1868 - Though black Athenians in Georgia, like most black Southerners, preferred teaching and operating their own schools with little external control, they accepted support from the American Missionary Association (AMA) and the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1868 to open Athens’s first black school. The Knox School, later renamed Knox Institute and Industrial School, was named in honor of a Freedmen’s Bureau Agent named Major John J. Knox, who became famous after shooting an ex-Confederate soldier in the leg after a heated discussion about southern Reconstruction. The school was located on the corner of Reese and Pope Streets in Athens.
Mid-1870s - The Athens black community, assisted by the Georgia Educational Association, took control of the Knox Institute and hired trained black teachers to teach at the school by the mid-1870s.
1911 - Andrew Carnegie purchases a building containing 21 classrooms for the Knox Institute.
1913 - The Knox Institute covered twelves grades.
1921 - The Knox Institute was accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the University of Georgia.
1928 - The Knox Institute closed due to financial difficulties at the beginning of the Great Depression.
Mid-1870s - The Athens black community, assisted by the Georgia Educational Association, took control of the Knox Institute and hired trained black teachers to teach at the school by the mid-1870s.
1911 - Andrew Carnegie purchases a building containing 21 classrooms for the Knox Institute.
1913 - The Knox Institute covered twelves grades.
1921 - The Knox Institute was accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the University of Georgia.
1928 - The Knox Institute closed due to financial difficulties at the beginning of the Great Depression.