James Edward Dickey
1864 - 1928
Dickey was born in Jeffersonville, Georgia, the son of Rev. James Madison Dickey and Elizabeth Thomas Dickey. Dickey worked in Atlanta for a time before entering Emory College at the age of 23, where he distinguished himself as an honor graduate and president of his graduating class. He earned his AB degree at Emory College, class of 1891 and was a member of the Chi Phi fraternity. That same year he married Jessie Munroe of Quincy, Florida, a graduate of Wesleyan College. They had six children.
After graduation, Dickey became an adjunct professor at Emory teaching Mental and Moral Science and was appointed alumni professor of historical and political economics in 1896.
Dickey had joined the itinerant ministry of the North Georgia Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1891 and began an involvement with Grace Methodist Episcopal Church South in Atlanta. In 1899 he became pastor of that church.
Dickey was elected president of Emory College in 1902 and soon after, the college trustees voted to make Emory College part of the new university being formed in Atlanta, thereafter to be known as Emory College of Liberal Arts at Emory University. Therefore, Dickey has the distinction of being the last president of Emory College and the first president of Emory University.
During his tenure as president of Emory, his church elected him General Secretary of Education for his denomination, but he did not accept the post, choosing to stay at Emory. While at Emory in Oxford, Dickey oversaw the building of a new science hall (Pierce Hall) and gymnasium (Williams Hall), the reestablishment of a law program, and the creation of a theology department. He also presided over the building of Haygood Hall, the first dormitory built on campus since the Civil War.
Soon after Dickey began his role as president in 1902, he succumbed to public pressure and dismissed the controversial professor of Latin, Andrew Sledd, who had written an anti-lynching article published in The Atlantic Monthly entitled "The Negro: Another View." The article advocated the doctrine of the “New South” and attacked the “blind adherents of racism, anti-intellectualism, and reactionary religion.” The article had provoked public furor directed at the college. (Twelve years later, after obtaining a Ph.D. from Yale and serving as president of the University of Florida at Gainesville and at Southern University in Alabama, Professor Sledd returned to Emory and served with great distinction until his death in 1939. However, he never again wrote on the issues of civil liberties or “the Negro Question.” Nearly 100 years later in 2002, a special symposium was held at Emory to commemorate the controversy and “right a wrong committed a century ago” by revisiting the "Sledd Affair" and reflecting on its meaning for Emory today).
After the transition, Dickey left Emory and returned to the ministry, as pastor of the First Methodist Church at 42nd Street East in Atlanta and later, as secretary of education for the North Georgia Conference. In 1921, Dickey became pastor of the First Methodist Church of Griffin, Georgia. He was elected bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church South the following year and continued to serve as a trustee of both Emory University and the Wesleyan Female College.
Bishop Dickey died following an appendectomy operation performed in Louisville, Kentucky and is buried in the Westview Cemetery in Atlanta. In 1956, a men’s dormitory at Oxford College was named in his honor.
After graduation, Dickey became an adjunct professor at Emory teaching Mental and Moral Science and was appointed alumni professor of historical and political economics in 1896.
Dickey had joined the itinerant ministry of the North Georgia Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1891 and began an involvement with Grace Methodist Episcopal Church South in Atlanta. In 1899 he became pastor of that church.
Dickey was elected president of Emory College in 1902 and soon after, the college trustees voted to make Emory College part of the new university being formed in Atlanta, thereafter to be known as Emory College of Liberal Arts at Emory University. Therefore, Dickey has the distinction of being the last president of Emory College and the first president of Emory University.
During his tenure as president of Emory, his church elected him General Secretary of Education for his denomination, but he did not accept the post, choosing to stay at Emory. While at Emory in Oxford, Dickey oversaw the building of a new science hall (Pierce Hall) and gymnasium (Williams Hall), the reestablishment of a law program, and the creation of a theology department. He also presided over the building of Haygood Hall, the first dormitory built on campus since the Civil War.
Soon after Dickey began his role as president in 1902, he succumbed to public pressure and dismissed the controversial professor of Latin, Andrew Sledd, who had written an anti-lynching article published in The Atlantic Monthly entitled "The Negro: Another View." The article advocated the doctrine of the “New South” and attacked the “blind adherents of racism, anti-intellectualism, and reactionary religion.” The article had provoked public furor directed at the college. (Twelve years later, after obtaining a Ph.D. from Yale and serving as president of the University of Florida at Gainesville and at Southern University in Alabama, Professor Sledd returned to Emory and served with great distinction until his death in 1939. However, he never again wrote on the issues of civil liberties or “the Negro Question.” Nearly 100 years later in 2002, a special symposium was held at Emory to commemorate the controversy and “right a wrong committed a century ago” by revisiting the "Sledd Affair" and reflecting on its meaning for Emory today).
After the transition, Dickey left Emory and returned to the ministry, as pastor of the First Methodist Church at 42nd Street East in Atlanta and later, as secretary of education for the North Georgia Conference. In 1921, Dickey became pastor of the First Methodist Church of Griffin, Georgia. He was elected bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church South the following year and continued to serve as a trustee of both Emory University and the Wesleyan Female College.
Bishop Dickey died following an appendectomy operation performed in Louisville, Kentucky and is buried in the Westview Cemetery in Atlanta. In 1956, a men’s dormitory at Oxford College was named in his honor.