Andrew Sledd
Encyclopedia
Andrew Warren Sledd was an American theologian, university professor and university president. A native of Virginia
, he was the son of a prominent Methodist minister, and was himself ordained
as a minister after earning his bachelor's degree
and master's degree
. He later earned a second master's degree and his doctorate
.
After teaching for several years, Sledd was selected to be the last president of the University of Florida at Lake City
, from 1904 to 1905, and the first president of the modern University of Florida
(then known as the "University of the State of Florida"), from 1905 to 1909. He was also president of Southern University
from 1910 to 1914, and later became a professor and an influential biblical scholar at Emory University
's Candler School of Theology
from 1914 to 1939.
Sledd first gained national recognition after he wrote a 1902 magazine article advocating better legal and social treatment of African-Americans. He is also prominently remembered for his role in founding the modern University of Florida, his scholarly analysis of biblical texts as literature, his call for an end to racial violence, and his influence on a generation of Methodist seminary
students, scholars and ministers.
, the son of a Methodist Episcopal
minister, Robert Newton Sledd, and his wife, Frances Carey Greene Sledd. The elder Sledd was an influential minister within the Virginia Methodist Conference, and at various times while Andrew was growing up, his father held prominent pastor
ates of large Methodist congregations in four different Virginia cities—Danville
, Norfolk
, Petersburg
and Richmond
. He received his early education in the Petersburg school of W. Gordon McCobe, a former Confederate
captain and veteran of the U.S. Civil War.
In 1888, Sledd entered Methodist-affiliated Randolph-Macon College
in Ashland, Virginia
. While at Randolph-Macon, he was a member of Phi Delta Theta
Fraternity
(Virginia Gamma chapter); he was also the college's outstanding student-athlete and was particularly known as the college baseball
team's first baseman and star hitter. Sledd left the college without finishing his undergraduate degree requirements, first accepting a position as a teacher in Durant, Mississippi
, and then as the principal of a high school
in Arkadelphia, Arkansas
. After teaching in Arkansas for two years, he returned to Randolph-Macon and completed his bachelor of arts
and master of arts
degrees in 1894. Sledd graduated in mathematics, was recognized for completing the best work in the mathematics and Greek departments during his senior year, and was honored as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Sledd taught at the Randolph-Macon Academy
in Front Royal, Virginia
, from 1894 to 1895, before returning to graduate school. He earned a second master of arts degree in Greek
from Harvard University
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
in 1896, and completed one year's additional graduate work toward a doctorate degree. While he was at Harvard, he played for the Harvard Crimson
baseball team, and he is remembered as one of Harvard's greatest athletes of the era; he was offered a professional baseball contract but turned it down. Several years later, during a break in his teaching career, Sledd also completed his doctorate.
in Nashville, Tennessee
. He was ordained as a Methodist minister and licensed to preach in 1898. At the suggestion of his father, he contacted Methodist minister Warren Akin Candler
, who was the president of Emory College
in Oxford, Georgia
, a prominent leader of the Georgia Methodist Conference, and a few months from being elevated as a Methodist bishop. Candler was impressed with the character and academic credentials of the young scholar, and assisted him in becoming a professor of Latin language and literature at Emory College, a position Sledd held from 1898 to 1902. While living in the Candler family home, Sledd fell in love with the bishop's only daughter, Annie Florence Candler, and he married her on March 22, 1899; his father conducted the wedding ceremony.
Later in 1899, while traveling by train between Atlanta and Covington, Georgia
, Sledd witnessed the horrifying aftermath of the lynching
of an African-American man named Sam Hose
. The idealistic young minister was outraged. In reaction, he wrote an essay entitled "The Negro: Another View," which was published as an article in the July 1902 issue of The Atlantic Monthly
. In the article, Sledd denounced the lynchings of black men in the South
in graphic terms: "lynching is not 'justice,' however rude; it is a wild and diabolic carnival of blood." While he flatly asserted that the "negro race" was not the equal of the "white race," he nevertheless demanded equal justice before the law for blacks and whites alike, writing "There is nothing in a white skin or a black to nullify the essential rights of man as man." Even though Sledd's essay condoned the continued racial segregation
of white and black Southerners as a necessary social expedient, a public firestorm ensued in Georgia over Sledd's criticism of the South's treatment of its black citizens, with the controversy stoked by the vitriolic letters and editorial attacks of agrarian populist
Rebecca Felton in the Atlanta Constitution newspaper. As the controversy grew, the Atlanta Journal and Atlanta News quickly joined the anti-Sledd chorus. When a majority of the members of Emory's board of trustees threatened to withdraw their support of the college because of the negative publicity, the newly installed college president, James E. Dickey
, demanded Sledd's resignation from the faculty, and Sledd resigned on August 12, 1902. The Sledd Affair subsequently attracted attention throughout the United States as a matter of academic freedom
and freedom of speech
.
After resigning from the Emory College faculty, Sledd entered the graduate school of Yale University
in New Haven, Connecticut
, where he began work in the advanced classics doctoral program, specializing in Latin. Sledd received $1,000 in severance pay from Emory pursuant to an agreement with Dickey and unanimously approved by the Emory faculty, and his father-in-law contributed $900 to help cover his tuition and living expenses while he attended Yale. He received a scholarship from the university, and earned his doctor of philosophy
degree in Latin from Yale in 1903, after only nine months. Stanford University
and Syracuse University
offered him professorships in Latin; Antioch College
offered him its presidency. Sledd declined all such offers from Northern and Western institutions, and was determined to return to his native South.
(now known as Birmingham-Southern College) in Greensboro, Alabama
. Several months later, on July 6, 1904, he was unanimously selected to be the president of the University of Florida at Lake City
by its board of trustees. At the time of his appointment, the University of Florida at Lake City was experiencing a controversy of its own: its administration and faculty were hopelessly fractured by personality conflicts and its unpopular president's failed attempts at improving the small school's instruction and academic standing. The university's board of trustees had removed the previous president, and dismissed seven members of its small faculty. The university, such as it was, had been known as "Florida Agricultural College" until 1903. When Sledd arrived in Lake City
, it was a school with a new name, a faculty fractured by contentious personalities, an unknown number of returning students and an uncertain future. Sledd required all previous faculty members to re-apply if they desired to keep their jobs, hired replacement instructors, most of whom had earned doctoral degrees in their respective fields (in contrast to the previous faculty), and set about devising rigorous academic standards for the school's new students. Although the university was a designated land-grant college under the federal government's Morrill Act, it received insufficient annual financial assistance from the state government, and its finances remained tenuous.
. The university consolidation movement gained the political backing of newly elected Florida Governor Napoleon B. Broward
, and, in 1905, the Florida Legislature
passed the Buckman Act
, which abolished the hodge-podge of state-supported colleges and consolidated their assets and programs into four newly created entities—a new comprehensive university
and land-grant college for white men; a liberal arts college
and normal school
for white women; a normal school and agricultural and mechanical college for African-Americans; and a school for the deaf and blind. The Act mandated the merger of four separate institutions, including the existing University of Florida at Lake City, into the consolidated men's university—the new University of the State of Florida. After a spirited debate, the Board of Control
, the new state board charged with the governance of the consolidated institutions, selected Gainesville
, by a vote of six to four, as the location for the new men's state university.
Sledd did not expect that the Lake City campus would be abandoned, and he naturally assumed that Lake City would be designated as the site of the newly consolidated men's university, placing him in a strong position to become the first president of the new institution. The selection of Gainesville for the campus of the new men's university placed Sledd's future as its likely first president in question. The University of Florida in Lake City was just one of the four existing institutions that were to be merged to form the new university, and there were other possible candidates to become its first president. Albert A. Murphree
, president of the Florida State College
in Tallahassee, was the favorite of several prominent members of the legislature to become the president of the new men's university in Gainesville. But Sledd had the support of Governor Broward, and the Board of Control ultimately selected him to be the first president on June 7, 1905; Sledd's appointment was for a single year, but renewable on an annual basis, as was typical in the university's early years when the Board of Control appointed or re-appointed the presidents of the state's public colleges for each academic year. Albert Murphree remained the president of the newly consolidated women's college in Tallahassee until 1909.
Sledd nominated all of the initial faculty members, a majority of whom he had previously selected to be faculty members of the University of Florida at Lake City. The new University of the State of Florida operated in Lake City during the first academic year of its existence (1905–1906), while the buildings of the new Gainesville campus were being erected. Sledd oversaw the transfer of the school's assets from Lake City to Gainesville during the late summer of 1906, and participated in the official dedication of the campus on September 27, 1906. When registration for classes was held in Gainesville on September 24, 1906, the student body numbered 102 students and the faculty fewer than a dozen members. Sledd received a $2,250 annual salary, and, together with his wife Annie and their young children, moved into the still incomplete Buckman Hall
dormitory on the Gainesville campus.
Sledd played a key role in the formation and ultimate success of the new university, but his time as its president was a relatively short four years. His political backing came to an end with the retirement of Governor Broward, and the inauguration of the new governor, Albert Gilchrist, in January 1909. The Florida Board of Education
, which then consisted of the governor and the state's elected cabinet
members, oversaw the Board of Control and made no secret of its desire to remove Sledd, in part because members of the Board of Education believed Sledd's admissions standards were too high and that the university was not growing quickly enough. Nevertheless, the Board of Control continued to back Sledd, and its members threatened to resign in protest. Seeking to avoid an unwinnable political controversy, Sledd resigned, and the Board of Control replaced him with Albert Murphree, the political favorite of several prominent members of the legislature and Board of Education.
, a position he held for the remainder of 1909 and the first half of 1910. Sledd was subsequently invited to return to Southern University as its president, serving from 1910 to 1914. While president of Southern University, implemented a new pre-college preparatory school and a four-year course of Bible study, and focused his personal efforts on restoring the school's finances and improving the quality of its instruction. In 1914, Sledd resigned the presidency of the small Methodist university to accept a professorship in Atlanta.
and relocated to its new main campus in northeast Atlanta, as the first Professor of Greek and New Testament
Literature at the Candler School of Theology, the newly established seminary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South
. Sledd had a distinguished career as a professor of Greek, Latin and New Testament studies at Candler, and was the author of several scholarly books on New Testament subjects, including Saint Mark's Life of Jesus (1927), The Bibles of the Churches (1930) and His Witnesses: A Study of the Book of Acts (1935). He was selected to be a member of the American Standard Bible Committee, which was preparing a new American Standard Version
of the Bible
. He continued to advocate internal Methodist reform and an end to racial violence, and his teaching inspired a generation of his Candler theology students to serve as change agents within the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Many of his former students became Methodist ministers who returned to their congregations and annual conferences to labor in small but significant ways for better treatment of African-Americans, slowly transforming the Southern Methodist church from a bulwark of racial and theological intransigence to an agent for social change and doctrinal reform.
Sledd's interest in education was not limited to the higher education of colleges and universities. While holding his Candler professorship, he served as a member of the Board of Public Instruction
of DeKalb County, Georgia
, and volunteered for the additional duty of serving as the board's treasurer.
Sledd and his wife Annie also suffered a bitter personal tragedy during his time as a Candler professor, when their first-born son and his namesake, Andrew Sledd, Jr., died after an extended illness in 1919. Andrew, Jr., was only 16 years old, and had graduated from Decatur High School
only weeks earlier.
In his 1960 History of Methodism in Alabama and West Florida, Marion Elias Lazenby remembered Sledd as "one of the [Methodist] Church's most scholarly and reverent teachers." Immediately after his death, Sledd was widely eulogized
in Methodist churches across the country. The large number of obituaries
that appeared in regional and national newspapers suggests that Sledd was a well known and respected public figure in his day. The Atlanta Constitution, whose editorials had vilified Sledd in 1902, paid tribute to him in its obituary as a "nationally known Bible authority"; no mention was made of the "Sledd Affair."
Sledd's advocacy of social change and an evolving understanding of biblical texts came at a high personal price, however. Given his chosen career of minister and professor, he never accumulated much personal wealth. Sledd died deep in debt, having lost the family home to foreclosure
after the salaries of Candler professors were cut when financial support of the school fell during the 1930s. His creditors obtained a deficiency judgment
for the unpaid portion of his debt after the foreclosure, and, following his death, forced the sale of some of his furniture and parts of his personal library in partial satisfaction of his remaining debts.
The faculty of the University of Florida awarded Sledd the university's first honorary degree
, a doctor of divinity
, at the spring 1909 commencement
ceremonies. In 1933, John J. Tigert
, the university's third president, invited Professor Sledd to be the university's baccalaureate speaker
. After his death, the university honored him again, renaming one of its early residence halls, Sledd Hall, in 1939. The small state university
, which Sledd had been instrumental in creating and organizing, is now one of the ten largest single-campus universities in the United States
, with a total enrollment of approximately 50,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional student
s.
Sledd and his wife Annie had nine children. Eight of their children graduated from Emory, seven with Phi Beta Kappa honors, a fact newsworthy enough to be picked up by the Associated Press
wire service when youngest daughter Antoinette graduated from Emory the year following Sledd's death. Two of their sons followed in their father's footsteps, earned doctorate degrees and became university professors: James H. Sledd became a Rhodes Scholar and noted professor of English literature
at the University of Chicago
and the University of Texas; Marvin B. Sledd was a professor of mathematics
at Georgia Tech.
In 2002, after almost a century of ignoring its role in the "Sledd Affair," Emory University sponsored a presentation entitled "Professing Justice: A Symposium on the Civil Rights Legacy of Professor Andrew Sledd." In holding the inter-disciplinary symposium, Emory University acted to "right a wrong committed a century ago by revisiting the 'Sledd affair' and reflecting on its meaning for Emory today."
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, he was the son of a prominent Methodist minister, and was himself ordained
Ordination
In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...
as a minister after earning his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
and master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
. He later earned a second master's degree and his doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
.
After teaching for several years, Sledd was selected to be the last president of the University of Florida at Lake City
History of the University of Florida
The history of the University of Florida is firmly tied to the history of public education in the state of Florida. The University of Florida, colloquially known as "Florida" or "UF," originated as several distinct institutions that were merged to create a single state-supported university by the...
, from 1904 to 1905, and the first president of the modern University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
(then known as the "University of the State of Florida"), from 1905 to 1909. He was also president of Southern University
Birmingham-Southern College
Birmingham–Southern College is a 4-year, private liberal arts college located three miles northwest of downtown Birmingham. Founded in 1856, it is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Approximately 1400 students from 30 states and 23 foreign countries attend the college...
from 1910 to 1914, and later became a professor and an influential biblical scholar at Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
's Candler School of Theology
Candler School of Theology
Candler School of Theology, Emory University, is one of 13 seminaries of the United Methodist Church. Founded in 1914, the school was named after Warren Akin Candler, a former President and Chancellor of Emory University and a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South...
from 1914 to 1939.
Sledd first gained national recognition after he wrote a 1902 magazine article advocating better legal and social treatment of African-Americans. He is also prominently remembered for his role in founding the modern University of Florida, his scholarly analysis of biblical texts as literature, his call for an end to racial violence, and his influence on a generation of Methodist seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
students, scholars and ministers.
Early life and education
Sledd was born November 7, 1870, in Lynchburg, VirginiaLynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...
, the son of a Methodist Episcopal
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes referred to as the M.E. Church, was a development of the first expression of Methodism in the United States. It officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the first bishops. Through a series of...
minister, Robert Newton Sledd, and his wife, Frances Carey Greene Sledd. The elder Sledd was an influential minister within the Virginia Methodist Conference, and at various times while Andrew was growing up, his father held prominent pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
ates of large Methodist congregations in four different Virginia cities—Danville
Danville, Virginia
Danville is an independent city in Virginia, United States, bounded by Pittsylvania County, Virginia and Caswell County, North Carolina. It was the last capital of the Confederate States of America. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Danville with Pittsylvania county for...
, Norfolk
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, Petersburg
Petersburg, Virginia
Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...
and Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. He received his early education in the Petersburg school of W. Gordon McCobe, a former Confederate
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
captain and veteran of the U.S. Civil War.
In 1888, Sledd entered Methodist-affiliated Randolph-Macon College
Randolph-Macon College
Randolph–Macon College is a private, co-educational liberal arts college located in Ashland, Virginia, United States, near the capital city of Richmond. Founded in 1830, the school has an enrollment of over 1,200 students...
in Ashland, Virginia
Ashland, Virginia
Originally known as Slash Cottage, Ashland is located on the Old Washington Highway U.S. Route One and the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, a busy north-south route now owned by CSX Transportation...
. While at Randolph-Macon, he was a member of Phi Delta Theta
Phi Delta Theta
Phi Delta Theta , also known as Phi Delt, is an international fraternity founded at Miami University in 1848 and headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, Beta Theta Pi, and Sigma Chi form the Miami Triad. The fraternity has about 169 active chapters and colonies in over 43 U.S...
Fraternity
Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
(Virginia Gamma chapter); he was also the college's outstanding student-athlete and was particularly known as the college baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team's first baseman and star hitter. Sledd left the college without finishing his undergraduate degree requirements, first accepting a position as a teacher in Durant, Mississippi
Durant, Mississippi
Durant is a city in Holmes County, Mississippi, United States. It was founded in 1858 as a station on the Mississippi Central Railroad, later part of the Illinois Central. Durant was named for Louis Durant, a Choctaw chief, who had lived on a bluff just across the nearby Big Black River...
, and then as the principal of a high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
in Arkadelphia, Arkansas
Arkadelphia, Arkansas
Arkadelphia is a city in Clark County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 10,548. The city is the county seat of Clark County. The city is situated at the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains. Two universities, Henderson State...
. After teaching in Arkansas for two years, he returned to Randolph-Macon and completed his bachelor of arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
and master of arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degrees in 1894. Sledd graduated in mathematics, was recognized for completing the best work in the mathematics and Greek departments during his senior year, and was honored as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Sledd taught at the Randolph-Macon Academy
Randolph-Macon Academy
Founded in 1892, Randolph-Macon Academy is a coeducational college preparatory school for students in grades 6-12 and postgraduates in Virginia, USA. The school features both a boarding and day school program. Randolph-Macon Academy is affiliated with the United Methodist Church...
in Front Royal, Virginia
Front Royal, Virginia
Front Royal is a town in Warren County, Virginia, United States. The population was 13,589 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Warren County.-Geography:Front Royal is roughly west of Washington, D.C....
, from 1894 to 1895, before returning to graduate school. He earned a second master of arts degree in Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
in 1896, and completed one year's additional graduate work toward a doctorate degree. While he was at Harvard, he played for the Harvard Crimson
Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson are the athletic teams of Harvard University. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2006, there were 41 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at any other NCAA Division I college in the country...
baseball team, and he is remembered as one of Harvard's greatest athletes of the era; he was offered a professional baseball contract but turned it down. Several years later, during a break in his teaching career, Sledd also completed his doctorate.
Emory College and the "Sledd Affair"
After completing his graduate studies at Harvard, Sledd briefly served as a Latin instructor at Vanderbilt UniversityVanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. He was ordained as a Methodist minister and licensed to preach in 1898. At the suggestion of his father, he contacted Methodist minister Warren Akin Candler
Warren Akin Candler
Warren Akin Candler was an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1898. He was the tenth president of Emory University.-Early life:...
, who was the president of Emory College
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
in Oxford, Georgia
Oxford, Georgia
Oxford is a city in Newton County, Georgia, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 1,892. It is the location of Oxford College of Emory University. The entire town is also designated as a shrine of the United Methodist Church. Additionally, Confederate soldiers are...
, a prominent leader of the Georgia Methodist Conference, and a few months from being elevated as a Methodist bishop. Candler was impressed with the character and academic credentials of the young scholar, and assisted him in becoming a professor of Latin language and literature at Emory College, a position Sledd held from 1898 to 1902. While living in the Candler family home, Sledd fell in love with the bishop's only daughter, Annie Florence Candler, and he married her on March 22, 1899; his father conducted the wedding ceremony.
Later in 1899, while traveling by train between Atlanta and Covington, Georgia
Covington, Georgia
Covington is a city in Newton County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 13,118. The city is the county seat of Newton County...
, Sledd witnessed the horrifying aftermath of the lynching
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
of an African-American man named Sam Hose
Sam Hose
Sam Hose was an African American worker who was tortured and executed by a lynch mob in Coweta County, Georgia.Sam Hose, a.k.a. Sam Holt, was born Tom Wilkes in south Georgia near Marshallville around 1875. He grew up on a Macon County farm owned by the Jones family...
. The idealistic young minister was outraged. In reaction, he wrote an essay entitled "The Negro: Another View," which was published as an article in the July 1902 issue of The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
. In the article, Sledd denounced the lynchings of black men in the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
in graphic terms: "lynching is not 'justice,' however rude; it is a wild and diabolic carnival of blood." While he flatly asserted that the "negro race" was not the equal of the "white race," he nevertheless demanded equal justice before the law for blacks and whites alike, writing "There is nothing in a white skin or a black to nullify the essential rights of man as man." Even though Sledd's essay condoned the continued racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
of white and black Southerners as a necessary social expedient, a public firestorm ensued in Georgia over Sledd's criticism of the South's treatment of its black citizens, with the controversy stoked by the vitriolic letters and editorial attacks of agrarian populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
Rebecca Felton in the Atlanta Constitution newspaper. As the controversy grew, the Atlanta Journal and Atlanta News quickly joined the anti-Sledd chorus. When a majority of the members of Emory's board of trustees threatened to withdraw their support of the college because of the negative publicity, the newly installed college president, James E. Dickey
James Edward Dickey
James Edward Dickey was an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1922.-Birth and Family:James was born 11 May 1864 in Jeffersonville, Georgia, the son of the Rev. James Madison and Ann Elizabeth Dickey. He was a descendant of John Dickey, who emigrated from Derry,...
, demanded Sledd's resignation from the faculty, and Sledd resigned on August 12, 1902. The Sledd Affair subsequently attracted attention throughout the United States as a matter of academic freedom
Academic freedom
Academic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.Academic freedom is a...
and freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
.
After resigning from the Emory College faculty, Sledd entered the graduate school of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, where he began work in the advanced classics doctoral program, specializing in Latin. Sledd received $1,000 in severance pay from Emory pursuant to an agreement with Dickey and unanimously approved by the Emory faculty, and his father-in-law contributed $900 to help cover his tuition and living expenses while he attended Yale. He received a scholarship from the university, and earned his doctor of philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
degree in Latin from Yale in 1903, after only nine months. Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
offered him professorships in Latin; Antioch College
Antioch College
Antioch College is a private, independent liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was the founder and the flagship institution of the six-campus Antioch University system. Founded in 1852 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1853 with politician and...
offered him its presidency. Sledd declined all such offers from Northern and Western institutions, and was determined to return to his native South.
University of Florida at Lake City
After completing his doctorate, Sledd obtained an appointment as a professor of Greek at Methodist-affiliated Southern UniversityBirmingham-Southern College
Birmingham–Southern College is a 4-year, private liberal arts college located three miles northwest of downtown Birmingham. Founded in 1856, it is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Approximately 1400 students from 30 states and 23 foreign countries attend the college...
(now known as Birmingham-Southern College) in Greensboro, Alabama
Greensboro, Alabama
Greensboro is a city in Hale County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 2,731. The city is the county seat of Hale County. It is part of the Tuscaloosa, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
. Several months later, on July 6, 1904, he was unanimously selected to be the president of the University of Florida at Lake City
History of the University of Florida
The history of the University of Florida is firmly tied to the history of public education in the state of Florida. The University of Florida, colloquially known as "Florida" or "UF," originated as several distinct institutions that were merged to create a single state-supported university by the...
by its board of trustees. At the time of his appointment, the University of Florida at Lake City was experiencing a controversy of its own: its administration and faculty were hopelessly fractured by personality conflicts and its unpopular president's failed attempts at improving the small school's instruction and academic standing. The university's board of trustees had removed the previous president, and dismissed seven members of its small faculty. The university, such as it was, had been known as "Florida Agricultural College" until 1903. When Sledd arrived in Lake City
Lake City, Florida
Lake City is the county seat of Columbia County, Florida, in the United States. In 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 12,614. In addition, it is the Principal City of the Lake City Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is composed of Columbia County, and had an...
, it was a school with a new name, a faculty fractured by contentious personalities, an unknown number of returning students and an uncertain future. Sledd required all previous faculty members to re-apply if they desired to keep their jobs, hired replacement instructors, most of whom had earned doctoral degrees in their respective fields (in contrast to the previous faculty), and set about devising rigorous academic standards for the school's new students. Although the university was a designated land-grant college under the federal government's Morrill Act, it received insufficient annual financial assistance from the state government, and its finances remained tenuous.
University of the State of Florida
Sledd and other members of the faculty were actively involved in urging Florida's state government to consolidate the state's several small institutions of higher educationHigher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
. The university consolidation movement gained the political backing of newly elected Florida Governor Napoleon B. Broward
Napoleon B. Broward
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was the 19th Governor of the U.S. state of Florida from January 3, 1905 to January 5, 1909. He also served as the sheriff of Duval County, Florida, and in the Florida House of Representatives....
, and, in 1905, the Florida Legislature
Florida Legislature
The Florida State Legislature is the term often used to refer to the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida. The Florida Constitution states that "The legislative power of the state shall be vested in a legislature of the State of Florida," composed of a Senate...
passed the Buckman Act
History of the University of Florida
The history of the University of Florida is firmly tied to the history of public education in the state of Florida. The University of Florida, colloquially known as "Florida" or "UF," originated as several distinct institutions that were merged to create a single state-supported university by the...
, which abolished the hodge-podge of state-supported colleges and consolidated their assets and programs into four newly created entities—a new comprehensive university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
and land-grant college for white men; a liberal arts college
Liberal arts college
A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...
and normal school
Normal school
A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...
for white women; a normal school and agricultural and mechanical college for African-Americans; and a school for the deaf and blind. The Act mandated the merger of four separate institutions, including the existing University of Florida at Lake City, into the consolidated men's university—the new University of the State of Florida. After a spirited debate, the Board of Control
Florida Board of Control
The Florida Board of Control was the statewide governing body for the State University System of Florida, which included all public universities in the state of Florida. It was replaced by the Florida Board of Regents in 1965.- History :...
, the new state board charged with the governance of the consolidated institutions, selected Gainesville
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...
, by a vote of six to four, as the location for the new men's state university.
Sledd did not expect that the Lake City campus would be abandoned, and he naturally assumed that Lake City would be designated as the site of the newly consolidated men's university, placing him in a strong position to become the first president of the new institution. The selection of Gainesville for the campus of the new men's university placed Sledd's future as its likely first president in question. The University of Florida in Lake City was just one of the four existing institutions that were to be merged to form the new university, and there were other possible candidates to become its first president. Albert A. Murphree
Albert A. Murphree
Albert Alexander Murphree was an American college professor and university president. Murphree was a native of Alabama, and became a mathematics instructor after earning his bachelor's degree...
, president of the Florida State College
History of Florida State University
The history of Florida State University dates to the 19th century and is deeply intertwined with the history of education in the state of Florida and in the city of Tallahassee....
in Tallahassee, was the favorite of several prominent members of the legislature to become the president of the new men's university in Gainesville. But Sledd had the support of Governor Broward, and the Board of Control ultimately selected him to be the first president on June 7, 1905; Sledd's appointment was for a single year, but renewable on an annual basis, as was typical in the university's early years when the Board of Control appointed or re-appointed the presidents of the state's public colleges for each academic year. Albert Murphree remained the president of the newly consolidated women's college in Tallahassee until 1909.
Sledd nominated all of the initial faculty members, a majority of whom he had previously selected to be faculty members of the University of Florida at Lake City. The new University of the State of Florida operated in Lake City during the first academic year of its existence (1905–1906), while the buildings of the new Gainesville campus were being erected. Sledd oversaw the transfer of the school's assets from Lake City to Gainesville during the late summer of 1906, and participated in the official dedication of the campus on September 27, 1906. When registration for classes was held in Gainesville on September 24, 1906, the student body numbered 102 students and the faculty fewer than a dozen members. Sledd received a $2,250 annual salary, and, together with his wife Annie and their young children, moved into the still incomplete Buckman Hall
Buckman Hall (Gainesville, Florida)
Buckman Hall, an historic building located in Murphree Area on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on January 11, 1974....
dormitory on the Gainesville campus.
Sledd played a key role in the formation and ultimate success of the new university, but his time as its president was a relatively short four years. His political backing came to an end with the retirement of Governor Broward, and the inauguration of the new governor, Albert Gilchrist, in January 1909. The Florida Board of Education
Florida Board of Education
The Florida Board of Education also known as the State Board of Education is a committee composed of members appointed by the Florida Governor to guide and direct public K-12 & Community College education in Florida.- History :...
, which then consisted of the governor and the state's elected cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
members, oversaw the Board of Control and made no secret of its desire to remove Sledd, in part because members of the Board of Education believed Sledd's admissions standards were too high and that the university was not growing quickly enough. Nevertheless, the Board of Control continued to back Sledd, and its members threatened to resign in protest. Seeking to avoid an unwinnable political controversy, Sledd resigned, and the Board of Control replaced him with Albert Murphree, the political favorite of several prominent members of the legislature and Board of Education.
Methodist ministry and Southern University
Following Sledd's resignation, he and his family returned to Atlanta and stayed in the home of his wife's parents. Within a few weeks, he was appointed minister of the First Methodist Church in Jacksonville, FloridaJacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, a position he held for the remainder of 1909 and the first half of 1910. Sledd was subsequently invited to return to Southern University as its president, serving from 1910 to 1914. While president of Southern University, implemented a new pre-college preparatory school and a four-year course of Bible study, and focused his personal efforts on restoring the school's finances and improving the quality of its instruction. In 1914, Sledd resigned the presidency of the small Methodist university to accept a professorship in Atlanta.
Candler School of Theology
In the fall of 1914, Sledd returned to Emory College, by then renamed Emory UniversityEmory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
and relocated to its new main campus in northeast Atlanta, as the first Professor of Greek and New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
Literature at the Candler School of Theology, the newly established seminary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South
Methodist Episcopal Church, South
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, or Methodist Episcopal Church South, was the so-called "Southern Methodist Church" resulting from the split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church which had been brewing over several years until it came out into the open at a conference...
. Sledd had a distinguished career as a professor of Greek, Latin and New Testament studies at Candler, and was the author of several scholarly books on New Testament subjects, including Saint Mark's Life of Jesus (1927), The Bibles of the Churches (1930) and His Witnesses: A Study of the Book of Acts (1935). He was selected to be a member of the American Standard Bible Committee, which was preparing a new American Standard Version
American Standard Version
The Revised Version, Standard American Edition of the Bible, more commonly known as the American Standard Version , is a version of the Bible that was released in 1901...
of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. He continued to advocate internal Methodist reform and an end to racial violence, and his teaching inspired a generation of his Candler theology students to serve as change agents within the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Many of his former students became Methodist ministers who returned to their congregations and annual conferences to labor in small but significant ways for better treatment of African-Americans, slowly transforming the Southern Methodist church from a bulwark of racial and theological intransigence to an agent for social change and doctrinal reform.
Sledd's interest in education was not limited to the higher education of colleges and universities. While holding his Candler professorship, he served as a member of the Board of Public Instruction
DeKalb County School System
DeKalb County School System is a school district headquartered at 1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States...
of DeKalb County, Georgia
DeKalb County, Georgia
DeKalb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population of the county was 691,893 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is the city of Decatur. It is bordered to the west by Fulton County and contains roughly 10% of the city of Atlanta...
, and volunteered for the additional duty of serving as the board's treasurer.
Sledd and his wife Annie also suffered a bitter personal tragedy during his time as a Candler professor, when their first-born son and his namesake, Andrew Sledd, Jr., died after an extended illness in 1919. Andrew, Jr., was only 16 years old, and had graduated from Decatur High School
Decatur High School (Georgia)
Decatur High School is a high school in Decatur, Georgia, United States. It is the sole high school in the Decatur City School District...
only weeks earlier.
Death and legacy
Sledd became a recognized New Testament scholar and a significant voice of educational, social and ecclesiastical reform within the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. For nearly twenty-five years, he remained a professor at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, until his death from a heart attack on March 16, 1939. Following Sledd's funeral, his body was buried in the Decatur Cemetery.In his 1960 History of Methodism in Alabama and West Florida, Marion Elias Lazenby remembered Sledd as "one of the [Methodist] Church's most scholarly and reverent teachers." Immediately after his death, Sledd was widely eulogized
Eulogy
A eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services. However, some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions...
in Methodist churches across the country. The large number of obituaries
Obituary
An obituary is a news article that reports the recent death of a person, typically along with an account of the person's life and information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities and larger newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant...
that appeared in regional and national newspapers suggests that Sledd was a well known and respected public figure in his day. The Atlanta Constitution, whose editorials had vilified Sledd in 1902, paid tribute to him in its obituary as a "nationally known Bible authority"; no mention was made of the "Sledd Affair."
Sledd's advocacy of social change and an evolving understanding of biblical texts came at a high personal price, however. Given his chosen career of minister and professor, he never accumulated much personal wealth. Sledd died deep in debt, having lost the family home to foreclosure
Foreclosure
Foreclosure is the legal process by which a mortgage lender , or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower 's equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law...
after the salaries of Candler professors were cut when financial support of the school fell during the 1930s. His creditors obtained a deficiency judgment
Deficiency judgment
A deficiency judgment is an unsecured money judgment against a borrower whose mortgage foreclosure sale did not produce sufficient funds to pay the underlying promissory note, or loan, in full. The availability of a deficiency judgment depends on whether the lender has a recourse or nonrecourse...
for the unpaid portion of his debt after the foreclosure, and, following his death, forced the sale of some of his furniture and parts of his personal library in partial satisfaction of his remaining debts.
The faculty of the University of Florida awarded Sledd the university's first honorary degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
, a doctor of divinity
Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects....
, at the spring 1909 commencement
Graduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
ceremonies. In 1933, John J. Tigert
John J. Tigert
John James Tigert, IV was an American university president, university professor and administrator, college sports coach and the U.S. Commissioner of Education. Tigert was a native of Tennessee and the son and grandson of Methodist bishops...
, the university's third president, invited Professor Sledd to be the university's baccalaureate speaker
Baccalaureate service
A baccalaureate service is a celebration which honors a graduating senior class from a college or high school...
. After his death, the university honored him again, renaming one of its early residence halls, Sledd Hall, in 1939. The small state university
State university
In the United States, a state college or state university is one of the public colleges or universities funded by or associated with the state government. In some cases, these institutions of higher learning are part of a state university system, while in other cases they are not. Several U.S....
, which Sledd had been instrumental in creating and organizing, is now one of the ten largest single-campus universities in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, with a total enrollment of approximately 50,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional student
Professional student
The term Professional student has two uses in the university setting:*In the United States and Canada, if not elsewhere, a professional student is a student majoring in what are considered the professional degrees. These include Veterinary Medicine , Law , Medicine , Engineering, Business...
s.
Sledd and his wife Annie had nine children. Eight of their children graduated from Emory, seven with Phi Beta Kappa honors, a fact newsworthy enough to be picked up by the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
wire service when youngest daughter Antoinette graduated from Emory the year following Sledd's death. Two of their sons followed in their father's footsteps, earned doctorate degrees and became university professors: James H. Sledd became a Rhodes Scholar and noted professor of English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and the University of Texas; Marvin B. Sledd was a professor of mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
at Georgia Tech.
In 2002, after almost a century of ignoring its role in the "Sledd Affair," Emory University sponsored a presentation entitled "Professing Justice: A Symposium on the Civil Rights Legacy of Professor Andrew Sledd." In holding the inter-disciplinary symposium, Emory University acted to "right a wrong committed a century ago by revisiting the 'Sledd affair' and reflecting on its meaning for Emory today."
See also
- History of FloridaHistory of FloridaThe history of Florida can be traced back to when the first Native Americans began to inhabit the peninsula as early as 14,000 years ago. Recorded history begins with the arrival of Europeans to Florida, beginning with the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, who explored the area in 1513...
- History of the State of Georgia
- History of the University of FloridaHistory of the University of FloridaThe history of the University of Florida is firmly tied to the history of public education in the state of Florida. The University of Florida, colloquially known as "Florida" or "UF," originated as several distinct institutions that were merged to create a single state-supported university by the...
- List of Emory University people
- List of Harvard University people
- List of Phi Beta Kappa members
- List of Phi Delta Theta members
- List of Presidents of the University of Florida
- List of University of Florida honorary degree recipients
- List of Yale University people
- State University System of FloridaState University System of FloridaThe State University System of Florida is a system of eleven public universities in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2011, over 320,000 students were enrolled in Florida's state universities...
- United Methodist ChurchUnited Methodist ChurchThe United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
External links
- Andrew Sledd Photographs in the University of Florida Digital CollectionsUniversity of Florida Digital CollectionsThe University of Florida Digital Collections are supported by the University of Florida Digital Library Center in the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. The University of Florida Digital Collections comprise a constantly growing collection of digital resources from the...
.