Southern Wesleyan University’s Homecoming is a vibrant, celebratory weekend intended to welcome returning alums, current students and their families, prospective students, and community members to campus to commemorate SWU’s past, present, and future.

From Tuesday, March 19 to Saturday, March 23, 2024, attendees can sample offerings from the spiritual, academic, athletic, and musical facets of campus life through times of worship, lectures, baseball games, the spring musical Singin’ in the Rain, student activities, food, and fellowship.

The 2023-2024 Homecoming will celebrate the 175th anniversary of Freedom’s Hill Chapel. Freedom’s Hill was the first Wesleyan Methodist church constructed in the South. The building was rescued from disrepair and reassembled on SWU’s campus in October 2000, where it now occupies a central place in student life and worship. 

Returning alums and current community members will celebrate the founding of Freedom’s Hill, reflect on the Lord’s faithfulness to SWU over the years since our founding in 1906, and rededicate to a future of persistent faithfulness to God in the steps of our forebearers who faced great odds to hold fast to biblical truth and counter-cultural practice. 

We are honored to host Mr. Bob Woodson as our featured speaker. Mr. Woodson is a civil rights activist, leader, founder, and president of the Woodson Center, a non-profit research and demonstration organization supporting neighborhood-based initiatives to revitalize low-income communities. He will share a keynote lecture on the 175th anniversary of Freedom’s Hill and attend our VIP reception.

Join us on Saturday, March 23, at Freedom’s Hill, the site of Southern Wesleyan University’s historic abolitionist chapel, as Mr. Woodson shares his life as a civil rights leader. We welcome Mr. Woodson’s insights on the importance of faith, truth, courage, and civil institutions in our present day.

Robert L. Woodson, Sr. is the Founder and President of the Woodson Center, 1776 Unites, and Voices of Black Mothers United. He is an influential leader on issues of poverty alleviation and empowering disadvantaged communities to become agents of uplift. Woodson frequently advises local, state, and federal government officials and business and philanthropic organizations.

He received the prestigious Bradley Prize, the Presidential Citizens Medal, the 2018 William Wilberforce Award, The Heritage Foundation’s 2020 Salvatori Prize for American Citizenship, the 2021 Hillsdale College Freedom Leadership Award, and many others. Woodson has written and edited several books, including the newly released #1 bestseller Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers.

Southern Wesleyan University is a Christ-centered, student-focused, faith-filled community that offers inventive learning experiences. The university endeavors to prepare its students to be dedicated scholars and servant-leaders who impact the world for Christ. For details about degree programs, go online to swu.edu.