Spelman's Rich History
In the spring of 1879, New England teachers and missionaries, Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles journeyed south to study living conditions among freed persons. Appalled by what they found, particularly the lack of educational opportunities for females, they pledged to return to the South to open a school for Black women and girls. Packard and Giles returned to Georgia, and with an offer to use the basement of Friendship Baptist Church, opened the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary on April 11, 1881.
On this anniversary of our founding, Spelman College, celebrates a long-standing commitment to academic excellence and service to others, inherited from the Founders. Grounded in the vision of Packard’s charge to build “for a hundred years hence,” Spelman is unwavering in her commitment to deliver an outstanding education for our current students, while ensuring our ability to deliver on this promise for generations of students to come. Empowering leaders since 1881 through an intellectual and ethical course, we pause to pay tribute to our past.
Celebrate our Spelman Trailblazers