Organization:Wiley College
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Former names | Wiley University (1873–1929) |
|---|---|
| Motto | Go Forth Inspired |
| Type | Private historically black college |
| Established | 1873 |
Religious affiliation | United Methodist Church |
Academic affiliations | UNCF IAMSCU CIC[1] |
| Endowment | $27 million |
| Chairman | Billy R. Casey |
| President | Herman J. Felton Jr. |
| Provost | Howard O. Gibson |
| Students | 1,100 |
| Location | Marshall, Texas , U.S. [ ⚑ ] : 32°32′12″N 94°22′45″W / 32.5367°N 94.3792°W |
| Campus | Rural, 134 acres (54 ha) |
| |u}}rs | Purple, Black, White & Gray |
| Nickname | Wildcats |
| Mascot | Wiley the Wildcat |
| Website | wileyc |
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Wiley College is a private historically black college in Marshall, Texas. Founded in 1873 by the Methodist Episcopal Church's Bishop Isaac Wiley and certified in 1882 by the Freedman's Aid Society, it is one of the oldest predominantly black colleges west of the Mississippi River.[2][3]
In 2005–2006, on-campus enrollment approached 450, while an off-campus program in Shreveport, Louisiana, for students with some prior college credits who seek to finish a degree, enrolled about 250. By fall of 2006, total enrollment was about 750. By fall of 2013, total enrollment reached over 1,000. Wiley is an open admissions college and about 96% of students receive some financial aid.[4]
Over a 15-year period, Melvin B. Tolson's debate teams lost only one of 75 debates. Wiley's debate team competed against historically black colleges and earned national attention with its 1935 debate against University of Southern California's highly ranked debate team.[5]
Academics
Wiley College offers bachelor's degrees through four academic divisions.[6]
- School of Business and Social Sciences
- School of Education and Sciences
Civil Rights Movement
Wiley, along with Bishop College, was instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement in Texas. Wiley and Bishop students launched the first sit-ins in Texas in the rotunda of the Old Harrison County Courthouse to protest segregation in public facilities.
James Farmer, son of James L. Farmer, Sr., graduated from Wiley and became one of the "Big Four" of the Civil Rights Movement. Together with Roy Wilkins, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Whitney M. Young Jr., James Farmer helped organize the first sit-ins and Freedom Rides in the United States.[7][8]
Debate team
Tony Scherman's article about the Wiley College debate team for the 1997 Spring issue of American Legacy sparked a renewed interest in its history.[9] The success of the 1935 Wiley College debate team, coached by professor and poet Melvin Tolson, was the subject of a 2005 AMS Pictures documentary, The Great Debaters, The Real Great Debaters of Wiley College, which received heavy play around Texas, followed by the 2007 dramatic movie, The Great Debaters, directed by and starring Denzel Washington. In 1935, the Wiley College debate team defeated the reigning national debate champion, the University of Southern California (depicted as Harvard University in The Great Debaters).
In 2007, Denzel Washington announced a donation of $1 million to Wiley so the team could be re-established.[10][11] The following year, The Great Debaters movie debuted, starring Washington; the college's debate team has taken this name, too.
In 2014, the 23-person team won 1st place at the Pi Kappa Delta Comprehensive National Tournament. This was the largest Pi Kappa Delta Tournament in their 101-year history. This was the first national speech and debate title won by an HBCU. Three years later, the college led the establishment of the first HBCU National Speech and Debate League.[12] In 2018, Wiley hosted the first HBCU National Speech and Debate League Tournament.[13]
Athletics
The Wiley athletic teams are called the Wildcats. The college is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) since the 2022–23 academic year.[14] The Wildcats previously competed in the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC) from 1998–99 to 2021–22. They were also a founding member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) from 1920–21 to 1967–68, which is currently an NCAA Division I FCS athletic conference.
Wiley competes in ten intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, soccer and track & field. Women's sports include basketball, cross country, soccer, track & field and volleyball. Wiley the Wildcat is the mascot. Former sports included cheerleading.
On January 20, 2022, Wiley received an invitation to join the GCAC, along with Oakwood University (from the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA)) and the return of Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO), effective beginning in July 2022.[14] The GCAC is an athletic conference affiliated with the NAIA.
Gallery
Haywood L. Strickland Hall at Wiley College
Julius S. Scott, Sr. Chapel at Wiley College
Dogan Hall at Wiley College
Thirkield Hall at Wiley College
The Fred Thomas Long Student Union building at Wiley College
Notable people
Notable faculty
| Name | Department | Notability | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melvin B. Tolson | English | Noted poet and English professor | [15] |
| James L. Farmer, Sr. | First black Texan to earn a PhD, also a professor at Wiley | ||
| Fred T. Long | Athletics | Athletic director and head football coach | [16] |
| Harry Long | Biology | Head of biology department and asst. football coach | [17] |
| Reuben Shannon Lovinggood | Latin and Greek courses | Classical scholar and former president of Samuel Huston College (now known as Huston-Tillotson University) | [18] |
Notable alumni
| Name | Class year | Notability | Reference(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| R. E. Brown | 1899 | Organized the first male quartet, first brass band, first football team at Wiley. Later started the first teacher-training school for African Americans in Louisiana. | [19] |
| Thelma Dewitty | 1941 | First African American to teach in the Seattle Public Schools | [20] |
| James Farmer | 1938 | U.S. civil rights leader | [21] |
| Richard E. Holmes | Physician, transferred to Mississippi State University after sophomore year at Wiley to be the first African American to matriculate at MSU | [22] | |
| Conrad O. Johnson | Music educator | [23] | |
| Opal Lee | Activist, "Grandmother of Juneteenth" | [24] | |
| Mike Lewis | 1980 | NFL | |
| L. D. Livingston | Negro league baseball outfielder | [25] | |
| Ernest Lyon | Minister, former United States Ambassador to Liberia, and founder of the Maryland Industrial and Agricultural Institute for Colored Youths. | ||
| Henry Cecil McBay | Chemist, college professor | ||
| Willie Pearson Jr | 1968 | Sociologist, college professor, author | |
| Oliver Randolph | 1904 | New Jersey lawyer, politician, and civil rights advocate | [26] |
| C. O. Simpkins, Sr. | Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1992-1996; retired Shreveport dentist | [27] | |
| Bill Spiller | African-American golfer who challenged the segregationist policies of the PGA | [28] | |
| Heman Marion Sweatt | Plaintiff in U.S. Supreme Court case, Sweatt v. Painter (1950); helped to found Texas Southern University | ||
| Lee Wilder Thomas | Prominent African-American businessman in the oil industry | ||
| Lois Towles | 1933 | Internationally renowned concert pianist. | [29] |
| Henrietta Bell Wells | First female member of the debate team subject of the 2007 movie, "The Great Debaters" | [30] | |
| James Wheaton | 1945 | Actor, director, educator | [31] |
| Richard Williams | Jazz trumpeter |
References
- ↑ "Members of CIC: Texas". cic.edu. http://www.cic.edu/About-CIC/Who-We-Are/Members-of-CIC/Pages/Institutional.aspx?state=TX.
- ↑ "Wiley College (1873- ) - The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". 20 November 2007. http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/wiley-college-1873.
- ↑ "Wiley College | A Place Where Every Student Can Succeed". http://www.wileyc.edu/history.asp.
- ↑ "Index of /". http://www.wiley.edu/.
- ↑ "Wiley College's Great Debaters | Humanities Texas". http://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/wiley-colleges-great-debaters.
- ↑ "Wiley College - Academic Affairs". http://www.wileyc.edu/academics-office.
- ↑ http://www.core-online.org/History/james_farmer_bio.ht [|permanent dead link|dead link}}]
- ↑ "James Farmer Memorial Page". http://www.interchange.org/jfarmer.html.
- ↑ "BlackNews.com – American Legacy Magazine's Story: The Great Debaters, Turns from Pages to the Big Screen Directed By and Starring Denzel Washington and Produced By Oprah Winfrey". http://www.blacknews.com/pr/americanlegacy701.html.
- ↑ "Wiley College". http://www.wileyc.edu.
- ↑ Wiley College – A Place Where Every Student Can Succeed, Dallas News
- ↑ "Wiley College - Wiley College to create HBCU Speech and Debate League". http://www.wileyc.edu/article/122.php.
- ↑ "Wiley College - Wiley College kicks off first-ever HBCU National Speech and Debate Championship Tournament!". http://www.wileyc.edu/article/143.php.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 "GCAC Extends Membership To Oakwood University, Wiley College, Southern University at New Orleans". January 20, 2022. http://www.gcaconf.com/article/9455.php.
- ↑ "Marshall Texas Directory". 1946. http://www.ancestry.com.
- ↑ The Decatur Review Long obituary March 24, 1966 page 13
- ↑ The Chicago Defender "Wiley Coach Drops Dead in Football Classic" December 15, 1945 pages 1 & 5 and The Chicago Defender "Harry Long Joins Wiley Grid Staff" July 13, 1929 page 9
- ↑ Ronnick, Michele Valerie. "Lovinggood, Reuben Shannon". https://dbcs.rutgers.edu/all-scholars/9302-lovinggood-reuben-shannon.
- ↑ "Wiley Graduate of 1899 to be Honored with Citation". The Wiley Reporter (Marshall, Texas: Wiley College): p. 1. May 1953. "Dr. Brown, the oldest living graduate of Wiley, entered the institution on his sixteenth birthday and finished in the class of 1899 at the age of twenty-four."
- ↑ Mary T. Henry, Dewitty, Thelma (1912–1977) , HistoryLink, November 10, 1998. Accessed online September 30, 2008.
- ↑ "James Farmer Biography: Greensboro Voices". http://library.uncg.edu/depts/archives/civrights/detail-bio.asp?bio=41.
- ↑ Hearn, Phil. "Richard Holmes became MSU's first black student 40 years ago". Mississippi State University. https://www.msstate.edu/newsroom/article/2005/06/richard-holmes-became-msus-first-black-student-40-years-ago/.
- ↑ "Conrad O. Johnson: Hall of Fame profile". http://www.tmea.org/061_PBM/HOF/html/141_Johnson.htm.
- ↑ "16 Apr 1990, 16 - Fort Worth Star-Telegram at Newspapers.com" (in en). http://www.newspapers.com/image/641921286/.
- ↑ Lewis, Bert (May 19, 1928). "Wiley Downs Bishop, 6-4; Livingston Stars". The Chicago Defender. p. 9. Retrieved June 27, 2021.
- ↑ "Oliver Randolph". The New York Times: p. 13. 1951-09-03. https://www.nytimes.com/1951/09/03/archives/oliver-randolph.html.
- ↑ "C. O. Simpkins, Sr.: Civil Rights Champion". cosimpkins.com. http://www.cosimpkins.com/Biography/.
- ↑ "One man's mission". ESPN.com. 28 January 2008. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blackhistory2008/news/story?id=3218447.
- ↑ Dogan Teycer, Lucile (May 1953). "Lois Towles in Wiley Concert". The Wiley Reporter (Marshall, Texas: Wiley College): p. 1. "Students and friends of Wiley were thrilled by the superb concert of the internationally famous pianist, Lois Towles."
- ↑ Martin, Douglas (March 12, 2008). "Henrietta Bell Wells female member of Wiley College debate team". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/us/12wells.html?_r=1.
- ↑ James Wheaton on IMDb
External links
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