Fisk University

Fisk University

Former names	The Fisk Freed Colored School
Motto	Her sons and daughters are ever on the altar
Type	Private, HBCU
Established	1866
Affiliation	United Church of Christ (historically related)
Chairman	Robert W. Norton
President	Frank L. Sims (interim president)
Provost	Rodney S. Hanley
Academic staff	70
Students	700+
Location	Nashville, Tennessee, USA 36°10′08″N 86°48′17″W / 36.1688°N 86.8047°W / 36.1688; -86.8047Coordinates: 36°10′08″N 86°48′17″W / 36.1688°N 86.8047°W / 36.1688; -86.8047
Campus	Urban, 40 acres (16 ha)
Colors	Gold and Blue
Athletics	NAIA – independent (previously GCAC)
Nickname	Bulldogs
Mascot	The Fisk Bulldog
Affiliations	UNCF ORAU CIC
Website	www.fisk.edu

Fisk University (or simply Fisk) is a private historically black university founded in 1866 in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The 40-acre (160,000 m²) campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1930, Fisk was the first African-American institution to gain accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Accreditations for specialized programs quickly followed.

In 1866, six months after the end of the American Civil War, leaders of the northern American Missionary Association (AMA) – John Ogden, Reverend Erastus Milo Cravath, field secretary; and Reverend Edward Parmelee Smith – founded the Fisk Free Colored School, for the education of freedmen. AMA support meant the organization tried to use its sources across the country to aid education for freedmen. Enrollment jumped from 200 to 900 in the first several months of the school, indicating freedmen's strong desire for education, with ages of students ranging from seven to seventy. The school was named in honor of General Clinton B. Fisk of the Tennessee Freedmen's Bureau, who made unused barracks available to the school, as well as establishing the first free schools for white and black children in Tennessee. In addition, he endowed Fisk with a total of $30,000. The American Missionary Association's work was supported by the United Church of Christ, which retains an affiliation with the university. Fisk opened to classes on January 9, 1866.

With Tennessee's passage of legislation to support public education, leaders saw a need for training teachers, and Fisk University was incorporated as a normal school for college training in August 1867.James Dallas Burrus, John Houston Burrus, Virginia E. Walker, and America W. Robinson were the first four students to enroll at Fisk in 1867 and upon graduation Broughton and the two Burrus' were the first African Americans to graduate from a liberal arts college south of the Mason-Dixon line. Robinson graduated as well and became a member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Walker became a noted missionary while the Burrus brothers were both prominent educators and, during their careers, professors at Fisk. Cravath organized the College Department and the Mozart Society, the first musical organization in Tennessee. Rising enrollment added to the needs of the university. In 1870 Adam Knight Spence became principal of the Fisk Normal School. To raise money for the school's education initiatives, his wife Catherine Mackie Spence traveled throughout the United States to set up mission Sunday schools in support of Fisk students, organizing endowments through the AMA. With a strong interest in religion and the arts, Adam Spence supported the start of a student choir. In 1871 the student choir went on a fund-raising tour in Europe; they were the start of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. They toured to raise funds to build the first building for the education of freedmen. They raised nearly $50,000 and funded construction of the renowned Jubilee Hall, now a designated National Historic Landmark. When the American Missionary Association declined to assume the financial responsibility of the Jubilee Singers, Professor George L. White, Treasurer of the University, took the responsibility upon himself and started North in 1871 with his troupe. On April 12, 1873, the Jubilee Singers sailed for England where they sang before a fashionable audience in the presence of the Queen, who expressed her gratification at the performance.