of a university library that was shared amongst the Atlanta University Center institutions, and the center continues to share a library to this day.
The school continued to expand, building and acquiring more property to accommodate the growing student body. In 1947, Spelman joined the list of "approved institutions" of the Association of American Universities. In 1953, Florence Read retired, and Albert E. Manley became the first Black and first male president of the college. Under his presidency and the presidency of his successor, Donald Stewart, Spelman experienced significant growth. The college established its study abroad program, the Merrill Foreign Travel-Study Program. Stewart's administration tripled the college's endowment and was responsible for the establishment of the Comprehensive Writing Program, an across-the-curriculum writing program which required students to submit portfolios of their written work; the Ethel Waddell Githii College Honors Program, and the Women's Research and Resource Center. In 1958, the college received accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Civil rights involvement
Going into the 1960s, the Spelman College students became involved in civil rights actions in Atlanta. In 1962, the first Spelman students were arrested for participating in sit-ins in the Atlanta community. Noted American historian Howard Zinn was a professor of history at Spelman during this era, and served as an adviser to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee chapter at the college. Zinn mentored many of Spelman's students fighting for civil rights at the time, including Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman Zinn was dismissed from the college in 1963 for supporting Spelman students in their efforts to fight segregation; at the time, Spelman was focused on turning out "refined young ladies." Edelman herself writes that Spelman had a reputation as "a tea-pouring, very strict school designed to turn Black girls into refined ladies and teachers."1980–present
Stewart retired in 1986, and the following year, Johnnetta Betsch Cole became the first Black female president of Spelman College. During this time, the college became noted for its commitment to community service and its ties to the local community. Cole also led the college's most successful capital campaign; between 1986 and 1996, the college raised $113.8 million, including a $20 million gift from Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille Hanks Cosby, whose daughter graduated from Spelman. In honor of this gift, the Cosby Academic Center was constructed. In July 2015, the remainder of the funds were returned and an endowed professorship named for the Cosby couple discontinued as allegations of sexual assault by Bill Cosby grew more prominent.In 1997, Cole stepped down and Audrey Forbes Manley became Spelman's first alumna president. After Manley’s retirement in 2002, Beverly Daniel Tatum served as the college’s president until 2015, when Mary Schmidt Campbell was named the tenth president. The campus now comprises 26 buildings on in Atlanta. In 2011, First Lady Michelle Obama served as the keynote commencement speaker. The following year, Oprah Winfrey served as the keynote commencement speaker.
In 2015, Spelman opened the Wellness Center at Reed Hall, a state-of-the-art recreation center. It is host to a multitude of services from an indoor track and cycling room to a teaching kitchen and a multitude of fitness and wellness programs. In 2017, Spelman's leadership voted to allow transgender women to enroll. In 2018, Spelman received $30 million from Spelman trustee Ronda Stryker for the construction of a new state-of-the-art building on campus. Two years later, the college received another significant donation: $40 million from philanthropists Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin to be used as scholarship funds for students enrolled at Spelman. In July 2020, Spelman received a notably large undisclosed donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
In April 2022, Helene Gayle was named the 11th president of Spelman College. In January 2024, Spelman received the largest single donation in its history and one of the largest ever to a HBCU with $100 million given by Spelman trustee Ronda Stryker and her husband, William Johnston. Spelman stated that $75 million of the $100 million donation will go towards endowed scholarships for future students, and the remaining $25 million will be used to "develop an academic focus on public policy and democracy, improve student housing and provide flexible funding to meet critical strategic needs."