Alcorn State University

Alcorn State University, located in Claiborne County, Mississippi, was founded in 1871 as the nation's first state-supported higher education institution for blacks.

History

The site where Alcorn State is located was originally called Oakland College, a Presbyterian-run school for whites. Oakland College closed at the beginning of the Civil War while its students left to fight. Upon the conclusion of the conflict, the school did not re-open and was sold to the State of Mississippi. The Reconstruction state government renamed it Alcorn University after then current governor James L. Alcorn. Senator Hiram Revels resigned (??? He was only filling the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis) his seat to become the university's first president. It opened in 1871 with 8 faculty members and 179 students.

Related Topics:
Presbyterian - Civil War - Reconstruction - James L. Alcorn - Hiram Revels - Jefferson Davis - 1871

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The university's name was changed to Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1878 and designed a land-grant college under the Morrill Act of 1862.

Related Topics:
1878 - Land-grant - Morrill Act - 1862

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The first women were admitted in 1895, though Alcorn A & M wouldn't become officially co-educational until 1903.

Related Topics:
1895 - 1903

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Governor William Waller signed a bill in 1974 giving the institution university status and changing the name to the Alcorn State University.

Related Topics:
William Waller - 1974

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