Lanier University, named after "poet of the Confederacy"

Sidney Lanier Sidney Clopton Lanier (February 3, 1842 – September 7, 1881) was an American musician, poet and author. He served in the Confederate States Army as a private, worked on a blockade-running ship for which he was imprisoned (resulting in his catch ...

, was a short-lived university in today's Morningside-Lenox Park neighborhood of

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

. It was notable for its connections with the second Ku Klux Klan, which was also based in Atlanta and which owned the university for a time. Charles Lewis Fowler, a Baptist minister, founded Lanier in 1917. He hoped for financing from

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...

magnate

Asa Candler Asa Griggs Candler (December 30, 1851 – March 12, 1929) was an American business tycoon and politician who in 1888 purchased the Coca-Cola recipe for $238.98 from chemist John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. Candler founded The Coca-C ...

but instead got backing from the Georgia Baptist Association. Lanier was to be Georgia's first co-ed Baptist college."Shearith Israel Renovates.....'All Southern' Lanier University ", ''Morningside/Lenox Park Association''
/ref> Architect A. Ten Eyck Brown made architectural plans for the new campus in Morningside on a crescent-shaped strip of land (see illustration). At the head of this strip, at University Drive and Spring Valley Lane, would stand a replica of the Custis-Lee Mansion in

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...

. This was built and named Arlington Hall. The University Park subdivision was developed around the university in 1921, and University Drive is also a reminder of that time. Among its faculty was

William Joseph Simmons William Joseph Simmons (May 7, 1880 – May 18, 1945) was an American preacher and fraternal organizer who founded and led the second Ku Klux Klan from Thanksgiving evening 1915 until being replaced in 1922 by Hiram Wesley Evans. Early life Si ...

, founder and leader of the second Ku Klux Klan. Simmons was a "professor of southern history" at Lanier. Financial problems plagued the school; in 1921, the school was sold to the Ku Klux Klan, which owned it for a year, with

Nathan Bedford Forrest II Nathan Bedford Forrest II (August 1871 – March 11, 1931) was an American businessman who served as the 19th Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans from 1919 to 1921, and as the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan for Georgia. For ...

(grandson of the Confederate general by the same name) as secretary and business manager. "The central idea involved in this proposition of the operation of Lanier University by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is to do what few universities are doing in this country, and that Is to teach pure Americanism," Forrest told ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. "Most of our large universities now are turning out Socialists, cynics and atheists." Forrest predicted the Klan-run Lanier would enroll 1,000 to 2,000 students within a year. Instead, it failed in less time than that, closing on September 1, 1922."Lanier University Will Be Abandoned, ''Atlanta Constitution'', July 13, 1922 It was sold that October. The property became a synagogue. In 1949 Congregation Shearith Israel, then in Summerhill, bought the property from the estate of Walter E. King. During this time Summerhill was deteriorating due to the construction of the

Downtown Connector In Downtown Atlanta, the Downtown Connector or 75/85 (pronounced "seventy-five eighty-five") is the concurrent section of Interstate 75 and Interstate 85 through the core of the city. Beginning at the I-85/ Langford Parkway interchange, ...

freeway, and many Jews were moving from there to Morningside, where many would later join to fight the construction of the I-485 freeway through Morningside. Since 2009, Arlington Hall has been occupied by the Canterbury School, while the synagogue remains in buildings behind it to the east.

References

External links

"Shearith Israel Renovates.....'All Southern' Lanier University ", ''Morningside/Lenox Park Association''

"Forrest tells aims of Ku Klux College", ''New York Times'', September 12, 1921

''The Ku-Klux Klan: Hearings before the Committee on rules''
- information on faculty, curriculum, etc. after KKK acquisition of Lanier {{Authority control 1917 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 1920s disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state) A. Ten Eyck Brown buildings Defunct private universities and colleges in Georgia (U.S. state) Educational institutions disestablished in 1922 Educational institutions established in 1917 History of Atlanta Jews and Judaism in Atlanta Ku Klux Klan in Georgia (U.S. state) Synagogues in Georgia (U.S. state) Universities and colleges in Atlanta White supremacy in the United States