University of the Ozarks

the first institution of higher education in Arkansas to admit women.
In 1946, the university housed the state's first pharmacy school.
During the years of World War II, the enrollment decreased to the point that the board of trustees decided to find a tenant for the facilities. From January 1944 through May 1945, the United States Navy leased the full campus for operating a Primary School in their Electronics Training Program. An estimated total of 3,000 Navy and Marine servicemen were trained in the three-month course. In this period, classes for the 150 College of the Ozarks students were held off-campus at the First Presbyterian Church; female students were mainly housed in the church's adjoining Manse.
In 1957, the university became the first predominately white university in Arkansas to integrate, and in 1959 the first to graduate an African-American, more than 7 years before any others. In 1963 Ozarks athlete Sylvester Benson became the first African-American to compete in the Arkansas Intercollegiate …