Swift Memorial College / St. Marks Presbyterian Church

Swift Memorial College opened in 1883 under William H. Franklin, a Maryville College graduate, and in 1901 Tennessee extended its ban on mixed schools to private colleges, forcing Maryville to expel its Black students. Maryville's trustees transferred $25,000, reportedly a quarter of their endowment, to Swift. A four-year program began in 1904, and by 1909 there were 208 students. Accreditation reviews in the 1920s allowed only junior-college status; the Presbyterian mission board ended its support in 1952, and the junior college closed in 1955.

What the plaque says

Swift Memorial College/St. Marks Presbyterian Church 1883-1963 Originated in 1875, St. Marks was the first black Presbyterian Church in Rogersville. Formerly located in the Tenth Civil District, now McKinney Avenue, the church moved to the corner of Kyle and Hasson Street in 1912. The Reverend William H. Franklin, founder and pastor, served St. Marks and Swift Memorial College. Buried on the Swift campus, in 1898, Dr. Franklin received an honorary doctorate from Maryville College. The church ministered to the Swift's facility, students, and community. Dr. William H. Franklin, the founder and President of Swift College, was one of the first black graduates from Maryville College, receiving his degree in 1881. Swift College was named to honor Elijah E. Swift, president of the denomination's National Board of Missions of Freedmen and benefactor and pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Penn. The private college served African-American students. Sold to Hawkins County in 1956, it became a public school for black students in grades one through twelve. W. E. Blevins served as the last principal before desegregation closed Swift's doors in 1963. The main three-story building was torn down in 1964. Three buildings remain as office for Hawkins County schools.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rogersville Historic District — steps away
  Tennessee's first newspaper was printed in this Hawkins County seat in 1791, and Swift Memorial College, founded in 1883, educated Black students after the state's 1901 law forced Maryville College to expel them.
• Vardy Community Museum — 15 mi
  A 1899 Presbyterian church in Hancock County, now a museum, beside the Mahala Mullins cabin and the ruins of the Vardy school that educated the Melungeon children of Newman's Ridge.
• Andrew Johnson National Historic Site — 20 mi
  The tailor shop, homestead and grave of the seventeenth president in Greeneville, where the people he enslaved are named and where the Eighth of August emancipation celebration took root.
• Long Island of the Holston — 25 mi
  A four-mile island in the Holston at Kingsport, Cherokee council and treaty ground, the start of Boone's Wilderness Road in 1775, and in part returned to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in 1976.

More markers nearby

• Alexander Peter Stewart — steps away
• Tennessee's First Newspaper — 0.2 mi
• Amis House — 1.2 mi
• Thomas Gibbons — 5.5 mi