WEST POINT — Ten years ago today, Mary Holmes College shut its doors and stopped a century long tradition of educating young men and women in the Golden Triangle.
Danny Crawford wishes it hadn’t.
Crawford, a teacher and boy’s basketball coach at West Oktibbeha High School, has fond memories of the West Point college and remembers his time there in the mid-1990s as one of learning, branching out and fostering friendships.
“I really enjoyed my stay there, and I wish it was still here in the Golden Triangle,” Crawford said.
Founded in 1892 in Jackson, Mary Holmes College was established as a Presbyterian Seminary to educate the daughters of former slaves. The Rev. Mead Holmes wanted a place for his daughter, Mary, to go to school, so the Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church built a school on land donated by black citizens. The original faculty was white, and the first 90 girls to attend the seminary were recruited from across the state.
A fire in 1895 destroyed the school in Jackson, and Mary Holmes College relocated to West Point, where 20 acres of land had been donated for the school. A second fire in 1899 caused the school to rebuild again in 1900. In 1932, it became co-ed and added college to its title alongside seminary. The college specialized in education, and was one of the historical training sites for black educators throughout the South. At the time of its closing in 2005, nearly 50 percent of its students were studying education.
Mary Holmes College charged the same tuition for Mississippi residents and out-of-state students, and as a result, many students came from the North. Crawford, who grew up in Aberdeen, said local students learned alongside kids form Chicago and Milwaukee.
“It was great,” Crawford said. “Everybody came as strangers and left as friends.”
He played basketball at the college and has fond memories of traveling to New Orleans to face-off against Bossier Parish Community College, and enjoying the city with his teammates afterwards.
Crawford said Mary Holmes College had a small school feel, where everyone knew everybody else and long-term friendships were formed. He still keeps up with his teammates.
Over the years, Mary Holmes College expanded to 180 acres and 25 buildings. The school was added to National Register of Historic Places in 1991 for its commitment to black education.
The Board of Trustees voted April 22, 2004, to file bankruptcy, and on March 3, 2005, the school closed its doors. In May 2005, Community Counseling Services bought the school. It lay untouched for a few years before renovations began. Now the campus has new life. Many buildings have been restored.
The school’s closing, Crawford said, created a void of junior colleges in the area.
“I kind of hated seeing it closed, because that school provided community college in the Golden Triangle area,” Crawford said. “Lot’s of kids have to travel to Itawamba or East Mississippi now.”
East Mississippi Community College and other junior colleges in the area have expanded to the area, but Mary Holmes College provided a sense of community that many junior colleges do not capture, according to Crawford.
“It was a home away from home,” Crawford said.
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