Dear Vance: What can you tell readers about the old Griggs Business College, with its impressive building still standing at 492 Vance? — S.W., Memphis.
Dear S.W.: It is indeed a handsome structure, and quite a landmark in our city, since the Griggs Business and Practical Arts College — its full name — was one of three Black-owned colleges in our community, an educational partner with Henderson Business College on Linden, and not too far away, LeMoyne-Owen College on Walker.
This establishment was founded by Emma Griggs in 1916. She enjoyed quite a fascinating life. Born Emma Williams in Virginia sometime in the late 1800s (I’ll explain why I’m uncertain about that date later), she attended Norfolk Mission College and Hartshorn Memorial College in Richmond. I know this because Williams was one of many men and women featured in Notable Black Memphians, a collection of biographies compiled in 2004 by Dr. Miriam DeCosta-Willis, the well-known Memphis author and educator.
In Virginia, Williams met — and married — the Rev. Sutton E. Griggs, an important minister, orator, author, and civil rights leader. In one of her “Past Times” Commercial Appeal columns, historian Perre Magness described the Rev. Griggs as “one of the few Black writers of his time who openly dealt with the subject of race relations in fiction, and one of the most published Black authors of the twentieth century.”
Sutton Griggs photo from E.C. Morris’s “Sermons, Addresses and Reminiscences and Important Correspondence, With a Picture Gallery of Eminent Ministers and Scholars” (Nashville, 1901).
Born in Texas in 1872, Sutton Griggs was educated at Bishop College in Dallas and earned his divinity degree from Richmond Theological Seminary. After his marriage to Emma in 1892, Sutton served as pastor of Richmond’s First Baptist Church, one of that city’s largest Black congregations, while working on his speeches and writings.
In 1889, he and Emma moved to Nashville, where he served as pastor of the First Baptist Church. He never seemed to run out of energy; during his short time in Nashville, he helped establish the American Baptist Theological Seminary there and worked as the corresponding secretary for the National Baptist Convention.
“Griggs began his career as a novelist with Imperium in Imperio, published in 1899,” wrote Magness. “By the time he moved to Memphis in 1913, he had written eight books.” His wonderfully titled first novel has been described as “an important addition to the history of utopian literature.” A reviewer for the Texas Observer noted that the plot “has a startling twist: the revelation of an African-American ‘empire within an empire,’ with a shadow government based in Waco. … Bernard Belgrave, who has been hand-picked to serve as president, advocates a takeover of the Texas state government, while his friend, Belton Piedmont, argues for assimilation and cooperation with the state.” At some point — well, I won’t give away the ending.
Sutton followed this up with other works, including The Hindered Hand, Overshadowed, Unfettered, and Pointing the Way. That’s just a sampling; he eventually wrote 33 books over his career. He formed his own publishing company but was so determined to make his voice heard that he also sold his books door to door. Despite his efforts, his works were not widely known in his day, though a 1969 reprint of Imperium helped to revive interest in his life and career.
“An activist, Griggs attended the Niagara movement that preceded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),” wrote Dr. Bruce Glasrud, professor emeritus of history at California State University, for the Blackpast website (blackpast.org). “He participated in Black protests against police brutality, Jim Crow laws, streetcar segregation, and inadequate educational facilities.” What’s more, “Griggs spent years as a pastor and organizing Black self-help associations in Memphis, such as the National Public Welfare League and the National Religious and Civic Institute for the Baptists of Houston.”
Sutton and Emma Griggs moved here so he could take over the leadership of Tabernacle Baptist Church, originally located at 208 Turley. “By 1916, he had begun construction of an imposing structure on South Lauderdale,” wrote DeCosta-Willis in Notable Black Memphians. “Griggs envisioned an institutional church that would served the religious, educational, and social needs of his congregation and of the wider community. The church provided a gymnasium, swimming pool, and employment bureau … and also began a free weekly newspaper, The Neighbor, to demonstrate the progress of Black Memphians.”
According to some accounts, that swimming pool was the first one available to Blacks in Memphis.
While Sutton was working as the church pastor, Emma also stayed busy, in 1916 opening a “practical arts school” out of their home. In those days, this meant such basic skills as cooking, sewing, and other “domestic arts.” The business classes, it seems, would come later
They didn’t stay in Memphis very long, however. Much in demand as a speaker and minister, Sutton Griggs moved with Emma to Denison, Texas, in 1930, and later that year took a position as the pastor of a church in Houston. In 1933, however, at the peak of his career, he passed away at the age of 61.
Emma Griggs returned to Memphis alone, and in the 1930s opened a small school at 741 Walker, later moving the facility to 1003 Mississippi Blvd., and then again to 846 East McLemore. Tracking its location by city directories, as I usually do with commercial endeavors, proved to be a challenge, since there was never any specific listing for a “Griggs School” or “Griggs College.” It’s entirely possible that it went by another name in its early years, but those same directories identify Emma as a “teacher” even though I have no images to show you of her various schools. A visit to all these addresses today reveals only vacant lots.
For that matter, I’m sorry that I don’t even have a decent photograph to show you of Emma herself. The newspapers of the day would occasionally run small, grainy photos, but I wasn’t able to locate anything I could use here. I can only do so much.
In 1940, the Griggs Business College was officially chartered, located at 303 South Lauderdale. By this time, the curriculum had expanded to include basic business courses. The school’s founder clearly impressed the men and women who attended, because an old Tri-State Defender article mentions that students and faculty visited her in January 1948 at Collins Chapel Hospital, where she was recovering from a heart attack. She passed away there that year and was laid to rest in Elmwood Cemetery.
Earlier, I had mentioned some uncertainty regarding the date of her birth. Well, her 1948 death certificate clearly states her age as 56, which would indicate she was born in 1892. That would certainly have made her 1897 marriage to Sutton Griggs rather interesting, since she would have been only 5 years old. That same Tri-State Defender article notes that when all those students came to celebrate her birthday in the hospital, “she would not disclose her age, but was said to be in her seventies.” That makes more sense.
Even so, it’s a shame she didn’t live long enough to see the handsome building on Vance that attracted the attention of S.W., who sent the query about it. Anyone driving by would surely think, as I first did, that it was quite an old structure, probably constructed in the early 1900s — along with so many other buildings along that street — as one of the first homes for the Griggs Business School.
A 1957 newspaper ad for Griggs Business College.
But as I hope I’ve made clear, Griggs operated schools all over town in the early days. It wasn’t until the 1950s that the impressive structure opened on Vance, with a tall neon sign out front spelling out “Griggs Business and Practical Arts College.” The neon is missing, but the faded blue lettering is still visible to this day.
After Emma Griggs passed away, the school was placed under the direction of the Rev. Clifton J. Gaston. I’ve turned up a few newspaper and yearbook ads for Griggs Business College, which show that it offered an associate’s degree in “secretarial, stenographic, junior accounting, higher accounting, radio and TV, and business administration.” In addition to day and evening classes, Griggs also provided a “refresher course in typing and shorthand.”
I could probably use that today.
A 1947 ad for the school, from the yearbook of Melrose High School.
Over the years, more than 1,000 men and woman received their education from Griggs. The college drew quite a lot of veterans in 1947 when it gained official certification from the Veterans Administration. A few of the better-known graduates included: Kathryn Bowers, who served as a Tennessee state representative from 1994 to 2006; MaryAnn Johnson, the first Black woman to head the music administration department at Twentieth-Century Fox; J.P. Murell, a local music promoter, co-owner of the Harlem House restaurant chain, and 1975 Urban League “Man of the Year”; and the Rev. Lee Rogers Pruitt, for 40 years the pastor of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church — yes, the same congregation that Sutton Griggs had served decades earlier.
The two-story building on Vance, constructed of red brick but later slathered in white paint, was home to students until 1976. I can’t say for certain if the Rev. Gaston’s death that year also resulted in the demise of the school, but it closed soon afterwards.
For close to ten years, it became the proud home of the Bluff City Elks Lodge, but it’s been standing empty since the late 1980s. According to the Shelby County Assessor’s page, the 4,400-square-foot building, standing on a half-acre of land, is owned by the Snowden Circle Church of Christ. I’m sorry to admit I’ve been unable to reach anyone there. A few blocks away, the site of Henderson Business College is now a vacant lot. I hope Griggs Business and Practical Arts College doesn’t meet the same fate.
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