American Baptist College Designated as a Historically Black Institution - Higher Education

American Baptist College Designated as a Historically Black Institution - Higher Education: In the early 1960s, the Nashville school then known as the American Baptist Theological Seminary stood shoulder-to-shoulder with local institutions, including Fisk, Vanderbilt and Tennessee State universities, based on the willingness of their students to put themselves on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement.

Among those engaging in nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins and the Freedom Rides, American Baptist students such as John Lewis, Bernard Lafayette, and William Barbee shaped a legacy of activism of which the Nashville school remains deeply proud after more than 50 years.

More recently, the school, known now as American Baptist College, has attained what college officials consider its latest honor—federal designation as a historically Black college or university. On March 20, the U.S. Education Department informed the school that it qualified as historically Black college and university (HBCU) status and that it is eligible for federal grant and funding opportunities available to HBCUs, according to U.S. Education Department spokesman Jim Bradshaw.