Livingstone College is a private, historically black, four-year college in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Livingstone College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Bachelor of Social Work degrees. Livingstone College and Hood Theological Seminary were originally founded as Zion Wesley Institute by a group of A.M.E. Zion ministers for the purpose of training ministers in the Cabarrus County town of Concord, North Carolina in 1879. After three brief sessions, directed by principals Bishop C.R. Harris and Professor A.S. Richardson, the Institute ultimately closed in Concord. In 1881, Dr. Joseph Charles Price, Lincoln University, PA class of 1879, and Bishop J.W. Hood changed their roles as delegates to the Ecumenical Conference and became fund-raisers with the mission to re-establish Zion Wesley Institute. The Rowan County town of Salisbury, just 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Concord, gave the Trustees a generous donation of $1,000 and an invitation to relocate the school to Salisbury.