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}} Bennett College is a private four-year historically black liberal arts college for women. Located in Greensboro, NC, it was founded in 1873 as a normal school educating newly emancipated slaves. It became a women's college in 1926 and is one of only two historically black colleges that enroll women only. Today it serves roughly 780 undergraduate students. == History == Bennett College was founded August 1, 1873 as a normal school for seventy African American men and women (former slaves). The school's founder Albion W. Tourgee was an activist in the second half of the 19th century who championed the cause of racial equality contributed greatly to the colleges' inception. The school held its inaugural classes in the basement of Warnersville Methodist Episcopal Church North (now St. Matthew's United Methodist) in Greensboro. Bennett as a coeducational school at the time (offered both high school and college level courses), and remained so until 1926. The year after its founding, the school became sponsored by the Freedman's Aid Society and Southern Education Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Bennett remained under the Freedman's Aid Society for 50 years. In 1878, newly emancipated slaves purchased the land which the colleges stands today. Hearing of what was being done, New York businessman Lyman Bennett provided $10,000 in funding to build a permanent campus. Bennett died soon thereafter, and the school was named Bennett Seminary and a bell was created in his honor. Hearing of Bennett's philanthropy his coworkers continued his mission by providing the bell for the school.〔http://www.bennett.edu/pdf/Student%20Handbook%202012-2013.pdf〕 In 1888, Bennett Seminary elected its first African-American president, the Reverend Charles Grandison. Grandison spearheaded a successful drive to have the school chartered as a four-year college in 1889. As to which, two of the first African American bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church were graduates of the college. One being bishop Robert Elijah Jones an 1895 graduate and brother of future president David Dallas Jones. Under the direction of Reverend Grandison, and the direction of the president who followed him (Jordan Chavis), Bennett College grew from 11 undergraduate students to a total of 251 undergraduates by 1905. The enrollment leveled out in the 1910s at roughly 300. In 1916, a survey taken by the Phelps-Stokes Foundation recommended Bennett College be turned into a college for women. After doing research and finding there was not a four-year college for African American women only,(Bennett was chartered as a college in 1889) the Woman's Home Missionary Society sought a school for that purpose. The Board of Education of North Carolina offered Bennett College for that task. Ten years of searching for a location and funding for the construction of a new campus (a new location was sought in Lynchburg, Virginia), the Women's Home Missionary Society and The Board of Education of North Carolina decided to keep the college in its current location since it was already an established institution. Bennett fully transitioned into a women's college in 1926. Note: The Women's Home Missionary Society's on campus involvement with Bennett women dates back to 1886.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/bennett-college-concentrated-educating-black-women )〕 In 1926, David Dallas Jones' installment as President placed Bennett College on a pinnacle of new heights. Under Jones, Bennett College expanded and the student body grew to 400. Known as the Vassar College of the south, diversity was added to the campus with faculty, staff and student body, bringing individuals from all cultural and ethnic backgrounds to the college. Although his leadership of the college was very accomplished, it was also marred with controversy. In 1937, Bennett students protested downtown Greensboro, NC movie theaters because of the depictions of black women in film and segregation of movie theaters. The successful protest and boycott was led by Bennett College freshwoman Frances Jones (daughter of David D. Jones). Due to this protest in the height of Jim Crow in the south, Jones was visited by the FBI and other government agencies, ordering him to force the students from protesting, he refused. He defied all odds once again when he invited first lady Eleanor Roosevelt to the college to meet with an integrated group of school aged children (black and white) from the Greensboro community March 22, 1945. Other visitors to the campus included Benjamin Elijah Mays – former Morehouse College president, poet Robert Frost and James Weldon Johnson. Jones led the college for almost 30 years until he became ill in 1955, naming Willa B. Player interim president.〔 Note: (Bennett's brother college is Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. This relationship developed through the close and historic friendship of David Dallas Jones and Benjamin E. Mays.) In October 1956, Willa Beatrice Player was inaugurated as President of Bennett College. She was the first African American woman to be president of a four-year, fully accredited liberal arts college or university. During Player's tenure, Bennett was one of the first historically black colleges to receive Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation in 1957. On February 11, 1958 she allowed controversial civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. to speak at the school when he was not allowed to speak anywhere else in Greensboro, NC. His iconic speech "A Realistic Look At Race Relations" was delivered to an overpacked audience at Bennett College's Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel. On King's visit to the college, Player was quoted "Bennett College is a liberal arts college where freedom rings so King can speak here." King's visit to the college along with Howard Thurman and Benjamin Elijah Mays (in order of visit to the college) is what sparked the Bennett Belles to plan and to lead protests in Greensboro.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bennett College」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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