On December 15, 1879, a committee appointed by Bishop J.E. Bebee of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church of America purchased 80 acres surrounding the site for the construction of a "colored institution of learning." When the project halted over disagreement within the Louisiana Conference, Isaac Bullock, a local CME minister, and other prominent citizens of Homer persisted and established a private school southwest of town known as Homer Seminary. In 1893 the Conference bought Homer Seminary and relocated it there. The school's four buildings included a large two-story administration hall with offices, parlor, music room, library reading room, laboratory, eight recitation rooms, and a chapel seating 500, while the three other buildings were dormitories. Courses of study were divided into elementary, college preparatory, and college level. In 1910 the school's name was changed to Homer College. During its heyday, Homer College hosted such dignitaries as George Washington Carver and the renowned vocalist Emma Azalia Hackley. Homer College operated until 1918, when the Conference withdrew support and closed the school. The broader history of African American education in Louisiana was marked by noble attempts and missed opportunities, as local governments and citizens often failed to build stronger public education for all children and especially for black children. In the post-Civil War years, widespread economic devastation and social and economic resistance left public schools for black children few and poorly financed, even as recently emancipated people regarded quality education as essential to their children's future. By the late 1800s, black educators, churches, and civic groups began establishing their own schools, efforts that helped create a legacy continued by many historically black colleges and universities that exist today. Outside aid also came through the Rosenwald Fund school program in the early 1900s, which helped construct over 400 schools for black children in Louisiana. Public education for black children continued to lag under separate but equal policies before desegregation of public schools in the 1960s and 70s reversed that system.