Albany State University is a public historically black university in Albany, Georgia. In 2017, Darton State College and Albany State University consolidated to become one university under the University System of Georgia (USG). Albany State University has two campuses in Albany (East and West Campus) and a satellite campus in Cordele (Cordele Center).
History
Establishment and growth
Joseph Winthrop Holley, born in 1874 to former slaves in Winnsboro, South Carolina, founded the institution in 1903 as the Albany Bible and Manual Training Institute. Two educators, Reverend Samuel Lane Loomis and his wife, sent Holley to Brainerd Institute and then Revere Lay College (Massachusetts). When attending Revere Lay, Holley got to know one of the school's trustees, New England businessman Rowland Hazard. After taking a liking to Holley, Hazard arranged for him to continue his education at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Holley aspired to become a minister and prepared by completing his education at Pennsylvania's Lincoln University.
W. E. B. Du Bois inspired Holley to return to the South after he read Du Bois's writings on the plight of Albany's blacks in The Souls of Black Folk. Holley relocated to Albany to start a school. With the help of a $2,600 gift from the Hazard family, Holley organized a board of trustees and purchased of land for the campus, all within a year. The aim of the institution at the time was to provide elementary education and teacher training for the local Black population.
The institution was turned over to the state of Georgia in 1917 as Georgia Normal and Agricultural College, a two-year agricultural and teacher-training institution.
In 1932, the school became part of the University System of Georgia and in 1943 it was granted four-year status and renamed Albany State College. The transition to four-year status heavily increased the school's enrollment.
In 1981 the college offered its first graduate program, a prelude to the school being upgraded to university status in 1996.
In July 1994, most of the campus was flooded and suffered extensive damage when Tropical Storm Alberto caused the Flint River to overflow. Afterwards, the campus was extended towards the east with many new buildings erected on the higher ground.
Albany State University era
In July 1996, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved the change from college to university and the name of Albany State College officially became Albany State University.
A new stadium was opened in 2004 and new housing units opened in 2006.
In 2015, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia announced the merger of ASU and Darton State College. In 2017, the institutions consolidated and assumed the name and branding of Albany State University, with the Darton College campus becoming the site of Albany State University's Darton College of Health Professions.
Enrollment was expected to be around 9,000 students. However, the combined enrollment decreased significantly. Fall 2013 enrollments were 6,195 for Darton State College and 4,260 for Albany State University while Fall 2017 enrollments for the new combined Albany State University were 6,615. This represents a 27% decrease over that period.
Due to the consolidation with Darton, Albany State became the largest HBCU in the state of Georgia and one of the 15 largest in the United States.
Civil Rights Movement
The college played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s. Many students from the school, Black improvement organizations, and representatives from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) came together to create the Albany Movement. The movement brought prominent civil rights leaders to the town including Martin Luther King Jr. and resulted in the arrests of more than 1,000 black protestors. Among the first to be arrested were students from Albany State.
On November 22, 1961, Blanton Hall and Bertha Gober entered the white waiting room of the Albany bus station to buy tickets home for the Thanksgiving holiday. Refusing to leave after being ordered to do so, police arrested them both. Albany State President William Dennis, fearful of losing his position, immediately suspended and eventually expelled the students. This action engendered a great deal of animosity from the black community and the student body.