[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 19 (Friday, February 18, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E292-E293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   HONORING NASHVILLE'S HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JIM COOPER

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 17, 2005

  Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate Black History Month, I am 
honored today to pay tribute to Nashville's Historically Black Colleges 
and Universities (HBCU's) Fisk University, Meharry Medical College, and 
Tennessee State University. These institutes of higher learning are 
among the more than 115 HBCU's across the United States. While 
originally founded to teach freed slaves to read and write, today they 
welcome and educate students from a wide range of races and ethnic 
backgrounds.
  Fisk University's founding can be traced back to the days following 
the abolishment of slavery in America. Six months after the Civil War 
ended and two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, the first 
classes at Fisk University began on January 9, 1866. On this date, 
former slaves from the young to the very old openly began their quest 
for learning. No longer having to hide books that were forbidden to 
them, they could express their passion and enthusiasm for learning and 
pursue the path to true freedom and dignity . . . education. Since its 
inception, Fisk's faculty and alumni have been among the most 
intelligent, creative and civic-minded individuals in America. Amid its 
many graduates have been W.E.B. DuBois--the great writer, social critic 
and co-founder of the NAACP, and Booker T. Washington--the great 
educator and founder of Tuskegee University. Thurgood Marshall, who 
later became the first African-American Justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States, participated in the famous Fisk Race Relations 
Institute. Today, 68 percent of Fisk's attendees are African American.
  During the reconstruction period in the United States, the health of 
poor Americans received little attention and Nashville had the worst 
mortality rate in the country. The most dismal health conditions were 
among the blacks who suffered disproportionately from death and 
disease. In October 1876, the Meharry Medical College was founded and 
established as the Meharry Medical Department of Central Tennessee 
College by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. This college was formed to educate freed slaves and bring 
health care to the community's poor and underserved. Meharry has 
continued in that custom, and now is home to the Lloyd C. Elam 
Community Mental Health Center and the United States' first Institute 
on Health Care for the Poor and Under-served. Meharry is the largest 
private, historically black institution that is dedicated to educating 
healthcare professionals and biomedical scientists in America. Over-
one-third of the black

[[Page E293]]

physicians and dentists currently practicing in the United States 
graduated from Meharry Medical College. A significant number of these 
graduates practice medicine in under-served rural and inner-city 
communities. Meharry's student population is over 70 percent African 
American.
  In harmony with the goals of HBCU's, Tennessee State University began 
offering two-year degrees to African American students in 1912. In 1922 
it became a four-year teachers college and in 1958 was elevated to a 
full-fledged land-grant university by the Tennessee State Board of 
Education. Tennessee State University has been consistently named in 
the U.S. News & World Reports Guide to America's Best Colleges. The 
University continues serving a diverse group of students under the 
motto . . . ``enter to learn, go forth to serve.'' Its African American 
population is 78 percent.
  In addition to these HBCU's, I would also like to recognize the 
American Baptist College of Nashville, formerly known as the American 
Baptist Theological Seminary. Along with Fisk University, this seminary 
was a site of the civil rights movement and graduated our esteemed 
colleague, Congressman John Lewis, who was one of the nation's key 
leaders in the civil rights struggle and is now referred to as the 
conscience of the U.S. Congress.
  In honor of Black History Month and on behalf of the Fifth 
Congressional District of Tennessee, I congratulate Historically Black 
Colleges and Universities for their continued service in providing 
excellence in education not only to African Americans, but all races 
and ethnic groups that pursue higher learning. I also salute the 
American Baptist College and the many other institutions of higher 
education that continue to bring forth the best and brightest.

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