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The story
Beginnings (19th century)
Furman Academy and Theological Institution was established by the South Carolina Baptist Convention and incorporated in December 1825 in Edgefield. With 10 students, it held its first classes January 15, 1828; although another source says it opened in January 1827. Through 1850, average enrollment was 10 students, and it was at constant risk of insolvency. From 1829 to 1834, it operated in the High Hills of the Santee (now Stateburg, South Carolina). Furman closed from 1834 to 1837. When the school reopened, at the urging of the Reverend Jonathan Davis, chairman of the Board of Agents, the school moved to his native Fairfield County, near Winnsboro.
In 1850, the state legislature chartered Furman University. It was not until 1851 that South Carolina Baptists were able to raise the necessary funds for the removal of the school to Greenville, South Carolina.
The university closed from 1861 to 1866, when "most students and several faculty members enlisted in the Confederate forces."
The Furman Institution Faculty Residence serves as a visible reminder of the early history of Furman University and its brief establishment in Fairfield County.
Growth and expansion (20th century)
The first school building from the downtown Greenville campus was transported to the current campus, where it still stands. In 1933, students from the Greenville Women's College began attending classes with Furman students. Shortly thereafter, the two schools merged to form the present institution.
In 1924, Furman was named one of four collegiate beneficiaries of the Duke Endowment. Through 2007, Furman has received $110 million from the endowment, which is now one of the nation's largest philanthropic foundations. Three other colleges—Duke, Davidson and Johnson C. Smith—also receive annual support and special grants from the endowment.
In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education found the "separate but equal" policy to be unconstitutional, starting the lengthy process of desegregating public schools. As of that date, Furman, like most Southern colleges, did not accept African Americans as students. Some Furman students began to press for change. In 1955, some students wrote short stories and poems in The Echo, a student literary magazine, in support of integration; school administrators destroyed all 1,500 printed copies. In 1953, Furman began construction on its new campus, five miles (8 km) north of downtown Greenville. Classes on the new campus began in 1958.
By 1963, enough faculty were siding with the students over racial desegregation that Furman's board of trustees voted to admit Black students. Action on the trustees' decision was postponed and it was later overturned by South Carolina's Baptist Convention; desegregated admission was not implemented at Furman until its incoming president, Gordon W. Blackwell, a past president of Florida State University, made it a condition of his acceptance of the new position. In 1965, Joseph Vaughn was the first black undergraduate to enroll.
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In 1992, the South Carolina Baptist Convention ended its affiliation with Furman. Furman's "heritage is rooted in the non-creedal, free church Baptist tradition which has always valued particular religious commitments while insisting not only on the freedom of the individual to believe as he or she sees fit but also on respect for a diversity of religious perspectives, including the perspective of the non-religious person."
21st century
In 2012, a new facility, named for alumni Sarah and Gordon Herring, was built for continuing education. The student center was expanded and renovated in 2012. David Trone, a Furman alumnus, together with his wife June, participated through a $3.5 million gift resulting in the center being named the Trone Student Center.
In October 2018, the Task Force on Slavery and Justice set up by Provost George Shields issued Seeking Abraham, a report making recommendations "to acknowledge the role slavery and racism had in the school's history." The task force was a response to the article, "Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation: What is the Furman Legacy?" published in October 2016 in the university newspaper, which pointed out that Richard Furman, the university's namesake, and even more so his son James Clement Furman, Furman's first president, were slave owners and active defenders of slavery. "Abraham" is a reference to Abraham Sims, a slave at the house of James Furman. The task force issued 19 recommendations, which were unanimously accepted by Furman's board of trustees. James C. Furman Hall was renamed Furman Hall, and a statue was erected to honor Joseph Vaughn, "the first Black student to attend the school".
From Wikipedia’s article on Furman University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5