Mercer University was founded in 1833 in Georgia and has since grown from two log cabins with 39 students to a large university system with multiple colleges and schools across Georgia. In the early 1900s, Mercer had a football team that faced large defeats against the University of Georgia. During World War II, Mercer supported the war effort by providing aviation instruction and had to drop football due to lack of players. In 1963, Mercer admitted its first African American student, becoming one of the first private southern colleges to desegregate before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

1. Mercer University was founded in 1833 in Penfield, Georgia, by Georgia Baptists . At its founding, ‘Mercer Institute’ consisted of two log cabins. The enrollment was 39 students and tuition was $35 for the year and board was provided at $8 per month. Mercer moved to Macon in 1871 and has undergone vast changes in the past 175 years. It is now a university with the College of Continuing and Professional Studies, College of Liberal Arts, School of Engineering, Tift College of Education, Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics, Townsend School of Music, Walter F. George Law School and Mercer Medical School, as well as the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, McAfee School of Theology and College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Atlanta, Georgia. Regional Academic Centers are located in Douglas County, Eastman, Henry County and Macon. An additional location for the School of Medicine will be located in Savannah later in 2008.

2. Believe it or not, Mercer once had a football team. In 1893, we faced the University of Georgia and were defeated 50-0. This defeat did not compare to the 1941 encounter with UGA, which resulted in an 81-0 triumph for UGA. In 1942, Mercer, along with many other smaller colleges, was forced to drop intercollegiate football because WWII made it difficult to keep a decent team on the field.

3. WWII not only affected Mercer’s intercollegiate sports, it also affected the curriculum. In 1943, Mercer is selected to give aviation instruction in the Navy War Training Service. From July 1943 to October 1945, 731 trainees received basic aviation instruction in the Mercer V-12 program.

4. In 1963, Sam Jerry Oni of Ghana, Africa, becomes the first African American to enter Mercer. On April 18, Mercer trustees vote to admit qualified students without regard to race, and Mercer becomes one of the few private colleges in the South to desegregate prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Stem of Jesse: The Costs of Community at a 1960s Southern School by Will Campbell, describes the experiences of Sam Oni, Mercerians, and a college community in transition as a result of desegregation. This book is available for checkout at Tarver Library.