Bennett College , in Greensboro, was founded August 1, 1873 as a normal school for teacher training.

Bennett College , in Greensboro, was founded August 1, 1873 as a normal school for teacher training. It opened with seventy African-American men and women (freedmen, or former slaves). The school's founder, Albion W. Tourgee, was an activist from Ohio who worked in North Carolina during Reconstruction and championed the cause of racial justice.

The school held its inaugural classes in the basement of Warnersville Methodist Episcopal Church North (now St. Matthew's United Methodist) in Greensboro. Bennett was coeducational and offered both high school and college-level courses, in an effort to help many blacks compensate for their previous lack of educational opportunity. The year after its founding, the school became sponsored by the Freedman's Aid Society and Southern Education Society of the northern Methodist Episcopal Church (like the Baptists, the Methodist churches had split in the years before the war over the issue of slavery, and established two regional conferences). Bennett remained affiliated for 50 years with the Freedman's Aid Society.

In 1878, freedmen purchased land for a future college campus (which was developed as the current site). Hearing about the college, New York businessman Lyman Bennett (1801–1879) provided $10,000 in funding to build a permanent campus. Bennett died soon after. The college was named Bennett Seminary. Hearing of Bennett's philanthropy, his coworkers commissioned a bell to be made in his honor and continued his mission by donating the bell to the school.

In 1888, Bennett Seminary elected its first African-American president, the Reverend Charles N. Grandison. Grandison spearheaded a successful drive to have the school chartered as a four-year college in 1889. Two of the first African-American bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church were graduates of the college, including Robert Elijah Jones, a 1895 graduate. His brother was future president David Dallas Jones. Under the direction of Reverend Grandison and succeeding President Jordan Chavis, Bennett College grew from 11 undergraduate students to a total of 251 undergraduates by 1905. The enrollment leveled out in the 1910s at roughly 300.

In 1916, a survey conducted by the Phelps-Stokes Foundation recommended Bennett College be converted to a college exclusively for women. The Women's Home Missionary Society, which had supported women at the college since 1886, had found that there was no four-year college exclusively for African-American women, and they wanted to establish such a college. The North Carolina Board of Education offered Bennett College for that purpose.

After ten years, during which it studied other locations and conducted fundraising, the Women's Home Missionary Society and the NC Board of Education decided to develop the college in its current location. Bennett fully transitioned to a women's college in 1926. (Note: The Women's Home Missionary Society's on-campus involvement with Bennett women dates back to 1886.)

In 1926, David Dallas Jones was installed as president of the new women's college. Under his leadership, the college expanded, reaching an enrollment of 400. It became known in the black community as the Vassar College of the South, and Jones recruited faculty, staff and students, from all cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Although he had major achievements, Jones's tenure was also marked with controversy.

In 1937, Bennett students protested downtown Greensboro movie theaters because of their segregation, which was state law at the time, and the depictions of black women in films they were showing. Frances Jones, daughter of the college president, led the protest; she was in her first year. This protest during the Great Depression and under Jim Crow conditions in the South, resulted in President Jones being investigated by the FBI and other government agencies. They were concerned about communist and leftist activities, as these groups were politically active in the United States. They ordered him to prohibit the students from protesting. Jones refused.

At his invitation, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came to the college on March 22, 1945, to meet with an integrated group of school children from Greensboro. Other visitors to the campus included Benjamin Elijah Mays, former Morehouse College president; poet Robert Frost, and writer James Weldon Johnson. Jones led the college for almost 30 years until he became ill in 1955, when he named Willa B. Player interim president. Note: (Bennett's brother college is Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. This relationship developed through the historic friendship of David Dallas Jones and Benjamin E. Mays.)

In October 1956, Willa Beatrice Player was inaugurated as President of Bennett College. She was the first African-American woman to be president of a four-year, fully accredited liberal arts college or university. During Player's tenure, Bennett in 1957 was one of the first historically black colleges to receive accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). On February 11, 1958, Player allowed civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to speak at the school; he was prohibited by the city from speaking publicly anywhere else in Greensboro. His speech was entitled "A Realistic Look At Race Relations," and was delivered to a standing-room-only audience at Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel on campus. Player said about this visit, "Bennett College is a liberal arts college where 'freedom rings,' so King can speak here." King, Howard Thurman and Benjamin Elijah Mays inspired Bennett students to begin protests, and they became known as "Bennett Belles".

Civil rights activism increased. In February 1960 students from Bennett College and North Carolina A&T began a civil rights protest in downtown Greensboro. Bettye Davis, class of 1963, committed to sitting at the white-only lunch counter of F. and W. Woolworth's variety store with students from A&T, and to keep returning until the store integrated the facility. On February 4, 1960, close to a dozen "Bennett Belles" were arrested due to their continuing protest at Woolworth's.

On April 21, 1960, Bennett and A&T students were arrested for trespassing at the white S.H. Kress & Co. lunch counter. On April 22, 1960, The Daily News of New York broke the story of the arrests nationally, with front-page headlines and a picture of well-dressed female students entering the back of a paddy wagon without any help from the police officers surrounding it. It reported that Greensboro police were surprised that the "Bennett Belles" had protested, as they were considered refined young women from an "elitist finishing school." At the peak of the sit-in movement, more than 40% of Bennett's student body was jailed. President Player personally visited the students in jail, carrying assignments to them so they would not fall behind in their studies.

Willa B. Player led Bennett until 1966. She was succeeded by Isaac H. Miller. His father had been an administrator at Bennett during former President Frank Trigg's tenure. Miller maintained the "Bennett Ideal," despite the social changes of the late 1960s. Reflecting the general culture, students protested the strict dress codes, disciplinary policies, and curfew. During the 1967-68 school year, freshwomen walked out of dormitories 1 minute before curfew. Students took over the student union while demanding change to college policies. Miller surrounded the buildings with campus security, and brought in family and sleeping bags, changing the protest to a campus-wide "sleep over". Students were required to wear dresses or skirts, and hats and gloves until the early 1970s.

Miller collaborated with other colleges and universities in Greensboro to form a consortium that expanded Bennett's academic program by giving students access to other local universities. His administration developed the biomedical research and interdisciplinary studies programs, along with a bridge program in conjunction with Meharry Medical College of Nashville, Tennessee. He collaborated with other HBCU presidents to establish the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, serving on the first board of directors. Miller's plans were supported by alumnae, who donated material and fiscal resources.

Miller increased Bennett's endowment, and also completed construction of four new buildings on campus. He served as president for 21 years, the second-longest presidential tenure in Bennett College history, and during a period of considerable social change. He retired in 1987. Gloria Randle Scott became Bennett's 12th president and its second woman in that position.

Gloria Randle Scott started as President of Bennett College on July 1, 1987. She developed offerings with additional programs. She established the Women's Leadership Institute, and the Center for African Women and Women of the African Diaspora. Bennett admitted new African immigrants as well as students who were African nationals. In 1989, poet and activist Maya Angelou was installed as a member of the board of trustees. Scott was President of Bennett for 14 years before retiring in 2001


In June 2002 came big changes for Bennett College. Under the leadership of Sister President Emerita Johnnetta B. Cole, the school was revitalized and much needed renovations were made to campus buildings. She had led a $50 million campaign. Also under her leadership the New Academy – an academic program, the Johnnetta B. Cole Diversity and Inclusion Institute, and an art gallery were added. Dr. Cole also enhanced the study abroad program.

Health and fitness facilities were added to encourage students to learn to lead healthy lives. Numerous prominent figures spoke at the campus and some helped raise funds for its operations. Former President Bill Clinton, former US Senator Robert Dole, trustee emerita Maya Angelou, and Oprah Winfrey have all assisted in fundraising. The campaign closed successfully at the end of Cole's tenure on June 30, 2007.

On July 1, 2007, Julianne Malveaux became President of Bennett College. She has led a $21 million expansion and renovation project for the college. She increased enrollment, added four new buildings, including a multimedia center, and renovated additional buildings. Malveaux enhanced the overall academic curriculum, which focuses on women's leadership, entrepreneurship, communications, and global studies.[citation needed]

On July 1, 2012, Esther Terry '61 became the first alumna to lead the college. Already serving as the College's provost, Terry was made interim president for a full academic year. During the May 2013 commencement ceremony, the Board of Trustees announced Terry would be officially termed as 16th President of Bennett College.

Phyllis Worthy Dawkins assumed presidency on August 15, 2016. Previous serving as Provost, Dr. Dawkins focused on faculty/staff recruitment, reinvigorating living learning communities, and launched a leadership institute. She was ousted in 2019 and replaced by Suzanne Walsh.

Since 1930, Bennett has graduated more than 7,000 students, affectionately known as "Bennett Belles