GIBSLAND, La. ( KTAL/KMSS ) – Coleman College was established in Gibsland , Louisiana in 1887 and became the first college for African Americans in North Louisiana.
Here is a brief history of the educational institution that was instrumental in educating the first generation of freedmen and freedwomen in the lower Mississippi River (and Red River) valley s.
Oliver Lewis Coleman was born into slavery in 1857 Mississippi, and he was just a child was just a child when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
After the Civil War, Coleman witnessed African Americans in his community signing their names with an X. He didn’t like to see his people suffer because of a lack of education, so he decided to take action.
Coleman attended high school in Livingston, Mississippi, before graduating from Alcorn A&M College. He attended the University of Chicago and spent summers at Chautauquas . He received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Leland College, and he opened a college (and a broom and mattress factory) for African Americans just after the Reconstruction Era ended.