[2][3][4] The Holmeses' vision was realized in 1892 under the auspices of the Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church, which funded and oversaw the school during its early years.

[5] The initial purpose of the school was to train young black women to become homemakers as well as leaders in the community and the Presbyterian Church.

[3] The seminary, which was built on land in Jackson that had been donated by local black citizens, burned in January 1895, less than three years after its founding.

[5][7] It reopened at a new campus built on 20 acres of donated land on what was then the edge of West Point, Mississippi, where in March 1899 it suffered yet another catastrophic fire.

[2] In 1991, the main buildings of the West Point campus were added to the National Register of Historic Places under the umbrella title Mary Holmes Junior College Historic District in recognition of the college's role as "the major institution for the education of Black students in the Clay County area from its founding in 1897" until desegregation in the 1960s.

[9] During the 1970s and subsequent decades, the mission of Mary Holmes College was to serve economically disadvantaged students from the southeastern United States.