In 1879, four acres of land were purchased in Louisville by the Convention of Colored Baptist Churches in Kentucky for the purpose of housing the campus of the Kentucky Normal Theological Institute. The school was later renamed to honor its second president, W.J. Simmons, who served from 1880 to 1890. In 1930, amidst the Great Depression, the school was facing severe financial difficulties and sold its campus to the University of Louisville. At the time, the University of Louisville was racially segregated and it operated the old Simmons campus as the Louisville Municipal College for the Colored. When the University of Louisville opened its doors to Black students, the Louisville Municipal College for the Colored was closed and the campus was sold to the local public school district.
In 2005, Kevin Cosby, the pastor of the St. Stephens Baptist Church bought the old Simmons campus. In 2013, the college was accredited by the Association for Biblical Education. Since the educational institution was founded prior to 1965, its accreditation made it eligible for designation as a historically Black college.
Since 1974, the University of Louisville has housed the institutional archives of Simmons College of Kentucky. Now, the historic archives have been returned to the Simmons College campus.
The collection consists of rare materials that showcase the history of Simmons College. The archives include editions of the Simmonola magazine, records from the General Association of Baptists in Kentucky, photos, papers, and artifacts from the HBCU’s academic, religious, and athletic legacies. Now that the college has received the physical collection, scholars at the HBCU plan to launch a new digital archive.
“This is more than just paper and photographs,” said Simmons College President Kevin Cosby. “This is the soul of Simmons. This is who we are, and who we’ve always been.”
