Free lectures and occasional organ recitals are open to the community. The school's mission is to prepare ministers, and it offers master's and doctoral degrees in divinity, along with degrees in Christian education, marriage and family therapy, counseling and religious thought. Simmons Bible College opened in 1879, one of the first institutions in Kentucky to offer a college education to blacks. From 1889 to 1918, Simmons awarded degrees in medicine, law, theology and other academic areas. Simmons, an undergraduate college, is owned and operated by the General Association of Black Baptists.
Students come primarily from Greater Louisville and outlying Kentucky counties.
International students are frequently spouses of those attending other seminaries in the area. Local clergy makes up the bulk of the faculty, and an average of 12 men and women graduate each year. In 1951 a son of a former Simmons president became the first African American named to the faculty of the University of Louisville. Housed in a historic building, the school has a library of 10,000-plus volumes. Worship services, open to the public, feature music by the college's ensemble.