North Nashville Colleges & University
Tennessee State University
Founded in 1912, TSU is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant institution in Nashville, Tennessee. The university has been served by seven presidents, including Dr. Glenda Baskin Glover, who is currently serving as our eighth president.
TWO CAMPUSES
Our Nashville home offers two locations—the 500-acre main campus nestles in a beautiful residential neighborhood along the Cumberland River, and the downtown Avon Williams campus sits near the center of Nashville’s business and government district.
Meharry Medical College
Meharry Medical College and The School of Medicine both began as a promise kept by Samuel Meharry in response to a kindness extended to him one rainy night in the 1820s. Meharrians know this account as The Salt Wagon Story.
In 1876, the Meharry Medical Department of Central Tennessee College admitted its first 11 students. Two faculty members, Dr. William J. Snead and Dr. George W. Hubbard, taught classes in the basement of Clark Memorial United Methodist Church. Within ten years, Meharry added programs for nurses and dentists and distinguished itself as the medical institution for people of color.
A few important milestones from this period:
- Meharry Medical College was the first medical school in the South to offer four-year training.
- Meharry's first graduate, Dr. James Monroe Jamison, was the first African-American physician to formally be trained in the South.
- Meharry's first female graduate, Dr. Georgia E. L. Patton, received her medical degree on February 16, 1893.
At least 14 Black medical schools existed between 1865 and 1910, when Abraham Flexner released his critique of American medical training for the Carnegie Foundation. Known as the Flexner Report, it called for standardized and regulated practices in medical education. Meharry was one of only two African-American medical colleges to meet the academic standards of the Flexner Report. Five of the other schools closed after that.
American Baptist College
American Baptist College is a private, predominantly African American Baptist college in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1924, its predecessor in black Baptist education was Roger Williams University, a Nashville college begun in the late-19th century and closed in the early 20th century.
Watkins College of Art
Watkins by the numbers
Our first significant digit is 1885—the year of our founding. Over the next century, Watkins evolved into an influential art institution with local impact and global reach. More specifically, we are a regionally and nationally accredited nonprofit independent college of the visual arts offering bachelor of fine arts (BFA) degrees in film, fine art, graphic design, illustration, interior design, and photography as well as a BA in art. Our graduate programs include two MFA degrees—in film and in visual arts. We also are a committed community partner, offering classes in a broad range of subjects for adults, teachers, and children of all ages through our Community Education programs. In January 2020, Watkins College of Art and Belmont University decided to merge and form Watkins College of Art at Belmont University.
