Bennett College

Source: Smith Collection/Gado / Getty

Bennett College is a private liberal arts college founded in 1873 as a school to educate African American men and women to be teachers.

In 1926 it became a four-year women’s college. Today it is one of two historically black female colleges.

Source: Afro Newspaper/Gado / Getty – A teacher, African-American composer, pianist, bandleader and Jazz musician Duke Ellington and Ann Rhoden at Bennett College, Greensboro, North Carolina, 1960.

Located in Greensboro, North Carolina. Bennett students participated in the 1960 sit-ins to integrate the “whites–only” lunch counters around the city. Several “Bennett Belles” were arrested due to their continuing protests.

Today the college is celebrated for both its academics and civil leadership.