[4][5] Fisk Free Colored School opened on January 9, 1866, during the Reconstruction era shortly after the end of the Civil War.

It was founded by John Ogden, Erastus Milo Cravath, and Edward Parmelee Smith of the American Missionary Association for the education of freedmen in Nashville.

Fisk secured a site to house the school in a former military barracks near Union Station and provided $30,000 of government funds for its endowment.

[7] During the nation's Reconstruction era, the Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation to enable free public education, which caused a need to increase teacher training.

[11][12] The Tennessee Constitution of 1870 was ratified with a provision, Article XI § 12, that prohibited public schools from enrolling both Black and White students.

To get around the requirement of integration, ETU paid tuition for Black students with State Scholarships to enroll at Fisk University in 1881–83.

Spence developed plans to expand and move the school to a larger campus in north Nashville on a site that had been Fort Gillem, a Union army base.

[16] With a strong interest in religion and the arts, Adam Spence supported the founding of a student choir; they were the start of the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

With the school facing financial distress, the choir went on tour to raise funds in 1871, led by professor and university treasurer George L.

[7][17] They toured the U.S. and Europe and became a sensation, singing before Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Twain, Queen Victoria; popularizing spirituals written by Wallace Willis such as "Swing Low Sweet Chariot"; and changing racial stereotypes.

[21] He oversaw an active construction program and expansion of the school's curriculum offerings to include liberal arts, theology, and teacher training.

By the turn of the 20th century, it had strengthened its reputation, built several campus buildings, added African-American teachers and staff, and enrolled a second generation of students.

The institute conducted research and fostered discussion about racial disparity in the U.S. and would later help develop strategies for desegregation in schools, employment, and the military.

In 1960, Fisk students joined other black leaders in the Nashville sit-ins, nonviolent protests against segregation at lunch counters in the city during the civil rights movement.

[33] Fisk students John Lewis and Diane Nash were leaders during the protests, which led to Nashville becoming the first major city in the South to desegregate lunch counters.

A plaque memorializing Grizzard and two other lynching victims—his brother Henry and Samuel Smith—was installed at St. Anselm's Episcopal church in Nashville.

In the 1930s, Fisk hired the Olmsted Brothers firm to lead a master design of its campus at this time, resulting in the Beaux-Arts landscape.

[59][60]Fisk is the home of a music literature collection founded by the noted Harlem Renaissance figure Carl Van Vechten, for whom the campus museum is named.

[63] Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas was commissioned to paint murals for the new campus library, Cravath Hall, in 1930.

In 2016, as part of the institution's sesquicentennial celebration, the collection was displayed at the newly renovated Carl Van Vechten Gallery.

[66] Fisk University has a strong record of academic excellence: it has graduated more African Americans who go on to earn PhDs in the natural sciences than any other institution.

The partnership between a small, historically black college and a major research university aims to diversify doctoral study.

[73] The program, which has received money from NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship,[74] provides a scholarship for a master's degree at Fisk University and close mentorship for students who go on to a PhD[72] Since 2004, 21 students in the program have completed a PhD, with another 56 currently pursuing graduate study.