Thomas Mason

The Reverend Thomas Mason was the first president of Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, beginning in November 1881. Mason was a white Methodist minister from Indiana. Replacing Walden Seminary principal Helen Perkins, Mason helped to reorganize the school as a four-year institution by securing it a state charter on March 3, 1881. He led a successful effort to acquire land in 1882, mostly through a gift received by Adeline Smith of Oak Park, Illinois, the widow of Philander Smith. In recognition of the gift, Mason renamed the school Philander Smith College and moved it to the intersection of Tenth and Center streets. Mason resigned in 1896, and was succeeded by the first African American school president James Monroe Cox.

References

• Kofi Lomotey, "Philander Smith College" in Encyclopedia of African American Education, vol. 1 (SAGE, 2009), 509.