Miles College is a four-year, private, coed, liberal arts institution
founded as Miles Memorial College in 1905 by the Colored Methodist
Episcopal Church, which is now called the Christian Methodist Episcopal
Church (CME Church). The Alabama and the North Alabama conferences each
established educational institutions in Thomasville in 1898 and another at
Booker City in 1902. The high school operated at Booker City by the North
Alabama conference is considered to be the roots of Miles College.
The reorganization of the school began in 1907, when it became a college
and moved to its present site. In 1908, the school was chartered under the
laws of the State of Alabama as Miles Memorial College in honor of Bishop
William H. Miles, a former slave and ex-minister in the postwar missions
of the African Methodist denominations. The first baccalaureate degree was
awarded in 1911, the same year the Board of Trustees changed the name to
Miles College. Miles College was the only four-year college open to black
students for the first half of the twentieth century.
Miles’ original mission, to provide quality education for the academically
disadvantaged and to provide community service, continues today.
In keeping with the religious origin and liberal arts tradition, the
College assists students in acquiring respect for religious creeds in
general, and for the Christian ethnic in particular. The school urges
students to fulfill their human and intellectual potentials, and to
develop the skills in communication and scholarship necessary for
productive lives in American mainstream society.
Comprising seventeen buildings, Miles College rests on 35 acres, about 6
miles west of downtown Birmingham. |
