Morristown College
Beginnings
December 18, 1865, officially marked the centuries-long battle over slavery in the young United States of America. The past 5 years had been marked by the bloodshed of the American Civil War as the conflict over the slave society reached its peak. Now, with the end of hostilities between North and South and the official end of the slave system in the United States, 4 million African Americans, nearly one-eighth of the US population, were free.
The subsequent passing of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution further aided these newly freed persons. But, what was to become of a people terrorized and traumatized by centuries of oppression? What were a people, dehumanized and broken, to do in a nation actively opposed to equity and full inclusion?
The slave society had touched nearly every place. Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee included. Embedded within the slave society, too, was the Methodist Episcopal Church. Earlier in 1844, the major Methodist denomination, the Methodist Episcopal Church, had splintered between North and South. Neither denomination was cleansed from the trappings and pitfalls of the slave society. The conclusion of the Civil War did little to bring reunification between the fractured church.
As early as 1875, the Methodist Episcopal Church (North) had supported a separate and segregated plan for the church. In this area, particularly in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, the Holston Conference of the MEC endorsed the creation of a separate conference for African Americans. The result would be the creation of the East Tennessee Conference in 1880. Still, under the auspices of white clergy, the East Tennessee Conference began its own ministerial and administrative endeavors.
Citing a lack of higher education for recently freed persons, the East Tennessee Conference launched Morristown Seminary.
Dr. Judson S. Hill
Mrs. Almyra H. Stearns
Soon, under the leadership of Bishop Henry H. Warren, Dr. Judson S. Hill was sent to Morristown, Tennessee to organize and open a school for African Americans. The school began in a one-story building previously used as a slave mart and Union hospital. The school, with the help of a Presbyterian layperson named Almyra Stevens, immediately enrolled pupils aged from as young as seven years old to as old as seventy.
The immediate goal of the newly founded "Morristown Seminary" was to provide basic schooling. Literacy, arithmetic, and basic grammar gave recently freed African Americans larger control of their own destiny.
With the financial assistance of the newly formed East Tennessee Conference, and the lay-led Freedmen's Aid Society, Morristown Seminary rapidly grew through the end of the century and well into the turn of the century.
Student Body 1884
Early Faculty
The Next Century
As the 20th century began, Morristown Seminary prospered. As the school slowly transformed from Morristown Seminary to Morristown Junior College and Morristown Normal and Industrial College in 1901, prospects were high. New building projects such as Larura Yard Hill Hall, Wallace Hall, Cary Hall, and the Gymnasium were completed. Soon, athletics were introduced as well.
In 1931, following Dr. Judson S. Hill’s death, J. W. Haywood became the first person of color to be elevated as President of Morristown Normal and Industrial School.
Around the school, the East Tennessee Conference, and in particular, the Freedman’s Aid Society, established monetary funds and fundraising causes to support educational opportunities for those in the area of the conference. Further, conferences from around the East Tennessee Conference, both Black and White, contributed immensely to the upkeeping and continuance of Morristown College.
1939 would be a monumental year in the history of the Methodist cause in America. The three largest Methodist denominations, the Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist Episcopal Church South, and Methodist Protestant Church, met in Kansas City, Missouri, uniting to form the Methodist Church. However, segregation and Jim Crow still plagued American culture and society. A key compromise to the Uniting Conference of 1939 would be the establishment of the Central Jurisdiction. The Central Jurisdiction formalized and centralized segregation in the polity of the Methodist Church. African Americans were further separated and divided from their place in the Methodist church.
Meanwhile, Morristown Normal and Industrial College would continue on under the segregated Methodist Church and still feel the impact of the Jim Crow South. In 1960, Morristown Normal and Industrial College formally became Morristown College and, in 1961, received full accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Though not a four-year college, Morristown College operated as a junior college, forming and preparing young students to take their talents to various other colleges and universities. More often than not, students transferred to other historically Black colleges and universities.
Later Years and Into the Next Century
The 1960s would prove pivotal for both society and the church. The Civil Rights Movement swept across the United States. Jim Crow and segregationist laws were attacked and dismantled. The United States placed itself at the crossroads of progress and unity. In the spirit of this age, the Methodist Church, too, saw a new way forward. In 1968, the largest Methodist bodies, the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren, merged to form the United Methodist Church. Under the rules of the merger and growing pressure from African Americans, the Central Jurisdiction was formally abolished and dismantled. However, segregated conferences still persisted till 1972 under the watchful eye of the newly formed Commission on Race and Religion.
The East Tennessee Conference formally ended in 1968 with the merger. Earlier in 1939, members of the East Tennessee Conference saw the Uniting Conference as the time for the complete dismantling of a segregated church. Some, however, saw the United Conference of 1939 as a further spiral into the hands of segregation and racism. As a result, the conference slowly saw decreasing attendance and membership numbers. 1968 would see the absorption of the East Tennessee Conference into the Holston Conference.
In 1968, Morristown College officially came under the direction of the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church. The following 20 years of Morristown College saw the college slowly decline in standing. Attendance began to drop, financial difficulties became too big of burdens to carry. Various United Methodist Conferences from across the country contributed to the Black College Fund to help and support Black colleges, universities, and junior colleges, but not enough to keep all afloat.
By the mid-1980s, Morristown College stood on a crumbling foundation. Inadequate support from the Holston Conference and general educational tendencies of Americans slowly shifted away from the junior college model Morristown College supported. African Americans in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, after decades of segregation and abuse, had slowly trickled away from the area. In 1989, Knoxville College formally acquired Morristown College, intending to use the campus as a satellite location. Yet, enough damage had been done already. In 1994, Morristown College officially closed, and by 2017, all buildings had been demolished and cleared from the former property.
Today and the Future
