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Contribution #240 of 365
Joseph Winthrop Holley
Founder and Forty-Year President of Albany Bible and Manual Training Institute
1903–1943
The contribution
How this work helped shape America
Born in South Carolina in 1874 to formerly enslaved parents, Joseph Winthrop Holley used advanced education and community fundraising to create a school for Black students in southwest Georgia. He founded the Albany Bible and Manual Training Institute in 1903 and led it for forty years. The school combined academic, teacher and practical education, later gained state support and expanded into the Georgia Normal and Agricultural College. Holley's sustained institution-building established the foundation of Albany State University and widened access to public higher education for Black students across the region.