The school that is soon to become Fisk University opens for its first class in Nashville, Tennessee

In Nashville, Tennessee, a group of educators from the American Missionary Society, aided by the local Freedmens' Bureau head, General Clinton B. Fisk, who personally donated $30,000, opened the doors of the Fisk Free Colored School for its first classes.  Educating former slaves of all ages, the institution was chartered the next year as Fisk University and was destined to become one of the nation's leading historically black universities.  (By John Osborne)