theology and other subjects, at Springfield Baptist Church (Augusta, Georgia), the oldest independent Black church in the United States. The institution moved from Augusta, Georgia, to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1879. The school received sponsorship from the American Baptist Home Mission Society, an organization that helped establish several historically Black colleges. The institute's first president was the Rev. Joseph T. Robert (1871–1884) (father of Brigadier General Henry Martyn Robert, author of Robert's Rules of Order). An anti-slavery Baptist minister from South Carolina and 1828 graduate of Brown University, Robert raised funds, taught the classes, and stabilized the institution.
=== Early years ===
In 1879, the institute moved to Atlanta and changed its name to the Atlanta Baptist Seminary. It later acquired a 4-acre (1.6 ha) campus in downtown Atlanta. In 1885, Samuel T. Graves became the second president. That year the seminary moved to its present location, on land given by a prominent Baptist and industrialist, …
