LeMoyne Normal Institute

This was one of more than ten schools founded by the AMA, an integrated organization led by black and white Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian ministers.

In 1866 it was destroyed during the 1866 riots by white residents of Memphis that broke out following the withdrawal of federal troops.

In 1870, Francis Julius LeMoyne (1798-1879), a Washington, Pennsylvania doctor, donated $20,000 to the American Missionary Association to build an elementary and secondary school for prospective teachers.

Following a yellow fever epidemic in 1873 that hit Memphis and the school hard, its third principal, Andrew J. Steele, oversaw three decades of growth and development.

[3][citation needed] In 1914 the school moved from Orleans Street to its present site on Walker Avenue.