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Presentation by Pamela E. Foster, AAHGS-Nashville. Visit our website at http://aahgsnashville.org.
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“Mary Holmes Seminary: One of Hundreds of Christian Institutions That Educated and
Documented Former Slaves and Their Offspring”Prepared for presentation at
The Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Nashville Chapter Quarterly Meeting
March 2014 Nashville, TNand
The Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society 35th National Conference
October 2014 Pittsburgh, PAby
Pamela E. FosterAAHGS Nashville Secretary and Co-founder
AAHGS National Special Projects Chair
Sister’s Education
Since Sister’s been to collegeIt would set your brain on fireTo listen to the knowledgeShe’s managed to acquire
She talks right up concerningHer school just like a bookBut still with all her learningShe don’t know how to cook
She’s pretty strong on scienceAnd she can operateMost any known applianceInvented up to date
Her folks admire her mainlyBut Dad began to knockWhen she informed him plainlyShe couldn’t even darn a sock
Continued...
Sister’s Education(Concluded)
She’s long on conversationsAbout the ancient GreeksAnd humbles the relationsMost every time she speaks
Her talk is very wittyWith repartee that takesBut Dad says it’s a pityShe can’t make buckwheat cakes
It’s fifteen years or betterSince “Sis” came home from schoolAnd all the boys have met herAnd liked her as a rule
But still there’s nothing doingAnd Dad has one regretThat keeps him always “stewing”’Cause “Sis” ain’t married yet
Composed by Ira David Sankey Greer (1891-1973)
They revered education, unlike their one wayward son, Sankey, who wrote the poem.
Both learned to read and write while enslaved, respectively in Prattville, AL, and Burkeville, VA.
She left Burkeville, VA, for Prattville, AL, to teach freedmen in 1867.
Seven of their nine children who grew to adulthood graduated from college or normal school.
Benjamin Franklin Greer (1832-1903) and Anna Maria(h) Clark Greer (1850-1942) both developed a devotion to Christ in childhood. Shown in August 12, 1869, wedding photograph, Prattville, AL.
Three Boys graduated from Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama
Four Girls graduated from Ingleside Seminary in Virginia and Mary Holmes Seminary in Mississippi
Mary Holmes Seminary (1892-2005): One of Hundreds of Christian Institutions That Educated and Documented Former Slaves and Their Offspring. Shown in 1911 postcard from Greer Clan of Alabama Archives. According to the 1910 book An Era of Progress and Promise there were at least 242 HBCUs by 1908, more than twice the 106 HBCUs open today.
Mary Holmes Seminary posted to the National Register of Historic Places on Nov. 15, 1991
National Register name: Mary Holmes Junior College Historic DistrictAlso known as: Mary Holmes Seminary
Architectural styles: Late 19th and 20th Century Revival: Colonial Revival; American Movement: Bungalow/Craftsman
Areas of significance: Ethnic Heritage - Black; Education
Level of significance: Local
Mississippi Department of Archives & History approved Mary Holmes Seminary historical marker in 2010.
Mary Holmes College
Named for Mary Holmes of Rockford, Illinois, who dedicated her life to education. The school was founded in Jackson in 1892 by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Board of Missions for Freedmen as a seminary for African American women. Mary Holmes Seminary moved to West Point in 1895. In 1932 the seminary began admitting men and added college level courses. Mary Holmes College closed its doors in 2005.
HBCU Newspaper History Project Click here to enter
TELL YOUR HBCU NEWSPAPER STORY!
Documenting student newspapers at America’s historically black colleges and universities
one era, one editor at a time!!!
AAHGS chapters are encouraged to adopt an HBCU, including now ceased ones, to ensure its student newspaper history gets documented, analyzed, and online. AAHGS Nashville has adopted Fisk Universityand Tennessee State University, both in Nashville; Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama; and now closed Mary Holmes Seminary in West Point, Mississippi.
Properly place country music in your family heritage
Greer Clan of Alabama migrations from Birmingham, AL
1909 James Ward to Colp, IL 1916 Rosa Lee to Pittsburgh, PA 1916 Mary Elizabeth to Pittsburgh, PA 1917 Sallie Annabelle to Cleveland, OH 1917 Ira David Sankey to Cleveland, OH 1921 Jerusha Olive to Pittsburgh, PA 1921 Charlotte Emma Ruth to Pittsburgh, PA
? Alfred Matthew date and destination unclear; likely Pittsburgh, PA, in 1916 (died in 1919)
Benjamin Louis only one to stay in Birmingham, AL
After marrying in Prattville, AL, in 1869, Benjamin and Anna Maria(h) and their growing family moved throughout central Alabama, finally settling in Birmingham, where he died in 1903.
The Greer Clan of Alabama was part of the Great Migration North starting in 1909.
Among the destinations was Pittsburgh, PA, specifically in the New Kensington and Lincoln Beach areas.
Hence, I’m a native Pittsburgher with many relatives still in the area.
Mary Holmes SeminaryPART 1
● General history
● Namesake and founders
● Specific training and activities
PART 2● Greer Clan of Alabama graduates
● From end of an era to school’s demise
General historyThe 1918 doctoral dissertation turned into a book titled Forty Years of the Public Schools in Mississippi; With Special Reference to the Education of the Negro documents that a generally favorable sentiment for creating official schools in Mississippi to educate black people began to be evidenced as the Civil War was ending in 1865.
The 2005 book Self-taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom documents black people’s key role in wanting and getting education.
The first schools were for the lower grades and they gradually included upper grades and teacher components, often known as normal schools, designed to train teachers.
The Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. created a committee in 1865 to develop these schools. This committee became the Board of Missions for Freedmen and was headquartered in Pittsburgh. It ended in 1972.
Presbyterian Committee for Freedmen No 33 (old 23) Fifth Avenue Pittsburgh Pa. --1877
Mary Holmes catalogue 1906
Illiteracy was rampant
In Mississippi, as was the case elsewhere and particularly in the South, black people largely were illiterate.
Advance sheets of the 1870 Mississippi Census show that the black population of 444,896 people included 168,031 adult illiterates, or 37.8 percent of the race.
Published: October 27, 1891Copyright © The New York
Times
Of the at least 242 HBCUs in operation by 1908, at least 30 were started by the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. both before and after it created a
Board of Missions for Freedmen in 1865. The Presbyterian schools include five seminaries for black women in operation by 1898:
01 Alice Lee Elliott Academy, Valliant, OK
02 Arkadelphia Academy, Cotton Plant, AK
03 Barber-Scotia Junior College, Concord, NC
04 Boggs Academy, Keyesville, GA
05 Bowling Green Academy and Students' Home, Bowling Green, KY 06 Brainerd Institute, Chester, SC
07 Coulter Memorial Academy, Cheraw, SC
08 Fee Community Station and Memorial Institute, Nicholasville, KY 09 Fisk University, Nashville, TN 1866
10 Gould Academy, Chadbourn, NC
11 Harbison Institute, Irmo, SC
12 Hodge Academy, Washington, GA
13 Hot Springs Academy, Hot Springs, AK
14 Ingleside/Ingleside-Fee Seminary, Burkeville, VA
15 Irmo Church and Grade School, Irmo, SC
16 Johnson C. Smith University (formerly Biddle Institute), Charlotte, NC 1867
17 Kendall Institute, Sumter, SC
18 Larimer High School, Edisto Island, SC
19 Lincoln University, Lincoln, PA 1854
20 Margaret Barber Seminary, Anniston, AL
21 Mary Allen Junior College, Crockett, TX
22 Mary Holmes Seminary, West Point, MS 1892
23 Mary Potter-Redstone-Albion Academy, Oxford, NC
24 McClelland Academy, Newman, GA
25 Monticello Academy, Monticello, AK
26 Mt. Nebo School, Lone Star, SC
27 Nannie J. Gillespie-Selden Normal and Industrial School, Cordele, GA
28 Newton Community Center, Chattanooga, TN
29 Richard Allen Institute, Pine Bluff, AK
30 Swift Memorial Junior School, Rogersville, TN
The Presbyterian Church was so active in black education that its results regularly were reported at Atlanta University at the annual Conference for the Study of the Negro Problems, convened by W.E.B. Du Bois.
Also, the Presbyterian Church rates an entry in the 2010 Encyclopedia of African American Education. That entry includes the proclamation that Barber-Scotia and Johnson C. Smith colleges are responsible for a preponderance of black Presbyterians in the Carolinas.
1892-Opened in Jackson, MS
1895-Burned to ground
1897-Opened in West Point, MS, on 20 acres donated by the largely black citizenry
1899-Burned second time
1900-Opened again in West Point, MS, with virtually same design on same foundation
Mary Holmes catalogue 1908-1909
Location in West Point, MS, is on Mississippi Highway 50W (just west of the junction with Mississippi Highway 45W).
West Point, MS 39773.
The original 20 acres was expanded to more than 180 acres.
About 140 miles west of Birmingham and 150 miles southeast of Memphis.
Mary Holmes catalogues 1906-1907 and 1914-1915
1938 Works Progress
Administra-tion history
of Mississippi, part of the
Federal Writers’ Project
Excerpts from 1935 writing of Rev. Samuel J. Purvis of Youngstown, OH.
Campus scenes from 1914-1915 and 1925-1926 campus catalogues
Continuation of excerpts from 1935 writing of Rev. Samuel J. Purvis of Youngstown, OH.
Namesake and FoundersChristians, not CINOs
Rev. Mead Holmes (1819-1906) Co-founder
Mary Emilie Holmes, Ph. D. (1850-1906) Co-founder
Mary D. Holmes (xxxx-1890) Namesake
Mary D.Less is known about her than about her widower and daughter, and even her son, who preceded her in death.
Worked long and hard for the freedmen to earn the honor of having her name grace Mary Holmes Seminary. She regularly gave money and time.
After marrying Mead Holmes, she bore son Mead, Jr. in 1841 in upstate Ellicottville, NY, and bore daughter Mary Emilie in 1850 in Chester, NY, about an hour north of New York city.
Mary D. Holmes and the seminary named for her, pictured in the Rockford Daily Republic, June 18, 1906, p.1, as part of her widower’s obituary.
In 1853, when the children were ages 12 and 3, the family moved to Manitowoc, WI.
There for two years Mary D. had charge of a female seminary.
She led the family in demonstrating their care for native Americans and black people in earnest in Manitowoc.
The family moved to Rockford, IL, after Mead, Jr’s April 1863 death in Murfreesboro, TN, in the Civil War.
Served as secretary of the Womens Presbyterian Board of Missions of the Northwest.
Mead
Mead was a minister and local politician in Rockford for 42 years from 1864 to his death in 1906, just four months after his daughter’s death.
Mead wrote four books, including A Soldier of the Cumberland, a memoir of his son's life and Civil War experiences.
Among other sources, the book Rockford To-day, prepared by The Rockford Morning Star daily newspaper in 1903, includes information about Rev. Mead Holmes.
Obituary of Rev. Mead Holmes, as printed in the Rockford Daily Republic, June 18, 1906, p.1, cont’d. on p. 8.
After studying at Wesleyan University, he was ordained a Presbyterian minister in Buffalo, NY, in 1841.
He developed great interest in Sunday school work while in New York.
That led him to Sunday school mission work among native Americans in Manitowoc, WI, in 1855, where he became an abolitionist.
About Mary Holmes Seminary, Mead’s obituary says in part: “...(I)t was the hope of its founder, that it might forever commemorate the memory of his beloved wife.”
Volume 1 of Jane Addams’s selected papers includes a bio of the younger Mary Holmes on pages 209-212. Addams is the Nobel Peace Prize winner noted for her social work and founding of Hull House, which provided aid to poor working-class families in Chicago.
Mary EmilieEntered Rockford Female Seminary at age 14 and graduated with a certificate in 1868.
Traveled with her parents to the South as a missionary for the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen. Like her mother, held numerous church offices on behalf of the freedmen.
Studied organ performance at RFS and earned a second certificate in 1870. Taught Spencerian penmanship at RFS while earning her second certificate.
Taught botany and chemistry at RFS from 1877 to 1885.
Granted an A.B. degree when the school began issuing them in 1882.
Renowned zoologist and botanist, elected first woman fellow in the Geological Society of America in 1890, the year her mother died and she began to plan Mary Holmes Seminary.
With black minister Rev. Charles S. Mebane helped start Monticello Academy in Monticello, Arkansas, a school for black children, in 1891.
A history of Monticello Academy notes that:
By 1904, money had been raised for an additional structure at the school, but the racial tension surrounding the academy forced the board to close it temporarily. Mebane left Monticello for Hot Springs (Garland County), where he became head of the Hot Springs Normal and Industrial Institute, also known locally as Mebane Academy. Holmes went on to found the Mary Holmes Seminary in West Point, Mississippi.
Joined with other women of Presbyterian missionary societies to write and publish several books, including a novel titled Aida Rocksbege and the White Stone: Today's Problem, a Presbyterial Romance in 1897.
Aida Rocksbege is a story of a woman who discovers after her mother’s death that her mother was of African American heritage and then dedicates her life to establishing a seminary to mold leaders by educating black children in the rural South. It is widely believed to be autobiographical.
The Board for Freedmen tribute to Mary Emilie, as published in
Presbyterian Magazine.
...Reared under Christian influences, and inheriting from her parents a spirit of usefulness, she early learned to consecrate herself to Christian work, and to hold herself and her privileges ready for every call in behalf of the needy.
With a mind disciplined by study and developed by wide and varied experience, she devoted herself to the welfare of the negro, and grew more and more interested with the years in everything that promised the larger happiness and progress of the Feeedmen….
Obituary of Mary Emilie Holmes, as printed in the Rockford Daily Register-Gazette, Feb. 13, 1906.
The 1994 book by Samuel J. Rogal titled The Educational and Evangelical Missions of Mary Emilie Holmes (1850-1906): "Not to Seem, But to Be" is another good source of information about her.
...In the death of Miss Holmes Rockford has lost one of her most talented citizens and one whose achievements have made her name famous. What she has done cannot be measured, for the fruits of her best work, the founding of the Mary Holmes seminary, will ever grow as the influence of the girls in the southland extends into the life and activity of the negro race....
Specific training and activitiesMotto: Not to Seem, But to Be (James 1:25-27)
Mascot: Eagle (virtuous soaring, freedom in Christ)
School colors: Blue and white (Reminder of the commandments in Numbers 15:38-39, of the sky, and purity)
Marketing niche: Mississippi’s only Christian educator of black women. (An October 5, 1901, ad in The Freeman newspaper is typical of how the school marketed itself)
All detailed information about school curriculum and requirements comes from 1906-1915 catalogues, courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA, and the 1925-1926 catalogue, courtesy of the digital library at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Mary Holmes catalogue 1912-1913
Mary Holmes catalogue 1908-1909
Transcription:
Respect for constituted authority is absolutely necessary in the formation of character. Students that will not obey shall not stay.
Mary Holmes catalogue 1914-1915
Mary Holmes catalogue 1906-1907
Mary Holmes catalogue 1906-1907
Mary Holmes catalogue 1912-1913
Mary Holmes catalogue 1906-1907 industrial course above and 1925-1926 Domestic Science Cottage below.
Mary Holmes catalogue 1906-1907 industrial science program above and left. The garden, from 1925-1926 catalogue below.
Mary Holmes catalogue 1912-1913
Mary Holmes catalogue 1906-1907
Mary Holmes catalogue 1908-1909
Vocal music, Sewing and Domestic Science are taught through the entire course.
Mary Holmes catalogue 1908-1909
A boarding normal school student taking piano in 1906 would pay $77.00 in fees per year: Fall Enrollment $ 2.00
Fall Medical $ 1.00Fall Boarding $18.00
Fall Piano $ 7.50 $28.50
Winter Enrollment $ 2.00Winter Medical $ 1.00 Mary Holmes catalogue 1906-1907Winter Boarding $18.00
Winter Piano $ 7.50 $28.50
Spring Enrollment $ 2.00Spring Medical $ 1.00Spring Boarding $12.00
Spring Piano $ 5.00 $20.00
Mary Holmes catalogue 1908-1909
Break here before Part 2
Jerusha Olive Greer (Washington)(Lewis) Mary Holmes 1914
Ruth Ashmore Phillips (Davis) Mary Holmes 1913
Sallie Annabelle Greer (Henderson)) Mary Holmes 1909
Rosa Lee Greer (Phillips)Ingleside 1898
Charlotte Emma Ruth Greer (Cook) (Lundy) Ingleside 1906
Benjamin Louis GreerTuskegee 1891
James WardGreer Tuskegee 1897
Alfred MatthewGreer Tuskegee 1901
Former slaves Benjamin Franklin Greer and Anna Maria(h) Clark Greer reared nine children to adulthood, seven of whom graduated from college or normal school.
Two daughters and their first grandchild graduated from Mary Holmes Seminary, two other daughters graduated from Ingleside Seminary, three sons graduated from Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, and two children did not graduate, as shown on Greer Clan of Alabama Quilt, sewn for 50th anniversary reunion in 2004.
Mary ElizabethGreer (Rogers) No graduation
Ira David SankeyGreer No graduation
Greer Clan of Alabama graduates From And the Love of Anna Maria(h)
Sallie Annabelle, XI, about the time she graduated from Mary Holmes Seminary in West Point, Mississippi, 1909.
Sallie Annabelle Greer (Henderson) (1889-1959) Mary Holmes Seminary 1909
1914-1915 catalogue, 22nd year
1908-1909 catalogue, 16th year
Anna Maria(h) Clark Greer, Anderson Henderson, baby Evangeline Henderson, and Sallie Annabelle Greer Henderson leaving Birmingham for Cleveland, OH, in 1917.
In moving to several places in central Alabama, Benjamin and Anna Maria(h) were living in Brierfield when Sallie Annabelle was born November 15, 1889.
After graduating from Mary Holmes Seminary in 1909, Sallie then taught in public schools in Mississippi before teaching in Birmingham by 1914.
In 1916 she married Anderson Henderson in Birmingham, where the Greer Clan then was living.
In 1917 she moved to Cleveland, OH, where she helped found St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church. The Hendersons raised eight children there.
Excerpt and photo of Sallie Annabelle, c. 1959, when she died at age 70, from the Greer Clan heritage book With the Faith of Benjamin, p. 123.
Call and Post newspaper, Cleveland, OH, August 1959.
Excerpt from obituary:
The Henderson homestead at 3416 E. 140th St. was a landmark of family beauty and it was here that Mrs. Henderson reared her children who have become distinguished professionally and socially.
It was also from this address that she became distinguished for her commendable work in the Mt. Pleasant Mothers Club, Elder and Church Superintendent at St. Mark’s Church.
Ruth Ashmore Phillips (Davis) (1894-1925)Mary Holmes Seminary 1913
Ruth Ashmore Phillips, V/A, pictured second from right in 1912 official postcard of Mary Holmes Seminary.
1912-1913 catalogue, 20th year
Poetess for Class Day, May 20, 1913
Presented “Making Our Own Skylines” for commencement exercises, May 21, 1913
Ruth Phillips Grade Record, courtesy Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA.
1914-1915 catalogue, 22nd year
1914-1915 catalogue, 22nd year
1914-1915 catalogue, 22nd year
Ruth Ashmore was the oldest girl of the oldest girl.
Born in 1876 in Centreville, AL, her mother, Rosa Lee, V, was the oldest girl of Benjamin and Anna Maria(h), and her siblings called her Sister.
She began her family in Selma, AL, with her marriage to John Calvin Phillips. They had four children. After Ruth Ashmore in 1894 came John Benjamin in 1895, Lora Kate in 1897, and Lillian Mae in 1898. Rosa later married Jim Burke, also in Selma, and bore son Billie in 1901. Her final marriage was to Primus Moffitt.
Rosa Lee Ruth Ashmore
Ruth Ashmore Phillips Davis and Gus Davis, c. 1924.
After graduating from Mary Holmes in 1913 at age 19 and subsequently working there, Ruth Ashmore moved to Pittsburgh with the family in 1916 and married Gus Davis in 1920.
Ruth Ashmore with husband Gus Davis bore children Phillips Greer Davis in 1922 and Barbara Ruth Davis in 1924.
She died in 1925 at age thirty-one, leaving the training of her children to her family members.
Barbara (1924-1998) and Phillips (1922-2010) c. 1930.
Early African American Deaths in The Pittsburgh Courier: January 3,
1925-December 26, 1925By Marlene Garrett Bransom
Page 85-86
(Mistakes are as printed in obit.)
Saturday, May 23, 1925
RUTH ASHMORE DAVIS
Mrs. Ruth Ashmore Davis, aged 31 years died Sunday, May 11, 1925, in the
Uniontown Hospital after an illness of seven months. She was born in Alabama, Jan.
25, 1894. She had been a member of church since 10 years of age. She leaves to
mourn their loss a husband, two children, a mother, Mrs. R.L. Moffit, of New
Kensington; four step-children, Leroy, Robert, Margaret and Janet; two sisters, Mrs.
Lora K. Williams, of New Kensington; Mrs. Lillian Martin, of E. Pittsburgh; a
brother, William Burk, New Kensington; a grandmother, Mrs. A. M. Grier, of
Alabama; a mother-in-law, Mrs. S. M. Davis, and a host of relatives and friends.
Funeral services were held from Zion A. M. E. church, Rev. W. Roy Smith, assisted
by Rev. La Grange, officiating.
One of many letters Anna Maria(h) wrote to family members in which she asks about and expresses love for her first great-grandchildren, Barbara and Phillips.
Anna Maria(h) wrote this one to her daughter Rosa Lee in her 90th year, 1940, two years before her death.
A letter in Anna Maria(h)’s handwriting and this transcription are included on pp. 17 and 18 of the Greer Clan heritage book With the Faith of Benjamin.
Jan. 16, 1940 Dear Rosa, I’m overjoyed to hear you’re cured of dropsy. Oh, I am proud to hear it. I hope it won’t return. It’s certainly very cold. I put on my high-top shoes today. Benny and Ward are recovering from their sick fit. Thank the Lord, through my many prayers sent up for them, the Lord has restored them back to health. I heard you and Barbara were at Benny’s. I miss Barbara and Phillips. Oh, I want some of Lora’s cooking. Where is Billie? He does his own thing. I don’t see David Sankey often. It’s been two months since I’ve seen him. Much love to Barbara and Phillips. Lovingly,Mother
After Ruth Ashmore’s death, her children, Barbara and Phillips, were reared and educated by various Greer Clan members.
Her daughter grew to become a devoutly Christian nurse, teacher, and minister mother of six.
Her son grew to become a model Christian husband and father of four. One of his daughters is principal of the Urban League’s charter school in Pittsburgh.
Jerusha Olive, XIII, and her first two children, Walton Decatur Washington, Jr. and baby James Franklin Washington, 1920, in Pittsburgh/New Kensington, PA.
Jerusha Olive Greer (Washington) (Lewis) (1896-1981) Mary Holmes Seminary 1914
1914-1915 catalogue, 22nd year
Olive Greer Grade Record, courtesy Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA.
Jerusha Olive Greer Washington Lewis (1896-1981) circa 1960, in Cleveland, OH.
Jerusha Olive Lewis bore ten children with husbands Walton Decatur Washington and George Laney Lewis.
The children are Walton, Jr., James Franklin Washington, Olive Elizabeth Lewis Jones Raullerson, Martha Winifred Lewis Bullock, George Edward Lewis, Leonard Paul Lewis, Joseph Frederick Lewis, who died in infancy, Melvin Laney Lewis, Geraldine Annette Lewis Bennett, and Gerald Dennis Lewis.
After settling in New Kensington, Olive in 1948 moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where the Lewis home, along with that of Olive’s sister Sallie, was a focal point for Greer family members who visited there. With activities such as becoming an ordained minister, raising adopted children, graduating from Amherst
College, and operating successful companies, Olive’s children and grandchildren carry out the Greer Clan and Mary Holmes Seminary values.
Continuation of Jerusha Olive Greer Washington Lewis 1981 obituary.
From the Christian eras of Mary Holmes Seminary, Ingleside Seminary, and Tuskegee Institute, Greer Clan of Alabama members have gone on to be educated at others of America’s best institutions.
These include Smith, Wellesley, Spelman, Sarah Lawrence, Harvard, Columbia, Penn, Amherst, Duke, Morehouse, and Fisk.
Greer Clan members largely have retained their Christian focus, as a family spawned from enslaved morally educated people; we remain people of faith. Hence, the family heritage book title With the Faith of Benjamin.
While the Greers continued to reflect Mary Holmes’ early mission, the school itself did not.
Industrial High SchoolMinnehaha AcademyAntioch CollegeEmerson CollegeWestminster CollegeSouthern Illinois UniversityAmherst CollegeFranklin and Marshall Univ.Slippery Rock UniversityCheyney State UniversityClarion State UniversityIndiana University of Pa.
P. 41 of With the Faith of Benjamin.
After 40 years of Christian education for black women, from 1892 to 1932, in 1932 Mary Holmes became coeducational.
For a time it retained its primary role in training elementary teachers for the South.
In 1959 the high school department was dropped and the school operated under the name Mary Holmes Junior College.
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture describes the Presbyterian
Church’s 1933 closure of many of its black schools, which often included normal school departments, thusly:
“On June 1, 1933, to the dismay of the African-American community, many
Presbyterian schools across the South, including the Monticello Academy, were
closed, and black students were left at the mercy of the mostly inferior public
schools.”
End of an era to school’s demise
In 1969 the school began operating under the name Mary Holmes College, with a four-year program and its own Board of Trustees, no longer operated by an arm of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.
School began to become politically active under black presidents.
Also around the late 1950s and 1960s the school was under scrutiny by the state government equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan, operating under the name of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. The commission’s records were sealed by court order in 1977. Some were opened in 1998 and full documents were made available online in 2002.
The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission was created by an act of the Mississippi legislature on March 29, 1956. The agency was established in the wake of the May 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Like other states below the Mason-Dixon Line, Mississippi responded to Brown with legislation to shore up the walls of racial separation.
The Commission's objective was to "do and perform any and all acts deemed necessary and proper to protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi, and her sister states . . .from perceived encroachment thereon by the Federal Government or any branch, department or agency thereof." To exercise this loosely defined objective, the Commission was granted extensive investigative powers.
The Commission compared itself to the FBI and the armed services intelligence agencies, "during times of war seeking out intelligence information about the enemy and what the enemy proposes to do."
Plan in 1969 to go from junior to four-year college
“But what college officials say should be hailed with enthusiasm by area residents, primarily because the expansion is bringing more than six million dollars into the local economy in new construction alone over the next 12 months, is being greeted with guarded pessimism by many West Point residents.”
Plan to go from 400 to 2,000 students
“This alarms some citizens who have expressed fears the college may become a center for militant Negroes ready to march upon the town with demands, an extension of what has happened with many other southern Negro colleges ….”
Sample Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission letter.
During the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Mary Holmes struggled to stay afloat as a college. Unable to attract adequate money, administrators, faculty or students, Mary Holmes College lost its accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 2002.
It offered its last class in 2003 and its Board of Trustees announced that the school’s operations were suspended.
The board voted on April 22, 2004, to pursue bankruptcy.
The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. assumed control of the property on February 1, 2005.
The school announced on March 3, 2005, that it had closed its doors permanently.
Recent alumni of the school operate an alumni group on Facebook under the name
Mary Holmes College Alumni Preservation Project
and scheduled their 5th alumni reunion for March 13-16, 2014, in West Point,
Mississippi.
Conclusion
You now know the basics of Mary Holmes Seminary.
Christianity was the initial focus of Mary Holmes and many of the first HBCUs
Mary Holmes is one of hundreds of now defunct HBCUs and secondary schools
You can learn some of the telling details of your ancestry from HBCU documents
Please use this information to be encouraged to research HBCU documents for your family story and help make such documents available to others.
Contribute to the HBCU Newspaper History Project, especially the first 12 HBCU student newspapers. Visit aahgsnashville.org
Help process unprocessed HBCU collections
I’ll close with an excerpt about Mary Holmes Seminary that we include in the HBCU Newspaper History Project. This video clip from the Mary Holmes College Alumni Preservation Project both provides nostalgia about the school’s heyday of Christian education for black women and shows how the school veered from its original intent by the time it closed for good in 2005.
Works Cited:
"100 Years of Progress." Daily Times Leader Centennial Edition. West Point, MS: Daily Times Leader,
11 July 1958. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.<http://books.google.com/books/about/
100_Years_of_Progress.html?id=RDISGwAACAAJ>.
“Alumni Register, Rockford College, 1911/1912.” Heirlooms Reunited. Heirlooms Reunited, 19 Dec.
2010. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. <http://heirloomsreunited.blogspot.com/2010/12/
19111912-alumnae-register-rockford.html>.
“American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.” The Missionary Herald, Vol. 63.
Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1867. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. <http://books.google.com/
books?id=zwbPAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false>.
Anyabwile, Thabiti M. The Decline of African American Theology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007. Print.
Bransom, Marlene Garrett. ed. Early African American Deaths in The Pittsburgh Courier: January 3,
1925-December 26, 1925. Apollo, PA: Closson Press, 2012. Print.
Bryan, Mary Lynn and Barbara Bair. eds. The Selected Papers of Jane Addams: vol. 1: Preparing to
Lead, 1860-81. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Web. 9 Feb. 2014. <http://books.google.com/books?
id=esQ39v7TutUC&pg=PA211&dq=mary+holmes+seminary&hl=en&sa=X&ei=T3PhUs-KGNSDkQe8-
4CoCA&ved=0CGUQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=mary%20holmes%20seminary&f=false>.
Butchart, Ronald E. Schooling the Freed People: Teaching, Learning, and the Struggle for Black
Freedom, 1861-1876. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina, 2010. Print.
Calloway, Josephine. “The Negro Migration: Effects on Home Life.” Southern Workman 46:409-11, Jul.
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Extra links
Tuskegee unrest
Ruth Smith on Anna Maria(h) Clark Greer in Slave Grandchildren Remember Project
