Bluefield State College
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
1934 color postcard of Bluefield College. Courtesy of Marshall University Special Collections.
Bluefield Administrative Building (Conley Hall) 1930. Courtesy of West Virginia State Archives via www.wvculture.org
First football team (1914). Courtesy of West Virginia Archives, Ancella Bickley Collection via www.wvculture.org
Memphis Tennessee Garrison (1890-1988). Courtesy Of Ohio University Press, publishers of Ancella R. Bickley & Lynda Ann Ewen, eds., "Memphis Tennessee Garrison: The Remarkable Story of a Black Appalachian Woman" (Athens, 2001)
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
From Bluefield State College's Official Website:
"To serve the racially segregated public schools in the coal camps, progressive citizens of both races worked together to establish Bluefield Colored Institute, a ―high graded school for Negroes,‖ in 1895. The institution thereafter evolved into a Black teacher‘s college, adopting formal teacher training in 1909 and was renamed ―Bluefield State Teachers College‖ in 1931. The name ―Bluefield State College‖ was adopted in 1943, reflecting a growth in the number and diversity of the institution‘s academic programs.
Bluefield State College was integrated after 1954. By the 1960s, the College had a comprehensive four year program of teacher education, arts and sciences, and engineering technology. Gradually, a variety of two year technical programs evolved in response to local needs."
During the late 1960s controversy ensued where Black students protested what they saw as state intervention transforming this historically Black college into a white commuter college. Allegations were spread that Black faculty were being fired and replaced by less-than qualified staff. November 21, 1968, the college's gymnasium was destroyed by a bomb. The then Gov. Hulett C. Smith offered a $5,000 award and closed the dormitories which made things worse since it caused out of state Black students living in the dorms to be effectively homeless. In the end the college became a more predominate white college. Soon after tensions ended and the gym rebuilt.
Memphis Tennessee Garrison, a native of Huntington, WV, a teacher, Civil Rights advocate and important member of the NAACP (from 1920s until her death in 1988) was an alumni of Bluefield.