| Wiley College | |
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| Motto: | Achieving Excellent Through Pride and Performance |
| Established | 1873 |
| Type: | Private College |
| President: | Haywood Strickland |
| Location | Marshall, Texas, United States  |
| Campus: | Urban, |
| Colors: | Purple and White |
| Website: | www.wileyc.edu |
Wiley College is a four-year, privately-supported, historically black university located on the west side of Marshall, Texas. Wiley College holds distinction as one of the oldest historically black colleges west of the Mississippi River.
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History
Early years
Wiley College was founded in 1873 by the Methodist Episcopal Church's Bishop Isaac Wiley and was certified in 1882 by the Freedman's Aid Society. The Wiley College debate team was the basis for the 2007 movie The Great Debaters directed by and starring Denzel Washington. In 1935, the Wiley College debate team defeated the reigning national debate champions, the University of Southern California, (not Harvard as depicted in the movie). On December 19, 2007, Denzel Washington announced a $1 million dollar donation to Wiley College so they could re-establish their debate team.
U.S. 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. James L. Farmer, Jr., son of James L. Farmer, Sr., graduated from Wiley and became one of the "Big Three" of the Civil Rights Movement; organizing the first sit-ins and Freedom Rides in the United States.
Recent history
Wiley was the first college in East Texas to issue laptop computers to its students. Because of the rapid and significant change in computers, this program was discontinued and now students provide their own computers.
Enrollment
In 2005-2006, on-campus enrollment approached 450, while an off-campus program in Shreveport, Louisiana, for students with some prior college credit who seek to finish a degree, was about 250. That made for a total enrollment near 700, as of fall 2005. In Fall 2006, total enrollment was about 750.
Academics
Wiley College is a four-year liberal arts college, offering bachelor's and associate degrees in several fields. Wiley College is an open-admissions college and about 96 percent of students receive some amount of financial aid.
Notable programs
Wiley's Business Program, particularly the introductory course, contains substantial resources for students to start their own business. (While the students are actively encouraged to start their own business, this is not a requirement). A database is kept of other student-started businesses throughout the U.S., as well as youth-started businesses. The instructors, at least one of whom has extensive and continuous business experience, continually encourage and monitor student business activity.
Campus
Notable facilities
The original college library was a Carnegie Library. In 1907 Wiley received the first Carnegie college library west of the Mississippi. The building is now the current home of the business office.
Notable faculty
Melvin B. Tolson, a contemporary of the Harlem Renaissance, was an English professor at the college. James L. Farmer, Sr., the first black Texan to hold a doctorate, was also a professor at Wiley.
Notable alumni
| Name | Class year | Notability | Reference |
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| James L. Farmer, Jr. | 1938 | U.S. civil rights leader | [1] |
| Conrad O. Johnson | Music educator | [2] | |
| Henry Cecil McBay | Chemist and college professor | ||
| Heman Marion Sweatt | Plaintiff in U.S. Supreme Court case, Sweatt v. Painter; helped to found Texas Southern University | ||
| James Wheaton | 1945 | Actor, director and educator | [3] |
References
- ^ James Farmer Biography: Greensboro Voices. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
- ^ Conrad O. Johnson: Hall of Fame profile. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
- ^ James Wheaton at the Internet Movie Database
