3-053-772 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Fisk University College and Jubilee Hall, Nashville, Tennessee, 1873. 'The abolition of n*gro slavery in America has been commemorated by founding a college...under the superintendence of the American Missionary Association. This institution...bears the name of Fisk University, in memory of General Clinton B. Fisk, of St. Louis, an officer of the United States army in the civil war, who was for some time in charge of the Freedmen's Bureau at Nashville, for the protection and settlement of the emancipated negroes in that State...The foundation-stone was laid, or ground broken, for the new building, on the first day of this year, being the tenth anniversary of President Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation...This is the spot where the descendants of the slaves are to have a school for the education of their race...The dormitories will accommodate 170 persons...It is...to cost, when finished, £14,000. The Jubilee Singers now in this country [ie England] are students connected with Fisk University, who have devoted themselves to the work of raising the amount needed. The sum of £8000 has already been realised as the result of concerts given in the United States'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.