Paine College

Paine Institute, rechartered as Paine College in 1903, was founded Nov. 1, 1882, by the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Epicscopal Church, South, at the urgent request of Bishop Lucious Holsey of the C.M.E. Church. The first educational institution for Negroes to be sponsored in the South by Southern churchmen of both races. Paine Institute was named for the Reverend Robert Paine, Senior Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Reverend Morgan Calloway, vice-president of Emory College, was elected president of the Institute. In 1804 Dr. George Wiliams Walker became president and served until his death in 1911. Paine's first classes were held in rented rooms on Broad Street in January, 1884. In 1883 the Reverend Moses U. Paine of Missouri offered an endowment of $25,000.00 and in 1886 the Institute purchased and moved to a ten acre site on 15th Street. Two years later a four year college course was begun. John Wesley Gilbert, first graduate of Paine, became the first Negro member of the faculty, following further study at Brown University and at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece. Fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the College has progressed with the support of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Church, counterparts of the founding churches.