SPELMAN COLLEGE HISTORY
Spelman, one of the nation’s most highly regarded colleges for women, was founded by Sophia B. Packard
and Harriet E. Giles, Baptist missionaries who were commissioned in 1879 by the Woman’s American
Baptist Home Mission Society of New England to study the living conditions “among the freedmen of the
South.” Appalled by the lack of educational opportunities for Black women, the missionaries returned to
Boston determined to effect change. On April 11, 1881, they opened the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary in
the basement of Atlanta’s Friendship Baptist Church where Father Frank Quarles served as the pastor. The
Atlanta Baptist Seminary opened with $100 provided by the congregation of the First Baptist Church of
Medford, Massachusetts. The first eleven pupils were ten women and one girl, all determined to learn to
read and write. Some were former slaves.
Through the philanthropy of John D. Rockefeller, nine acres and five frame buildings were purchased for the
school. In gratitude for his generosity, the school’s name was changed from Atlanta Baptist Female
Seminary to Spelman Seminary for Women and Girls in 1884, to honor the parents of his wife, Laura
Spelman Rockefeller. During the first decades of its existence, the Seminary grew to include an enrollment
of nearly 800 pupils, and curricular offerings expanded to include high school and college programs of
instruction, teacher training, missionary training, and nurses’ training.
By 1924, the school’s administrators were clearly focused on developing the college program. On June 1,
1924, the name of the school was officially changed from Spelman Seminary to Spelman College. Spelman
became a flourishing liberal arts college. Although Spelman’s educational emphasis has changed with the
times over its 134 year history, its basic aims and mission have remained the same – to educate and inspire
young women to achieve academic excellence and intellectual, creative, and ethical leadership and global
service.
Spelman College Presidents
Mary Schmidt Campbell
2015–present
Beverly Daniel Tatum
2002–2015
Audrey Forbes Manley
1997–2002
First Alumna President
Johnnetta Betsch Cole
1987–1997
First Black Woman President
Barbara Carter
January – June, 1987
Acting President
Donald M. Stewart
1976–1987
Albert E. Manley
1953–1976
First Black President
Florence M. Read
1927–1953
Lucy Hale Tapley
1910–1927
Lucy H. Upton
1909–1910
Acting President
Harriet E. Giles
1891–1909
Sophia B. Packard
1881–1891
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