Editing Wiley University (section)

== History ==
Wiley University, established in 1873 in Marshall, Texas, by the Freedmen’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.<ref name="TSHA" /><ref name="Brooks">{{Cite book |last=Brooks |first=F. Erik |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FojDEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA62 |title=Historically Black Colleges and Universities: An Encyclopedia |last2=Starks |first2=Glenn L. |date=2011-09-13 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-0-313-39416-4 |pages=62–63 |language=en}}</ref> It is the oldest historically black college (or institute of higher education) west of the Mississippi River.<ref name="TSHA" /> It was started as both a college and high school.<ref name="TSHA" />

In 1880, the campus was moved to a seventy-acre plot in downtown Marshall.<ref name="TSHA" /> The former campus location was in south Marshall, near the remaining [[Wiley College Cemetery]].<ref name="TSHA" /> In 1888, Henry B. Pemberton was the first college graduate, he was awarded a B.A. degree.<ref name="TSHA" />

F.C. Moore was the first president, and for the first twenty years the president and all the faculty and staff, were church missionaries and were White.<ref name="TSHA" /> The first African American president of Wiley University was Isaiah B. Scott, who served from 1893 until 1896; with his election he changed the institutions policy regarding the race of faculty and staff.<ref name="TSHA" /> In 1896, Scott became editor of the [[Southwest Christian Advocate]], and Matthew Winfred Dogan replaced him as the president, a role he maintained until 1942.<ref name="TSHA" />

In 1906 a fire destroyed five of the eleven buildings on campus, but they were rebuilt.<ref name="TSHA" /> In 1907, the president’s home and a library on campus were built by students, after president Dogan was able to secure a [[Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching|Carnegie Foundation]] grant.<ref name="TSHA" /> The library was open to the entire community of Marshall, and it was the only library until 1974.<ref name="TSHA" /> By 1929, the institution no longer supported a high school.<ref name="TSHA" /> During that same year, the university renamed itself as Wiley College.

=== Civil Rights Movement ===
Wiley, along with [[Bishop College]], was instrumental in the [[Civil rights movement|Civil Rights movement]] in Texas. Wiley and Bishop students launched the first [[sit-in]]s in Texas in the [[rotunda (architecture)|rotunda]] of the Old Harrison County Courthouse to protest segregation in public facilities.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

[[James Farmer]], son of [[James L. Farmer, Sr.]], graduated from Wiley and became one of the "Big Four" of the Civil Rights Movement. Together with [[Roy Wilkins]],  Rev. Dr. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], and [[Whitney M. Young Jr.]], James Farmer helped organize the first [[sit-in]]s and [[Freedom Rides]] in the United States.<ref>http://www.core-online.org/History/james_farmer_bio.ht {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.interchange.org/jfarmer.html|title=James Farmer Memorial Page|access-date=March 21, 2016}}</ref>