John Andrew Rice founded Black Mountain College near Asheville, North Carolina in 1933. Rice had recently resigned from Rollins College, due to what he felt were undue constraints on the faculty’s academic freedom by the college’s president. He hoped to start a new college guided by John Dewey’s principles of progressive education. Several other Rollins faculty members, who either resigned or were ousted in the wake of his departure, joined him in his endeavor. Black Mountain College was owned and operated solely by the faculty. The donors who provided the initial money to start the school remained anonymous for many years and had no hand in the direction of study. Instructors were free to teach whatever they saw fit by whatever method they desired. Students were allowed to choose their own classes and there were no examinations or grades. The college was dedicated to the idea that the arts were central to a complete education and promoted ingenuity and creativity above the rote memorization and regurgitation of facts and figures.
Funding was a constant struggle and Black Mountain closed its doors after 24 years in 1957. The school was closed by court order as a result of mounting debts brought on by decreased enrollment.