SANCTUARY ON THE HILL: EXPLORING THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF KNOXVILLE COLLEGE

Abstract

Knoxville College is a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) founded in 1875 by the United Presbyterian Church for the education of freedmen. Scholars have written about Knoxville College and other HBCUs often studying their history and impact on African American education. A neglected area of the study of HBCUs is their landscapes. Imbued with meaning, these landscapes often reflect the goals or religious ideology of the white missionaries who founded them. The Knoxville College landscape consists of buildings erected using student labor received through industrial education. These buildings constructed by students became physical statements of their self-worth and aspirations to be seen as equals in a society governed by white supremacy. As students lived and worked at Knoxville College, they transformed the landscape to meet their needs and claimed it as a space to form a community with each other without the judgment of the white Presbyterian college administrators.