Louisville Municipal College
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Louisville Municipal College was located in Louisville, Kentucky, USA and was the first state supported school for African-Americans in the state of Kentucky.
The school was first opened on November 25, 1879 at the intersection of 7th and Kentucky Streets, with the Rev. Elijah P Marrs as its president. One year later, Marrs stepped down and was replaced by William J. Simmons, an ex-slave who had greatly developed Howard University's teacher training programs. By 1893 the school had 159 students, and by 1900 it was offering professional degrees in nursing and law in cooperation with the University of Louisville. Despite its success, the school fell on hard times financially.
In 1918, Charles Parish, Sr became president of the school, now called State University, and improved the school's endowment and academic offerings. In 1930, the school was made a "colored" branch of the University of Louisville and was renamed Louisville Municipal College.
In 1950 the University of Louisville desegregated, making the LMC campus obsolete. The campus was closed and mosts of its faculty were forced to find jobs at other universities. One member, Charles Parrish Jr, joined the Department of Sociology, becoming the University of Louisville's first African-American faculty member. Today there is a park on the campus named for him. Parrish Jr is also known for attending the Highlander School (a school of peace) with Rosa Parks, the woman who started the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
