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TILLOTSON COLLEGE.
Tillotson College in Austin, a senior college for blacks built
and maintained by the American Missionary Society of Congregational
churches, was chartered in 1877 and named for George Jeffrey Tillotson,
who planned the school, selected the site, and raised $16,000
for its establishment. Called Tillotson Collegiate and Normal
Institute, it opened on January 17, 1881, with 250 students, chiefly
in the lower grades. Allen Hall was the first building; Beard
Hall was constructed in 1894; in 1947 there were fourteen buildings
on a campus of twenty-three acres. William E. Brooks, first president
(1881-85), was succeeded by John Hershaw (1886), Henry L. Lubbell
(1886-1889), William M. Brown (1889-93), Winfield S. Goss (1894-95),
Marshall R. Gaines (1896-1904), Arthur W. Partch (1905-06), Isaac
M. Agard (1907-18), and Francis W. Fletcher (1919-23). J. T. Hodges,
the first African American to be president (1924-29), was followed
by Mary E. Branchqv (1930-44) and William H. Jones, who became president in 1944.
In 1925 the school was recognized as a junior college. It became
a woman's college in 1926, and enrollment dropped to 130 in 1930.
In 1931 the high school was dropped, and senior college standing
was achieved. Coeducation was restored in 1935, and in 1943 the
college was granted an "A" rating by the Southern Association
of Colleges. In 1946 enrollment was 650 for the long session,
and the faculty numbered thirty-five. Three degrees were offered:
B.A., B.S., and B.S. in Home Economics. On October 24, 1952, Tillotson
College officially merged with Samuel Huston College to form Huston-Tillotson
College.qv
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