We Are Miles

Our President

President Bobbie Knight, J.D.

First woman to lead Miles College (appointed interim president in 2019; elected 15th permanent president in 2020)
Successfully guided the college through SACSCOC 10 year reaffirmation with zero findings
Expanded academic innovation with new facilities: E-gaming Center, Apple-powered Communications Lab, and Music Production Lab
Launched the college’s first Graduate School and inaugural graduate program (Fall 2025)
Formed a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to advance AI education and high-performance computing
Built partnerships with major organizations (FedEx, Microsoft, Apple, Honda, NFL, FBI, CIA, NSF, Propel Center) to expand student opportunities

How We Empower You

"We are an incubator for talent. We see your potential and your future before you do, and we tailor an experience to propel you."

Fairfield and Birmingham's HBCU

Miles College and the city of Fairfield are knit together by our joint efforts to desegregate Birmingham in the 60s. Today we're becoming an incubator for local entrepreneurship and a center for future-focused education.

Credit for Birmingham Photo: Robert S. Donovan, Wikimedia Commons

Our Work in Fairfield

A History of Firsts

First African-American student to enroll at the University of Alabama

A Miles alumna, Autherine Lucy challenged segregation at the University of Alabama when she applied as a master's student in 1952. Rejected on the basis of race, she challenged the decision with help from Thurgood Marshall — and won.

First Black mayor of Birmingham

After graduating from Miles College in 1955, Richard Arrington went on to earn his doctorate in zoology — and returned to Miles to become Dean of the Natural Sciences division. He eventually went into politics and became the city's first Black mayor in 1979. During his five terms, Arrington brought political representation for African-Americans to the racially divided city.

First fully integrated concert in Alabama

During the Civil Rights years at Miles College, when student activists sowed the seeds for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birmingham Freedom campaign, Miles hosted the historic Salute for Freedom concert. “This is a living, visible view of the breakdown of a hundred years of slavery,” James Baldwin told the crowd.

Alabama's first Black federal judge

U. W. Clemon was a student at Miles College in the 1960s when he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and helped to desegregate the Birmingham Public Library. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed Clemon, then a civil rights lawyer, as Alabama’s first black Federal Judge.

First Black Lives Matter street mural on a HBCU campus

In 2020, the Miles College Student Government Association teamed up with the Black Lives Matter Birmingham chapter to create the first BLM mural on an HBCU campus. The project has inspired SGAs at other colleges to reach out for advice on how to paint their own murals.