ABSTRACT
Le Moyne-Owen, Olivet, and Tusculum Colleges are products of long and proud histories. LeMoyne-Owen, a historically Black college, traces its roots back to 1862, when the American Missionary Association (ΑΜΑ) sent Miss Lucinda Humphrey to open an elementary school for “freedmen” near Memphis, Tennessee. Four years later, the Lincoln School, as it was then called, was burned in a race riot following the pullout of federal troops. The school was rebuilt and reopened the following year with 150 students and six teachers in the city of Memphis. In 1871, with a $20,000 gift from Dr. Francis Julius LeMoyne, a wealthy benefactor and a member of the ΑΜΑ, the school began its work educating Black teachers and raising up leaders for the Black community in Memphis and Shelby County. In 1924 LeMoyne became a junior college, in 1934 it first offered a bachelors degree, and in 1968, LeMoyne merged with a nearby normal school, Owen College, and became LeMoyne-Owen College.
