Wiley College

Wiley College

Wiley College the first and oldest historically black college west of the Mississippi River and is located on the west side of Marshall, Texas. The college was founded in 1873 by the Methodist Episcopal Church's Bishop Isaac Wiley and was certified in 1882 by the Freedmen's Aid Society. Melvin B. Tolson, a contemporary of the Harlem Renaissance, was an English professor at the college. James L. Farmer Sr., the first black Texan to hold a doctorate, was a proffesor at Wiley.

Farmer's son, James L. Farmer Jr was a graduate of Wiley and went on to become one of the "Bog Three" of the Civil Rights Movement; organizing the first sit ins and Freedom Rides in the United States. Wiley along with Bishop College was instrumental in the Civil Rights in Marshall. Wiley and Bishop students launched the first sit ins in Texas in the rotunda of the Old Harrison County Courthouse.

Wiley was the first college in East Texas to issue laptop computers to its students.