Philander Smith University

Former names

| Walden Seminary (1877–1882), Philander Smith College (1882–2023)
Type| Private historically black college
Established| 1877

Religious affiliation

| United Methodist Church

Academic affiliations

| UNCF
Endowment| $3 million
President| Cynthia Bond Hopson
Students| 760
Location|

Little Rock, Arkansas

U.S.

|u}}rs| Green and gold

Nickname| Panthers
Website| www.philander.edu

Philander Smith University (previously Philander Smith College) is a private historically black college in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and is a founding member of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). Philander Smith College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 1.1 Rankings and Education Conservancy
* 2 Campus
* 3 Athletics
* 3.1 Accomplishments
* 4 Notable alumni
* 5 Notable faculty
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links

## History

Budlong Hall, c. 1910. Built 1883, demolished 1963.[1]

Philander Smith College was officially founded in 1877 under the name of Walden Seminary to provide educational opportunities for emancipated slaves west of the Mississippi River. In 1882 the school was renamed Philander Smith College in honor of the financial contributions of Adeline Smith, widow of Philander Smith. It was chartered as a four-year college in 1883 and conferred its first bachelor's degree in 1888. In 1933, it merged the assets of the George R. Smith College in Sedalia, Missouri, which burned down in 1925.[2] In 1943, Philander Smith was accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

During the Civil Rights Movement, Philander Smith College was a pioneer in activism: many of its students engaged in nonviolent resistance against segregation laws or customs (such as sitting in at "whites-only" lunch counters).

On August 1, 2023, the college announced the addition of its first ever master's degree program and the change of its name from Philander Smith College to Philander Smith University. [3]

### Rankings and Education Conservancy

Walter Kimbrough, former president of Philander Smith College, joined the Education Conservancy in criticizing the annual U.S. News & World Report college rankings; he signed a letter circulating among college presidents that asks them to refrain from participating in the peer assessment portion of the survey.[4][5]

## Campus

Short description: United States historic place

Philander Smith College Historic District

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

U.S. Historic district

Location| Roughly bounded by 13th, 11th, Izard, and State Sts., Little Rock, Arkansas
Area| less than one acre
Architect| Almand, John Parks
Architectural style| Colonial Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, et al.
NRHP reference #| 99000229[6]
Added to NRHP| September 13, 1999

Campus

Harry R. Kendall Center, home to the Dr. Joycelyn Elders School of Allied and Public Health.

Cox Administration Building

The school campus is located in central Little Rock. Interstate 630 (the Mills Freeway) was constructed just north of the campus, which is bounded by 10th and 14th streets to the north and south, and Gaines and Chester streets to the east and west. The core of the campus was originally built for Little Rock Junior College (now the University of Arkansas at Little Rock), and a two-block section of it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. One of its centerpieces is the former U.M. Rose School building, now the Cox Administration Building, designed by the noted Arkansas architect John Parks Almand in 1915, when he was working for Charles L. Thompson. The campus also includes the "Old Gym", a gymnasium built by the WPA during the Great Depression; and a former barracks building of the Camp Robinson Air Force Base, which was moved here in 1948.[7]

## Athletics

The Philander Smith athletic teams are called the Panthers. The college is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) since the 2011–12 academic year. The Panthers previously competed as an NAIA Independent within the Association of Independent Institutions (AII) from 2009–10 to 2010–11.

Philander Smith competes in ten intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include basketball, cross country and track & field (indoor and outdoor); while women's sports include basketball, cross country, track & field (indoor and outdoor) and volleyball; and co-ed sports include cheerleading.

### Accomplishments

The 2012–13 Philander Smith men's basketball team made history by bringing home their first GCAC conference tournament title.[8]

On February 21, 1989, the Philander Smith women's basketball team gained a 92–89 victory over Rust College of Holly Springs, Mississippi, on their court, ending the longest home-court winning streak in NCAA Division III women's basketball history.

## Notable alumni

Name  | Class year  | Notability  | Reference(s)

|
|
|

"Geese" Ausbie  |  | former Harlem Globetrotters player and coach  |
Al Bell  |  | founder of Stax Records and former president of Motown Records  |
John A. Bell  | 1951  | Director of the Education and Secondary Education Division of the Office of Civil Rights, United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare  | [9]
Isaac M. Burgan  |  | President of Paul Quinn College from 1883–1891, 1911–1914  |
Deon Cole  |  | comedian  |
James Hal Cone  | 1958  | major figure in systematic theology and liberation theology |
L. Clifford Davis | 1945  | civil rights, attorney, judge  | [10]
Joycelyn Elders  | 1952  | former Surgeon General of the United States  |
Stephanie Flowers  |  | Arkansas State Senator since 2011 and former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from Pine Bluff  | [11]
Scipio Africanus Jones  | coursework before transfer to Shorter College | lawyer and businessman  |
Calvin King  | 1975  | farm developmer, and the President of the Arkansas Land and Farm Development Corp  |
Amina Claudine Myers  |  | musician  | [12]
Elijah Pitts  | 1961  | former Green Bay Packers player  |
Devon Scott  |  | basketball player in the Israel Basketball Premier League  |
Lottie Shackelford  |  | former mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas  |
Robert L. Williams  | 1953  | prominent figure in the history of African-American psychology  |

## Notable faculty

Name  | Department  | Notability  | Reference

|
|
|

Lee Lorch  |  | mathematician and civil rights activist  |
Georg Iggers |  | historian  | 10

## See also

* National Register of Historic Places listings in Little Rock, Arkansas

## References

1. ↑ "Budlong Hall". Philander Smith College. https://pscdigitalarchive.omeka.net/items/show/60.
2. ↑ "Philander Smith College - SoulOfAmerica". http://www.soulofamerica.com/7723.0.0.1.0.0.phtml.
3. ↑ Philander Smith College name change — from college to university
4. ↑ Kamara, Margaret (28 June 2007). "Are U.S. News Rankings Inherently Biased Against Black Colleges?". Diverse Issues in Higher Education. http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_7831.shtml.
5. ↑ "Growing Challenge to 'U.S. News'". 18 May 2007. http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/05/18/usnews.
6. ↑ "National Register Information System – (#99000229)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010. https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/99000229.
7. ↑ "NRHP nomination for Philander Smith College Historic District". Arkansas Preservation. https://www.arkansasheritage.com/docs/default-source/national-registry/PU9799-pdf.
8. ↑ "Panthers Bring the GCAC Championship Home". http://www.philanderathletics.com/article/65.php.
9. ↑ "Coaches Named At Vocational". The Louisiana Weekly (New Orleans, Louisiana): p. 9. July 25, 1959. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114418974/the-louisiana-weekly/.
10. ↑ Kilpatrick, Judith. "Desegregating the University of Arkansas School of Law: L. Clifford Davis and the Six Pioneers". https://arkansasblacklawyers.uark.edu/articles/ahq68-2.pdf.
11. ↑ "Stephanie Anne Flowers". intelius.com. http://www.intelius.com/results.php?ReportType=1&formname=name&qf=Stephanie&qmi=&qn=Flowers&qcs=Pine+Bluff,+AR&focusfirst=1.
12. ↑ Lewis, George E. (2008). A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. University of Chicago Press. pp. 127–128.

## External links

* Official athletics website

* v
* t
* e

Gulf Coast Athletic Conference

* Dillard
* Edward Waters
* Philander Smith
* Southern–New Orleans
* Stillman
* Talladega
* Tougaloo
* Voorhees
* Xavier Louisiana

* v
* t
* e

International Association of Methodist-related Schools, Colleges, and Universities

* Adrian
* Alaska Pacific
* Albion
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* Oklahoma City
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* Pacific
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* West Virginia Wesleyan
* Wiley
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* Wofford
* Young Harris

* v
* t
* e

Historically black colleges and universities

Public
institutions|

* Alabama A&M
* Alabama State
* Albany State
* Alcorn State
* Arkansas–Pine Bluff
* Bishop State CC
* Bluefield State
* Bowie State
* Central State
* Cheyney
* Coahoma CC
* Coppin State
* Delaware State
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* South Carolina State
* Southern
* Southern–New Orleans
* Southern–Shreveport
* Tennessee State
* Texas Southern
* UDC
* UVI
* Virginia State
* West Virginia State
* Winston-Salem State

Private
institutions|

* Allen
* Arkansas Baptist
* Barber–Scotia
* Benedict
* Bennett
* Bethune–Cookman
* Claflin
* Clark Atlanta
* Dillard
* Edward Waters
* Fisk
* Florida Memorial University
* Hampton
* Howard
* Huston–Tillotson
* Interdenominational Theological Center
* Jarvis Christian
* Johnson C. Smith
* Knoxville
* Lane
* LeMoyne–Owen
* Livingstone
* Meharry
* Miles
* Morehouse
* Morehouse School of Medicine
* Morris Brown
* Morris
* Oakwood
* Paine
* Paul Quinn
* Philander Smith
* Rust
* Selma
* Shaw
* Simmons College (Ky.)
* Southwestern Christian
* Spelman
* Stillman
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* Talladega
* Texas College
* Tougaloo
* Tuskegee
* Virginia Union
* Virginia University
* Voorhees
* Wilberforce
* Wiley
* Xavier (Louisiana)

Defunct
institutions|

* Bishop
* Booker T. Washington
* Carver
* Collier-Blocker
* Concordia Alabama
* Daniel Payne
* Gibbs
* Guadalupe
* Hampton
* Jackson
* Johnson
* Kittrell
* Lewis College of Business
* Lincoln Junior College
* Mississippi Industrial College
* Morristown
* Mount Hermon Female Seminary
* Roosevelt
* Rosenwald
* Saint Paul's
* Storer
* Straight
* Suwannee River
* Volusia County
* Western

Consortia|

* Atlanta University Center
* Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
* Southwestern Athletic Conference

[ ⚑ ]  34°44′13″N 92°16′57″W﻿ / ﻿34.73686°N 92.28249°W﻿ / 34.73686; -92.28249

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