History

Lanier University, founded by a Baptist minister C. Lewis Fowler, opened on September 11, 1917 for 150 students.  The key element of the new school was the Conservatory of Music.  Early on, the Constitution noted recitals and other musical entertainments.  (See the news item left). Twelve of the 16 graduates in 1918 received the Bachelor of Music degree.  A school band was to be organized in 1920.  Often performing with conservatory members was the Department of Spoken Word.  Lanier had two literary societies—Hupersian and Basilian—which engaged in oratorical contests and debates.  Students also performed the missionary drama “Heroine of Ava” in 1918.

 

The goal of Lanier University was to “meet the needs of struggling young men and women of today.”  To that end, it began to add programs, to deliver programs at times convenient to students, and to deliver some classes in different formats.  It trained domestic science teachers and auto-tractor workers; it offered a summer term, making it a year-round school; it offered night classes—especially in business, Spanish, and law—for those holding day jobs; for students who could not come to Atlanta, it offered seventy classes by correspondence—including seventeen classes in religion.

 

Initially, Lanier was associated with the Baptist Church, and Baptist ministers helped in fundraising campaigns. The school had a chapter of the Baptist Young People’s Union.  But Lanier was not connected to the Southern Baptist Convention, so when it began to experience financial difficulties—partially brought on by building costs of the new campus—it had to look elsewhere for funding.

 

In August 1921, Lanier University passed to the owner ship of the Ku Klux Klan; Imperial Wizard Joseph Summers became president of the college.  However, under Klan ownership Lanier enrollment fell to 21. In July 1922 the school went into receivership and closed in October 1922.