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The
Institution’s history dates back to 1874 when a group of Presbyterians from
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, headed by the Reverend Doctor Charles Allen Stillman,
presented an overture to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the
United States asking the Church to establish a training school for Black male
ministers. Authorized by the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States in 1875,
Stillman held
its first classes in the Fall of 1876 and was chartered as a legal corporation
by the State of Alabama in 1895. In
the years that followed, the young school enlarged its academic program. In
1898, the school, now named Stillman Institute in honor of Dr. Stillman who had
died in 1895, moved to its present location in the western section of
Tuscaloosa. The General Assembly of 1899 approved the opening of the school to
all who wished to enter. This
decision led to the second phase of Stillman’s growth.
In the next five decades, with the aid of the Church and under the able
leadership first of Professor W.F. Osburn and later of Professor A.L. Jackson,
the school grew in size and expanded in purpose.
During these years, the school acquired its present campus tract of over
100 acres, organized a junior and senior high school and established a junior
college program, which was accredited in 1937. In addition between 1930 and 1946,
it operated a hospital and nurses training school. These
accomplishments led into the third and present phase of Stillman’s history,
which dramatically links Stillman’s continuing vital educational role and the
changing face of the South. This
phase grew out of the following elements: the raising of educational aspirations
created by the College’s concentration on Christian- inspired education rather
than training for the ministry, the stiffening of state requirements for
teaching certificates and the gradual but inevitable increase in employment
opportunities for blacks. With
the administration of Dr. Samuel Burney Hay, from 1948 to 1965, the school
sought to pursue a goal to which both the demands of the times and its own
developing concept of its educational purpose directed it; namely, a senior
liberal arts institution. In 1948,
the name was changed to Stillman College, and the following year Stillman was
expanded into a four-year college. Stillman graduated its first baccalaureate class in 1951 and
was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1953.
Under Dr. Hay, seven new buildings were constructed: a gymnasium, a library, an
administration-classroom building, two women’s residence halls, a prayer
chapel, and a college center. Dr.
Harold N. Stinson, the first African American to assume the presidency, served
from 1967 to 1980. New programs designed to improve educational quality were
instituted, and new facilities added included two men’s residence halls,
faculty apartments, a maintenance building, and a mathematics-science center.
Snedecor Hall, Batchelor Building, and Birthright Auditorium were
renovated. Dr.
Cordell Wynn, the fourth President, served from January 1982 through June
1997. During Dr. Wynn’s tenure,
the appearance of the campus improved dramatically; Winsborough and John Knox
Halls were renovated; and the Marie Lundy Wynn Hall and Johnson/Robinson Center
were erected. Under his leadership
the enrollment grew beyond 1,000; the endowment increased significantly; and the
educational program was broadened to include the Stillman Management Institute
and a community-service component.
Dr. Ernest McNealey |
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