CHAPTER III

BENNETT COLLEGE

Background. As a result of two outstanding events in l889, a new era for Bennett College had begun. One event, already described, was the chartering of the school as a college by the North Carolina Legislature. A second event was the appointment of a Negro president, Dr. Charles N. Grandison.‘I

The appointment of Bennett's first Negro president, Dr. Grandi= son, was significant in three ways. First, the school had just ac- quired the official recognition and rights of a college. The person who assumed the increased prestige and responsibilities of this office was honored. Second, Dr. Grandison was the first Negro to be chosen president of any of the Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society

2 numbering twenty-one at the time.3 Thus, in 1889, Bennett

schools, College and its president must have been highly respected, and deserve ing of that respect, throughout the South and the Methodist Episcopal Church. Third, all presidents following Dr. Grandison were also Ne- groes.

1N. C. Conference, Minutes, 1889, advertisement, back page; and Woman's Home Missionary Society, Ninth Annual Report, 1889-1890, p. 71.

. 2Arnett, 23. cit., p. l06° Arnett reports that it has been said that Professor Charles H. Moore influenced the Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society to appoint Dr. Grandison.

3Freedmen's Aid Society, Twenty-Second Annual Report, l889,

p. 7.