Spelman Presidents: Manley, Cole, Tatum

Posted on 07. Jul, 2009 by Leshell Hatley in HBCU Presidents, Places of Scholarly Work, Scholarly Celebrations

Continuing our celebration of African-American Presidents of HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges / Universities), we focus on three from Spelman College. Each President has merit in his and her own right and could be featured alone, however, we thought these three together would make a great feature!

Albert Edward Manley was the first African-American Male President of Spelman (1953-76), Johnnetta Betsch Cole became the first African-American female President (1987-97), and Beverly Daniel Tatum is the current African-American female President (2002-present).

Spelman College started in 1881 in a church basement by two missionaries, Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles, providing quality education to black women and girls. It was first named Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary and its first study body consisted of approximately 10 female students – most former slaves and 1 young girl. But soon, the basement became overcrowded with students and with the help of John D. Rockefeller, the school moved to a nine-acre site once used as army barracks by Union troops during the Civil War. In 1884, the school became Spelman Seminary after John D. Rockefeller’s wife, Laura Spelman Rockefeller, in gratitude John D. Rockefeller and his donation. Spelman Seminary became Spelman College in 1924 after considerable expansions in curriculum and organization.

Manley, Cole, Stewart

Albert Edward Manley, one of Spelman’s only two male presidents, became the first African-American male President in 1953. Under his administration, Spelman’s enrolled and physical footprint grew considerable. Dr. Manley graduated from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C., in 1930. He earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Teachers College in 1938 and a doctorate from Stanford University in 1946. Donald Mitchell Stewart, the second of the two male presidents, served as president after Manley from 1976-86.

Johnnetta Betsch Cole

In 1987, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., became the first African-American female President of Spelman College. She spearheaded the most successful capital campaign in the history of the college by raising $113.8 million, which included a gift of $20 million from comedian Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille Hanks Cosby. Dr. Cole is a descendent of Florida’s first black millionaire Abraham Lincoln Lewis. She enrolled in Fisk University at age 15, but transferred to Oberlin College, where she completed a B.A. in sociology in 1957. She attended graduate school at Northwestern University, earning her masters (1959) and Ph.D. (1967) in anthropology. Dr. Cole received honorary degrees from Bates College in 1989, Mount Holyoke College in 1998, Mills College in 1999, Howard University in 2009.

Beverly Daniel Tatum

Beverly Daniel Tatum, Spelman’s current African-American Female President, began her tenure in 2002.S She is Spelman’s 9th president. Born four months after the 1954 ruling, Beverly Daniel Tatum calls herself an “integration baby. She is the author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations about Race and Can We Talk about Race? and Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation, her latest book. Dr. Tatum was raised in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. She earned a B.A. in psychology from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and a M.A. and Ph.D in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan. She also holds a M.A. degree in Religious Studies from Hartford Seminary.

When asked “Why, 50 years after Brown, is a place like Spelman still relevant?”, Dr. Tatum responded, “When young black women come to Spelman, they see a lot of energetic women who look like them. That’s a powerful magnet, to say, ‘This place was built for me!’ That’s not to say a black student can’t get a good education at a majority white institution. [But] it can be very powerful to be in a place where the focus – if there is a focus on your gender or race – it seen as a positive and not a disadvantage.”

Spelman is part of the largest consortium of historically Black institutions of higher learning in the world. Its four partner institutions include Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College and Morehouse School of Medicine. Spelman shares cross-registration with its undergraduate partners. They also share the Robert W. Woodruff Library.

Today, Spelman has more than 2,100 students from 41 states and 15 foreign countries. It employes more than 84% full-time faculty with PhDs or other terminal degrees. Student-faculty ratio is 11:1.

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If you know someone who should be featured on BSI, please let us know immediately, featured@blackscholarsindex.com

More Related posts:

1. BSI mourns Jasmin Lynn, Spelman Student who died this morning
2. Dr. Andrew Williams Promoted to Chair CS Dept. @ Spelman
3. Taylor Yarborough: Freshman Spelman Student & Tavis Smiley Foundation Honoree
4. John Hope: First African-American President of Morehouse College
5. Jonecia Keels: Computer Science Junior @ Spelman, One to watch!

Tags: Albert Edward Manley, American Educational Research Association, Beverly Daniel Tatum, change, Clare College, Clark Atlanta University, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Dianne Crouch, Dr. Martin Luther King, HBCU Presidents, Head of the UCLA Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program, honorary Doctor of Letters and Laws degree from Paine College, Inc., James Weldon Johnson, Jamestown Project, John D. Rockefeller, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Laura Spelman Rockefeller, Morehouse College, PhD, Shaker Heights High School, Spelman College, Tesimonials, Wake Forest University, Walter Sammons, Who’s Who in the East and Who’s Who Among Black Americans