“To give colored youth a solid and sample education in the arts and sciences…”
Year One: 25 Students. $48.00 Tuition
In 1883 in a back room at St. Mark Presbyterian church history was being made.
Reverend, Dr. William Henderson Franklin – the first Black graduate of Maryville College in Maryville, TN. had been assigned to pastor St. Mark’s Church of Rogersville. But beyond saving souls, Dr. Franklin had a vision of improving the lives of newly emancipated Blacks through moral and practical education. Upon arriving in Rogersville Franklin went to work establishing an institute of learning. That institute would become : Swift Memorial College.
An Enduring Legacy
History will not allow the erasure of Swift Memorial College. Though its accreditations were unceremoniously stripped, its buildings demolished, and its existence integrated into oblivion, we strive to preserve the memory of this once great institution and its uncompromised role in local Black History.
A Man on a Mission
Rev. Dr. William Henderson Franklin of Knoxville, a devout Presbetryan , felt a personal duty to aid and guide newly emancipated Blacks. For 10 years Franklin held classes at St Mark’s Presbyterian Church, where he was the pastor. There were 25 students in enrolled that first year.
Growth & Development
Swift Memorial Institute became Swift Memorial College offering a four-year curriculum. Swift Memorial had 208 students, 10 teachers, and a budget of $12,000. Two wings were added to the main building to expand the women’s dormitory
Why ‘Swift’ College
Ten years after the school’s founding, Franklin’s academy saw its first structure actualized and named in honor of the Reverend Elijah E. Swift, president of the Board of Missions for Freedmen and pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Pennsylvania.
Yet Swift Persists
Tennessee State Department of Education and the U.S. Bureau of Education determined that Swift Memorial could only achieve junior-college status. Reverend Franklin retires soon after and is succeeded by the Reverend Dr. C. E. Tucker. Despite the setback Swift Memorial Junior College continued to expand its facilities.
Endowed from on High
When Plessy V. Ferguson (Separate but Equal) forced Franklin’s alma mater, Maryville College, to close its doors to Black students, the trustees transferred $25,000, reportedly 1/4 of the college’s endowment, to Swift Memorial Institute. The school began to thrive.
A Giant’s Passing
After 52 years of dutiful service to Swift College and the community of Rogersville founder, Rev. Dr. William Henderson Franklin dies in 1935 at the age of 83 and is laid to rest on the front lawn of the school he founded. Five years later his wife Laura Franklin passed and was buried beside him.
Swift Marches On
Dr. Hargrave retires and is followed by Robert E. Lee, who had served the college since 1926 as a teacher, coach, and dean. Under Lee’s management Swift Junior College expanded to include an Industrial Arts Department, a gymnasium, a home economics cottage, and an expanded library. But sadly, darker times were ahead. The ‘neccesity’ of an all Black college would soon be in question.
Changing Tides
With “Seperate But Equal” overturned, the Presbyterian Board of Missions ends its support of Swift. The college is forced to close its doors and become a public high school under the directorship of Hawkins County. The county orders Swift College’s main 3 story Admissions building destroyed, and integrates “Swift High,” all but erasing the historic presence of the area’s first Black institute of higher learning.
The Persistence of Legacy
Swift Memorial College casts a long shadow in Rogersville. Today, three of the school’s remaining buildings serve as offices for the Hawkins County schools. Hawkins County still owns the land that was Swift’s campus – but in 2008 Swift Museum (housed in the Price Public Community Center), opened to the public with the mission to collect, preserve, and present the past for the education and enjoyment of present and future generations.
Swift Memorial College
“The success of the work has been due to the fact that God was in the work; labor, faith and prayers behind it; the help of a great Church beneath it, and the pressing need of a great race before it.”
