Joseph Winthrop Holley

Holley was born to George and Mary Lucinda, two former slaves, in Winnsboro, South Carolina. His mother was a domestic servant and his father a skilled leather worker. He was the fifth of eleven children and attended Presbyterian freedmen schools.

He was sent by training teachers, Reverend Loomis and his wife to Brainard Institute. Later continuing his education at Revere Lay College in Massachusetts. It was around this time that Holley would meet the Hazard family who would support him in his education by helping him attend the Phillips Andover Academy in Massachusetts and lastly finish his education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. The Hazard family would be an important life connection for Holley as they would support his endeavors to start a school.

Inspired by his reading of W. E. B. DuBois's writings on the poor living conditions experienced by southern African Americans in Georgia, Holley decided to move to Albany, and established the Albany Bible and Manual Training Institute. Prior to starting the school, Holley had the chance to meet Booker T. Washington, who further influenced him to start a school. Within a year he had moved back to Albany, Georgia and purchased 50-acres of land near the Flint River for the campus, as well as established a Board of Trustees.

In its early period, the foundation of the school was to prepare blacks for a life that emphasized a Christian living, habits of industry, literacy, agricultural skills, and homemaking. In 1917 the school changed from providing elementary education into a two-year college, renamed the Georgia Normal and Agricultural College. From the time the school was founded in 1903 to the time Holley retired in 1943 enrollment grew from an initial 5 students to 190.

Following Holley's Retirement in 1943, the school transitioned to a four-year University and was renamed to Albany State University. By 1948 the enrollment had increased from 190 to 722.

Holley's mother was a slave who could neither read nor write, and growing up the opportunities for education for negro children were not freely available. The first school Holley attended in 1878 was a mission school taught by a Northern missionary, the only school he had the option to attend. Having experienced this lack of scholastic options, Holley developed the passion to improve the education element of the lives of the Negro youth in the South. At the time Holley started his school, the State of Georgia didn't support a single black high school. It became his goal to make the educational opportunities provided to blacks equal to the quality that was provided to whites.

Booker T. Washington: In 1902, Holley met the man whom he considered his mentor and source he would cite in his speeches and writings for the next half century. Washington advised Holley, "teach them to do a job just a little better than the white man."

W.E.B. DuBois: Holley was heavily influenced by DuBois's writings about African American rights and equality. DuBois co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

You Can't Build a Chimney From the Top - 1948

Education and the Segregation Issue - 1955