Roger Williams University (Nashville, Tennessee)
Roger Williams University in Nashville, Tennessee was an historically black college. It was created in 1866 as one of numerous schools established in the South by the American Baptist denomination, and became the largest Baptist college in the area for educating African Americans. Protestant mission groups sponsored new educational facilities for the freedmen. The college was named for Roger Williams, the founder to the First Baptist Church in America. Daniel W. Phillips, a white minister and freedmen's missionary from Massachusetts, taught the first classes. It helped educate numerous African-American teachers and other leaders in the South throughout the 19th century, including William Madison McDonald, who became an influential Republican politician in Texas.
In 1929, the university became involved in mergers that eventually culminated in the formation of LeMoyne–Owen College.[1][2] Here you can read a history marker History Marker Roger Williams University
Notable alumni and faculty
- Allen Allensworth
- Newell Houston Ensley
- Betty Hill
- Elijah P. Marrs - faculty in 1874
- William Madison McDonald
- Inman E. Page was briefly president of Roger Williams in 1920 and 1921.
- Randal B. Vandavall co-founder and early trustee