Walden University was founded in Nashville in 1865 by missionaries from the northern Methodist Episcopal Church. They first organized a basic community school for freedmen. Classes attracted both children and adults, as people eagerly embraced the chance for literacy and learning. After the state established a public elementary school in Nashville, in 1867 the Methodists chartered Central Tennessee College for freedmen. The Freedmen's Bureau helped finance construction of the first two brick buildings. The directors added higher level courses, including teacher education, agriculture, science, and theology. The college was part of a first generation of such institutions across the South to educate freedmen and to teach teachers and ministers, fields that were closely aligned as callings. To aid students, it included preparatory classes for those who had not had much prior education. Gaining education was seen as a priority for African Americans, and the vocation of teaching attracted many of the most talented people. Segregation made separate institutions for blacks necessary. In 1876, the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College was founded as the first medical school in the South for blacks. It was founded and supported financially by Samuel Meharry and his four brothers, Scots-Irish immigrants who became philanthropists. In 1915 the medical department received a separate charter and became Meharry Medical College. It still continues in Nashville. Expansion continued in the 1880s, when the college added departments of law, pharmacy, dentistry and industrial arts. In the 1890s, the college added courses for women, including nursing in 1892. The college also stressed what were considered industrial and domestic arts, as promoted at Tuskegee Institute. Struggles continued over the appropriate role of the college, a tension reflected in southern education during these years. In 1900, Central Tennessee College was renamed Walden University in honor of Methodist Bishop John Morgan Walden, who had served freedmen as a missionary after the American Civil War. The university then had thirteen departments and 68 faculty. After the state established Tennessee Agricultural, Industrial, and Normal State School, now Tennessee State University, in Nashville in 1912, Walden University had more trouble attracting students and struggled to reframe its mission. In addition, in response to lynchings and disfranchisement, many ambitious African Americans left Nashville and other southern areas in the Great Migration to northern cities for work and more freedom. The percentage of black population in the city dropped sharply from 40 percent in 1890. Due to other demographic influences and economic changes, by the 1970s, only 22 percent of the city was black. In 1922, Walden University was renamed Walden College and was moved to a campus overlooking the black neighborhood of Trimble Bottom. It served as a junior college, with pre-medical and pre-law programs among its offerings. Continuing financial difficulties forced its closing in 1925. In 1935 the campus was leased by Trevecca Nazarene University, a private Christian institution affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene, which purchased it in 1937.
Notable alumni
Momulu Massaquoi, Liberian politician and diplomat
Herman Chittison, jazz pianist
Freeman Ransom, lawyer, businessman and civic leader
George Phillip Bowser, known as the father of Christian education among African-American members of the Churches of Christ; founder of Southwestern Christian College in Terrell, Texas, and founder of the Christian Echo, a publication targeted to African-American members of the churches of Christ. National evangelist and educator among Churches of Christ.
Noah W. Parden, first African American attorney to present an oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court.
