Louisville Municipal College

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Louisville Municipal College was a historically black college located in Louisville, Kentucky which existed from 1931 to 1951.

In 1920, a bond issue for funding of University of Louisville (which required a two-thirds affirmative vote) failed in part due to Negro opposition, as the bond issue would have used taxes of Negros, however University of Louisville did not allow Negros to attend.^[1] In 1925, after compromises including sharing 10% ($100 thousand of the $1 Million of the bond) proceeds with a College for Negros.^[2]

Progress on the College for Negros was delayed by the deaths of two University of Louisville Presidents while in Office: President Arthur Younger Ford (President from 1914 to 1926) and his successor, George Colvin (President from 1926 to 1928).^[2][3]

The school was founded on the former location of Simmons College of Kentucky. Simmons, founded in 1879 had had its location at Seventh and Kentucky forclosed in 1930,^[4] Simmons College continued operations elsewhere in Louisville, eventually returning to the Seventh and Kentucky location in 2006.^[5]

Deans of Louisville Municipal College:^[2]

• Rufus Early Clement, 1931–1937
• David A. Lane, 1937–1942
• Bertram W. Doyle, 1942–1950

In the last year before the merger, Louisville Municipal College did not have a dean.

The school newspaper was The Bantam.^[6]

The college had chapters of the following National Pan-Hellenic Council Fraternities and Sororities.

• Alpha Phi Alpha - Alpha Pi chapter - May 7, 1934^[7]
• Alpha Kappa Alpha - Beta Epsilon chapter - November 6, 1933^[8]
• Kappa Alpha Psi - Alpha Omicron chapter - June 15, 1933^[9][10]
• Delta Sigma Theta - Xi chapter - April 15, 1922^[11] (originally chartered at Simmons College)
• Phi Beta Sigma - Tau chapter - April 25, 1925^[12] (originally chartered at Simmons College)
• Sigma Gamma Rho - Delta chapter - 1930s^[13]
• Zeta Phi Beta - Delta Alpha chapter - 1934^[14]

The football team was the Bantams.^[15]

Football seasons ran from at 1931 to 1949 and included 1946 and 1947.^[16][17][18]

Basketball was also played through 1950^[19]

• Elmer Lucille Allen - Ceramic artist and chemist
• Leon Bibb (musician) - American folk singer
• Fannie R. Givens - artist, missionary, and political activist
• Cynthia Jenkins - American librarian, community activist, and politician from New York.
• Alberta Odell Jones - African-American attorney and civil rights icon
• Georgia Davis Powers - First African American and first woman elected to the Kentucky State Senate.^[20]

• Earl Brown - American Negro league pitcher, journalist, and politician
• Rufus Early Clement - American academic administrator and university president, first dean of LMC.
• Donald Anderson Edwards - African American physicist
• Eliza Atkins Gleason - African American librarian
• Virginia Lacy Jones -African American librarian
• Dwight T. Reed - Football coach at LMC and Lincoln University in Missouri
• Hazel Browne Williams - African American librarian

• Louisville Municipal College (LMC) scrapbook, University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections
• Louisville Municipal College records, University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections