Southland College, originally the Helena Orphan Asylum and eventually Southland Institute, was established in Helena, Arkansas for orphaned African American children[1] April 19, 1864 by Indiana Quakers Alida[2] and Calvin Clark and supported by various Quakers over several decades.
Colored Infantry, at the suggestion of Colonel Carl "Charles" Bentzoni, donated a days pay so that the new site could be purchased for the college.
[6] Not long after an additional adjoining fifty acres was purchased by the Quakers to expand the site of the college.
[5] An official from the school sued E. A. Fulton and editor Julian T. Bailey[7] of The Sun newspaper in Little Rock[8] for libel in 1885.
[9] George W. Bell was one of those who served as its president as well as a professor,[10] and had been a student at Southland himself before going on to graduate from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.