Whitworth Female College was a Methodist women's college in Brookhaven, Mississippi, founded in 1858 by Milton Whitworth. It is a Mississippi Landmark.
Whitworth Female College was a Methodist women's college in Brookhaven, Mississippi, founded in 1858 by Milton Whitworth. It is a Mississippi Landmark.
The college was founded in 1858 [1] by Milton J. Whitworth, [2] opened in 1859, [3] and disestablished in 1984. [1] It was associated with the Mississippi Methodist Conference until 1938. [4]
During the Civil War the college was used as a Confederate hospital and managed to reopen after the war's end. [2]
In August 1878, local freemasons laid the cornerstone for a new brick building at the college, into which a time capsule was placed. Both U.S. Senator from Mississippi Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II and Jefferson Davis were expected to attend the ceremony but were "unavoidably absent." [5]
In 1925 the College was first accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. [4] In 1928 the College began operation as a two-year institution associated with Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. [4] In 1938, because of financial difficulties, the board of trustees of the College voted to cease operations and merge the school with Millsaps College. [4] The city of Brookhaven bought the campus and leased it out to various short-lived colleges between 1941 and 1984, when all educational operations at the location ceased. [4]
In 2003 the state of Mississippi opened the Mississippi School of the Arts on the grounds of the former college. [6]
During his term as Governor of Mississippi (1904-1908), white supremacist politician James Kimble Vardaman, known as the "Great White Chief," spoke at the college and was presented with a bouquet and the following poem:
TO THE "WHITE CHIEFTAIN."
White flowers to our chieftain white,
Brookhaven's daughters send;
To welcome him with glad delight
The Southland's truest friend.
Be not afraid! Thou white man's chief,
The Anglo-Saxon Race
Has yet to bend its neck beneath
A victor's cruel mace.
The blood is yours on land and sea
Uphold thro' its supremacy. [7]
Millsaps College is a private liberal arts college in Jackson, Mississippi. It was founded in 1890 and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
Lincoln County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 34,907. Its county seat is Brookhaven. The county was created by the legislature on April 7, 1870, during the Reconstruction Era. It was formed from portions of Lawrence, Pike, Franklin, Copiah, and Amite counties. It was named for Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. Lincoln County comprises the Brookhaven, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Jackson–Vicksburg–Brookhaven Combined Statistical Area. The county is southwest of the state capital of Jackson.
Copiah County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,368. The county seat is Hazlehurst.
Crystal Springs is a city in Copiah County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 5,044 as of the 2010 census, down from 5,873 in 2000. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Hazlehurst is a city in and the county seat of Copiah County, Mississippi, United States, located about 30 miles (48 km) south of the state capital Jackson along Interstate 55. The population was 4,009 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its economy is based on agriculture, particularly tomatoes and cabbage.
Brookhaven is a small city in Lincoln County, Mississippi, United States, 55 miles (89 km) south of the state capital of Jackson. The population was 11,674 people at the 2020 U.S. Census. It is the county seat of Lincoln County. It was named after the town of Brookhaven, New York, by founder Samuel Jayne in 1818.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement on this issue had been increasing in strength for decades between churches of the Northern and Southern United States; in 1845 it resulted in a schism at the General Conference of the MEC held in Louisville, Kentucky.
Lane College is a private historically black college associated with the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and located in Jackson, Tennessee. It offers associate and baccalaureate degrees in the arts and sciences.
Lincoln University is a public, historically black, land-grant university in Jefferson City, Missouri. Founded in 1866 by African-American veterans of the American Civil War, it is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. This was the first black university in the state. In the fall 2023, the university enrolled 1,799 students.
Charles Betts Galloway Jr. was an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1886. In his day, he was "the best-known and most influential personality in the Methodist world." He was also instrumental in the formation of Millsaps College.
Clay Foster Lee Jr. is a retired American Bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1988.
The Mississippi School of the Arts (MSA) is an upper high school of literary, visual, and performing arts on the historic Whitworth College Campus in Brookhaven, Mississippi, about sixty miles (100 km) south of Jackson, Mississippi. MSA teaches 11th and 12th grade students. The site has 6 buildings designated as Mississippi Landmarks, and the campus is also notable as being on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The renovation or construction of the campus facilities, as a historic site, are ongoing and rely upon additional funding to make capital improvements.
A Mississippi Landmark is a building officially nominated by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and approved by each county's chancery clerk. The Mississippi Landmark designation is the highest form of recognition bestowed on properties by the state of Mississippi, and designated properties are protected from changes that may alter the property's historic character. Currently there are 890 designated landmarks in the state. Mississippi Landmarks are spread out between eighty-one of Mississippi's eighty-two counties; only Issaquena County has no such landmarks.
Mississippi Industrial College was a historically black college in Holly Springs, Mississippi. It was founded in 1905 by the Mississippi Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. After desegregation of community colleges in the mid-20th century, it had trouble competing and eventually closed in 1982. The campus was listed as a historic site on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and was acquired by Rust College in 2008.
Grenada College was a college for women, founded by Baptists, in Grenada, Mississippi in 1850.
Jim C. Barnett was an American physician and politician who served from 1992 to 2008 in the Mississippi House of Representatives.
Lulah Ragsdale was an American poet, novelist, and actor from the U.S. state of Mississippi. She was one of the state's first women writers. Her novels included The Crime of Philip Guthrie, 1892; A Shadow's Shadow, 1893; Miss Dulcie from Dixie, 1917; Next-Besters, 1920. Her short stories appeared in periodicals such as The Lotus, The Smart Set, The Delineator, Young's Magazine, and Today's Housewife , while Ragsdale's poetry appeared in The Times-Democrat, The Chap-Book , Harper's, Magazine of Poetry, The Boston Arena, and Munsey's Magazine. Along with poetry, she also studied drama, and was a successful actress. Ragasdale also wrote a few plays and screenwrites were picked up for some of her novels, including the 1919 American silent drama film, Miss Dulcie from Dixie. However, it was Ragsdale's novels, written in the 1890s through the 1920s, which earned her a reputation as a writer.
Lucy Ann Kidd–Key was an American educator and music college administrator from the U.S. state of Kentucky. She founded and served as first president of the North Texas Female College, of Sherman, Texas, the first woman south of the Mason–Dixon line to hold such a position.
Brookhaven Academy (BA) is an independent, co-educational college preparatory school in Lincoln County, Mississippi, near Brookhaven. The school was founded in 1970 as a segregation academy.
Annie Coleman Peyton was cofounder of the Industrial Institute and College in Columbus, Mississippi in 1884 and served as an instructor at that institution from 1891 until her death in 1898.