Page 6B - THE CHARLOTTE POST - Thursday, November 7, 1985
Historical Facts
The Johnson G. Smith University Story
Johnson C. Smith Uni
versity was established in
response to a definite need.
The lack of educational
opportunities for black stu
dents in this region was
frustrating, and in 1867 two
far-sighted ministers took
command. At a meeting of
the Catawba Presbytery in
the old Charlotte Presby
terian Church, the Reve
rend S. C. Alexander and
the Reverend W. L. Miller
announced plans to create
a school for North Caro
lina Freedmen. A pledge of
$1,400 from Mrs. Mary D.
Biddle of Philadelphia led
to a campaign to name the
school in honor of her late
husband. Major Henry
Biddle. And so, Biddle Me
morial Institute, later to be
known as Biddle Univer
sity, was chartered by the
state legislature. Eight
acres of land donated by
Colonel W. R. Myers of
Charlotte became the site
of this new school for young
men of all ages.
In 1921 and 1922, through
the geneirosity of Mrs. Jane
Berry Smith of Pitts
burgh, the university ex
perienced spectacular
growth. Her donations built
a theological dormitory,
science hall, teachers’
cottage, and memorial
gate. She then established
a major endowment in the
name of her late husband.
In recognition of these con
tributions the university, in
1923, amended its charter
to reflect its new name:
Johnson C. Smith Universi
ty. Over the next five
years, Mrs. Smith con
tinued to donate funds, en
abling the university to
build five more buildings,
including a campus
church.
In 1929, Johnson C.
Yolanda Goode, 18, a freshman from Burlington, was
in the Golden Bull spirit Tuesday at the student pep
rally.
BUILSi
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nized as a four-year col
lege. The high school pro
gram had been eliminated;
the curriculum had been
limited to liberal arts and
sciences and a theological
department, and plans
were laid to begin admit
ting women. Thirty years
later, coinciding with the
celebration of its Diamond
Jubilee, Johnson C.
Smith was a fully co
educational liberal arts in
stitution.
The Duke Endowment,
established by James B.
Duke of New Jersey and
Charlotte, the United
Negro College Fund and
various other sources
funded major development
on the campus between
1955 and 1%8. Seven new
buildings were erected, in
cluding the James B. Duke
Memorial Library, the Uni
versity Memorial Union,
and a new gymnasium.
Dramatic advancement
was also occurring in the
curriculum, changes which
were noted by Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., when he
spoke on the occasion of the
University’s Centennial
Celebration.
Today, the tradition of
progress continues at a
heightened pace. Building
goes on; plans for a
Center for the Humanities
and the Arts and a new
health care facility are
being finalized. Always re
membering its past and its
cause, that of providing
educational opportunities
in the context of a whole
some and supportive en
vironment, Johnson C.
Smith is now looking to
ward the future, and
building upon its reputation
as a center for academic
excellence.
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