Learning and leading.

Once the war was over and freedom was attained, education was the next goal for African Americans in the Hills. In 1866 in Holly Springs, on the former site of slave auctions, Shaw University was established, only the second college in the nation founded for the express purpose of African American education. Over the course of the next century and half, Rust College, as the school would be renamed, became a center of social and educational excellence. However, it would be in the early decades of the school’s founding that two leaders closely associated with the college would step forward to make history.

One of those leaders, Hiram Revels, a Rust College teacher, made laws as the first African American to serve in the United States Senate. The other, Ida B. Wells, a Rust graduate, fought courageously against lawlessness and the vicious crime of lynching.