Swift Memorial College

The state of Tennessee passed an extension of law in 1901 to their version of the 1870 Jim Crow law, which forced private schools such as Maryville College to expel their African American students. That same year in 1901, Maryville College trustees transferred USD $25,000 to Swift Memorial College, a quarter of the school's endowment.

File:W. H. Franklin.png

The school was founded by Rev. William Henderson Franklin (1852–1935), who was the first African American to graduate from Maryville College (1880) in Maryville, Tennessee.{{Cite book |last= |url=https://archive.org/details/churchat24pres/page/143/mode/1up?view=theater |title=Church at Home and Abroad, The (July–Dec. 1898) |date=1898 |publisher=Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work |author=Presbyterian Historical Society |location=Philadelphia, PA |pages=143 |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o_USAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA65 |title=Who's Who in Colored America |date=1927 |publisher=Who's Who in Colored America Corporation |pages=65 |language=en |chapter=Franklin, William Henderson |via=Google Books}} It was named after Rev. E.E. Swift from Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, after his widow donated USD $1000.{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xJ5JAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA6-PA13 |title=Reports of the Boards |date=1913 |publisher=Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. General Assembly |pages=13 |language=en}}

Swift Memorial College was supported by the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen and Maryville College, and it expanded the campus in 1903 to include dormitories, and the following year in 1904 they began a four-year college curriculum.{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hoFKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA549 |title=Negro Education: A Study of the Private and Higher Schools for Colored People in the United States |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office, United States Office of Education |year=1917 |pages=549 |language=en |via=Google Books}} Franklin served as the school principal from the opening in 1883 until his retirement in 1926.

In 1932, the Hawkins County School District and Swift Memorial entered an agreement to use Swift Memorial to teach Black public high school students.{{Cite book |editor-last=Savage |editor-first=Beth L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wjZIkchWX5AC&pg=PA463 |title=African American Historic Places |date=1995-07-13 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |others=National Register of Historic Places |isbn=978-0-471-14345-1 |pages=463 |language=en |via=Google Books}} During this time period of segregation, the only public high school for Black students in the city was Price Public Elementary School (which now houses the Swift Museum) which acted as a feeder school for Swift Memorial.

Notable people associated with the school include Merl R. Eppse, who worked as a former dean;{{cite news |date=February 9, 1961 |title=Author To Speak Today In Honor Of History Week |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/318059954/?terms=%22Merl%2BR.%2BEppse%22 |url-access=limited |work=Tampa Bay Times |location=St. Petersburg, Florida |page=27 |via=Newspapers.com}} and William A. Scott Jr., the founder of the Scott Newspaper Syndicate who attended as a student.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Jessie Carney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=steLXpuOONEC&pg=PT367 |title=Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events |date=2012-12-01 |publisher=Visible Ink Press |isbn=978-1-57859-425-2 |pages=367 |language=en |via=Google Books}}

By 1955, the former campus buildings for Swift Memorial College were converted to community use and a school. In 1964, the building was demolished. The town of Rogersville has a historical marker in honor of the former school, erected by Tennessee Historical Commission.{{Cite web |title=Swift Memorial College Historical Marker |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=91869 |access-date=2024-05-31 |website=Historical Marker Database |language=en}}

• St. Marks Presbyterian Church (Rogersville, Tennessee)

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• Video: [https://video.kera.org/video/the-swift-story-the-first-african-american-university-yoezth/ The Swift Story: An African-American University] (2019), from KERA-TV/PBS

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Category:African-American history in Appalachia

Category:Buildings and structures in Hawkins County, Tennessee

Category:Defunct black public schools in the United States that closed when schools were integrated

Category:Defunct schools in Tennessee

Category:Educational organizations established in 1883

Category:Educational organizations disestablished in 1952

Category:Historically segregated African-American schools in Tennessee

Category:Presbyterian schools in the United States

Category:Rogersville, Tennessee