A Methodist training college for Christian workers that pioneered desegregation in Tennessee before closing in 1988.
Scarritt College for Christian Workers originated in 1892 as the Scarritt Bible and Training School in Kansas City, Missouri, founded by Belle Harris Bennett to train Methodist missionaries and lay leaders. The school moved to Nashville in 1924 and was rechartered under its new name. By the 1930s, it offered bachelor's and graduate degrees in community and family service, social work, and religious education. From 1981 to 1988, it operated as the Scarritt Graduate School, focusing on Church Music and Christian Education before closing in 1988.
The Nashville campus was designed by architect Henry C. Hibbs in the late Gothic Revival style and constructed between 1925 and 1928 using Crab Orchard stone. Key buildings include Scarritt Hall, Bennett Hall, Wightman Chapel, and the Memorial Tower. The historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Six additional buildings were constructed between 1940 and the 1960s.
Scarritt College welcomed its first Black students, Leila Robinson and DeLaris Johnson, in 1952, making it one of the first private, predominantly white colleges in Tennessee to desegregate. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in Wightman Chapel on April 25, 1957, addressing approximately 350 church leaders at the Conference on Christian Faith and Human Relations. Students actively participated in civil rights demonstrations, including the 1963 Campus Grill boycott and 1964 downtown demonstrations against segregated establishments.
After the college closed in 1988, the campus was purchased by the Women's Division of the United Methodist Church, which established Scarritt Bennett Center. This nonprofit organization operates as a conference, retreat, and education center focused on empowering women, eradicating racism, promoting prophetic justice, and fostering transformative education.