Bob Jones University history

April 1, 1933 — Bob Jones College board votes to move to Cleveland, Tenn., at the former Centenary College.

April 25, 1946 — Bob Jones Sr. announces move to Greenville.

1, 1947 — BJU in Greenville opens with more than 2,500 students.

The Museum & Gallery opened on Thanksgiving Day in 1951, with up to 40 paintings.

The first of these was the 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision, which outlawed segregated schools.

Negative publicity caused by the dispute precipitated a decline in BJU enrollment of about 10% in the years 1956–59, and seven members of the university board (of about a hundred) also resigned in support of Graham, including Graham himself and two of his staff members.

Not only were the fundamentalists vehemently opposed to the entire 1960’s “peace and love” generation and all of its social goals, but there were a number of Supreme Court decisions during this time that specifically motivated the fundamentalists to form political movements to counter them.

When, in 1966, Graham held his only American campaign in Greenville, the university forbade any BJU dormitory student from attending under penalty of expulsion.

On January 16, 1968, the Lord called Doctor Bob Jones Sr., the university founder, to meet his Savior after a lifetime of faithful service.

In 1970, however, the IRS decided to step in, and ruled that any private school in the US which practiced “racially discriminatory admissions policies” would have its tax-exempt status revoked.

University benefactors and administrators maintained that the Bible forbade interracial dating and marriage, and African Americans were denied admission based solely on their race prior to 1971.

First black student admitted after school changes policy to allow black students who are married “within their race.” 1973 — The 7,000-seat Founder’s Memorial Amphitorium was opened to accommodate a growing student body.

For the next four years, it admitted black students only if they were married “within their race.” In 1975, the university started admitting unmarried black applicants but banned interracial dating.

So after the 1976 elections, the fundamentalists turned to the Republican Party instead.

1983 — United States Supreme Court rules the IRS could revoke the university’s tax-exempt status because the government’s interest in ridding education of racial discrimination overrode the school’s First Amendment rights to religious free speech.

The “university” had already been rocked again by scandal, with accusations that Bob Jones III, who had succeeded his father in 1997, had covered up a series of sexual abuses by staff members, including rapes and underage sex.

In 1998, with the assistance of Bob Jones University faculty and staff, the Museum & Gallery launched the first Living Gallery—a unique production that presents the Gospel through music, drama and live works of art.

When presidential candidate George W Bush visited the BJU campus to give a speech in 2000, he was simply following the now-established tradition of GOP hopefuls making the pilgrimmage to Greenville to kowtow for fundamentalist votes.

2005 — Doctor Stephen Jones, the great-grandson of the school’s founder, is installed as president.

2006 — School gets accreditation from the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools.

2008 — Stephen Jones apologizes for BJU’s past racial discrimination.

In 2011, BJU announced its return to intercollegiate athletics and the following year introduced the University’s new mascot: the Bruin.

In 2012, it was estimated there were 1.5 million home-schooled children in the United States.

In August 2013, BJU introduced a new collegiate visual identity.

Stephen Jones resigned in 2014 for health reasons, and evangelist Steve Pettit was named president, the first unrelated to the Jones family.

2017 — BJU regains federal tax-exempt nonprofit status.