[1] It was founded in 1865 by Moses Austin, a pastor of the Saint Paul Methodist Episcopal Church of Meridian and a formerly enslaved person.

[2] Originally it was called Meridian Academy and it was located at 27th Avenue and 13th Street in Waynesboro, Georgia, however the name changed in 1914 and the campus moved in 1921.

The school was formed by the Board of Education for Negroes of the Methodist Episcopal Church (originally the Freedmen's Aid Society).

[5] The school's growth was hampered for lack of adequate room for expansion for classrooms and dormitories, forcing it to turn down applicants.

To remedy this, in 1921 the Board of Education for Negroes of the Methodist Episcopal Church purchased the 100-acre campus of the defunct Meridian Female College a mile outside of the city.