Beda-Etta College Explained

The Beda-Etta College, also known as Beda-Etta Business College, was a private business-focused junior college and commercial high school in the Pleasant Hill neighborhood of Macon, Georgia active from 1921 to 1955.^{[1] [2]}

History

The Beda-Etta College was founded and operated by Minnie Lee Smith, a public school teacher,^[3] who named it for her two deceased sisters,^[4] and who paid for it with her own money.^{[5] [6]} The school mainly taught courses to students of color related to business and commerce before offering a wider range of subjects.^{[7] [8]} The school was said to be the first business school in Georgia, and its courses ("typing, shorthand, bookkeeping, and banking") were taken by "many of Macon's future black leaders".

Smith died in 1956 and is buried at Linwood Cemetery in Macon.^[9] The Tubman African American Museum has the school's 1923 cornerstone.

Notes and References

1. Book: The Macon Guide and Ocmulgee National Monument Project . 1939 . J. W. Burke Company . Georgia Writers' Program . 35 . en . Beda Etta College, a junior college and commercial high school, was founded by Minnie L. Smith in 1920.
2. Book: Brown, Titus . Faithful, Firm, and True: African American Education in the South . 2002 . Mercer University Press . 978-0-86554-777-3 . 107 . en.
3. Book: Grant, Donald Lee . The Way it was in the South: The Black Experience in Georgia . 230 . Jonathan . Grant . University of Georgia Press . 2001 . 9780820323299.
4. Book: Herring, Jeanne . Macon, Georgia . February 6, 2000 . Arcadia Publishing . 9780738506005.
5. Web site: Macon . 12 February 2022 . New Georgia Encyclopedia.
6. News: 1930-04-06 . Beda-Etta College at Memorial Church . 9 . The Macon News . 2023-01-11.
7. Book: The WPA Guide to Georgia: The Peach State Author Federal Writers' Project . Trinity University Press . 2013 . 9781595342096 . 202.
8. Book: Maurer . Tracy . Macon celebrates the millennium . 2001 . Community Communications, Inc. . 978-1-58192-034-5 . 54 . 12 February 2022.
9. Web site: Linwood Cemetery Macon Georgia . linwoodmacon.com.