46 | January/February 2018
I
FAY E T T E V I L L E S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y
Going strong
after the first 150 years
BY CATHERINE PRITCHARD
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW WONDERLY
F E A T U R E
The Sandford House
In 1867, seven black residents of Fayetteville
paid $136 for two lots on Gillespie Street.
ey did so to realize a dream – the
establishment of a school to educate black
children.
One hundred fiy years later, David A. Bryant,
Nelson Carter, Andrew J. Chesnutt, George
Grainger, Matthew N. Leary, omas Lomax
and Robert Simmons are long gone. But the
school they founded lives on, as Fayetteville
State University. is year, the historically black
university is celebrating its sesquicentennial and
it's paying tribute to those founders and others
who contributed to its development and growth. It
is also focused on its present – and its future.
e road from 1867 to present-day has
been long, winding and sometimes bumpy for
Fayetteville State, which has undergone several
incarnations, name changes and locations over
its 150 years. Originally a two-story grade school
built with funding from the federal Freedmen's
Bureau, it is now a four-year university with
Newly minted graduates smile after receiving their bachelor of science degrees
in nursing at Fayetteville State University in December.
