Bishop Isaac Lane · Lane College · Jackson, Tennessee
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving families
Legacy · Education · Opportunity · Justice
We serve families through faith-grounded healing, fatherhood and mentorship, youth development, and restorative justice — so that every household can heal, every father can lead, and every young person can build a future worthy of those who came before.
Bishop Isaac Lane · Lane College · Jackson, Tennessee
Featured · The Jackson Sun
As a Lane College student in 1960, Wesley McClure told his classmates that the highlight of his career would be to one day become president of his alma mater. Thirty-two years later, in 1992, he returned to campus as its ninth president.
Jackson Mayor Jerry Gist and Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris proclaimed Wesley C. McClure Day — September 18th — in honor of a leader who marched for equal rights as a student during the civil rights era, planted seeds of success in generations of Lane students, and made himself, in the words of one student leader, “very close to the student body.”
“People do not succeed unless they make mistakes and keep on working, and that has to be instilled in our young. They have to believe that if they do that, they’ll see the results.”
— Dr. Wesley C. McClure, President, Lane College
Our legacy
Born into slavery in 1834, Bishop Isaac Lane rode across the South with a well-worn Bible, raising funds to make real his vision: a school where the children of former slaves could be educated. One of the founding bishops of the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church, Lane understood that faith without education was incomplete — and that education without faith had no foundation.
In 1882 he founded the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) High School in Jackson, Tennessee — the institution that would grow into Lane College. For more than 140 years, that act of faith has educated generations of leaders, ministers, teachers, and builders. The McClure Foundation stands in that same tradition: faith put to work, education as liberation, and community as the place where both take root.
Isaac Lane is born into slavery. He would rise to become a bishop, scholar, and visionary.
Bishop Lane founds the CME High School in Jackson, Tennessee — soon to become Lane College.
Four Lane College freshmen sit down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch counter — and change a city.
The McClure Foundation carries the legacy forward: faith, family, and community restoration.
October 27, 1960
At 11:00 a.m., four Lane College freshmen walked into the Woolworth’s at Main and Liberty in Jackson, Tennessee, and sat down at the whites-only lunch counter. One of them was Wesley C. McClure — who would go on to become the ninth president of Lane College and a lifelong believer that every child deserves access to quality education.
Read the full story of Dr. Wesley Cornelious McClure →
Dr. McClure taught that courage and discipline belong together — that lasting change is built, not improvised. The Foundation that bears his name was created to keep building it.
“You have to have discipline in the process of change. Change cannot be chaos.”
— Dr. Wesley C. McClure
The work today
History gave us our foundation. These four programs are how we build on it.
Pillar I
Restoring families through faith, therapy, and connection
We help families heal from trauma by integrating clinical therapy with spiritual care and community support. Through the Magnificat Center of Healing and Hope, we provide trauma-informed counseling, marriage and family enrichment, and pastoral care that strengthen bonds and restore dignity — blending evidence-based practice with the deep compassion and hope found in faith.
Pillar II
Rebuilding fathers, mentoring sons, transforming communities
In partnership with My Brother’s Keeper (MBK), we support men on their journey toward restoration, leadership, and fatherhood. Men of Legacy Circles offer mentorship, trauma healing, and life-skills training that reconnect fathers with their families — grounded in faith and accountability, creating pathways for men to thrive as mentors, providers, and agents of change.
Pillar III
Equipping the next generation for healing, innovation, and purpose
Our labs empower young people — especially those affected by trauma, incarceration, or family disruption — to discover strength through faith, creativity, and technology. Combining digital literacy, mental-health education, and spiritual formation, we prepare youth to become builders of ethical, just, and compassionate futures.
Pillar IV
Restoring lives, rebuilding families, renewing communities
In collaboration with Healing Communities USA and faith partners such as St. John CME Church CDC, we support returning citizens and their families through trauma-informed reentry programs — restorative circles, family reconciliation, and faith-integrated mentoring that reduce recidivism and open doors that stayed closed too long.
What we believe
Grounding every service in compassion, dignity, and hope.
Healing the heart of community by strengthening households.
Equipping leaders, mentors, and youth for transformation.
Integrating technology and ethics for social impact.
From the archive
The places that shaped this story — a campus, a pond, a working town — remind us that restoration always begins somewhere specific: a family, a block, a congregation.
Join the work
Bishop Lane built a college with a horse, a Bible, and the conviction that education is liberation. We invite churches, partners, and neighbors to help us build what comes next.
Churches, CDCs, schools, and community organizations: bring a Men of Legacy circle, healing program, or youth lab to your congregation or neighborhood.
Your gift funds counseling for families who could not otherwise afford it, mentoring for fathers and sons, and reentry support for returning citizens.
Mentors, clinicians, technologists, and prayer partners — there is a seat at this table for your gifts. The future depends on you.