Mississippi Valley State University

Mississippi Valley State University is a historically black university located in Itta Bena, Mississippi. The school was founded in 1950 as the Mississippi Vocational College. The college changed its name in 1964 to Mississippi Valley State College and was granted university status in 1974. The university is commonly referred to as MVSU or simply "The Valley."

History

The institution, which opened in 1950, was created by the Mississippi state legislature as Mississippi Vocational College. The legislature anticipated that legal segregation of public education was in danger (and would in four years be declared unconstitutional in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education) and created the institution, hoping that its existence would draw African-American applicants who might have otherwise applied to attend Mississippi's premier whites-only institutions -- the University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, and the University of Southern Mississippi. Creating separate institutions of higher learning for Mississippi's black population, the state's political leaders hoped, would help ease the pressure to integrate the state's premier universities.

Related Topics:
Legislature - U.S. Supreme Court's - Brown v. Board of Education - University of Mississippi - Mississippi State University - University of Southern Mississippi

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To attract the support of those who opposed any government action to provide higher education to blacks, those proposing creation of M.V.C. used the term "vocational" to imply that the institution's main purpose would be to train blacks to take on blue-collar jobs.

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The original legislative proposal would have located M.V.C. in Greenwood, but the white leadership of that city did not like the idea of hosting an institution that would attract young, ambitious blacks to the area. Thus, the proposed site was moved to Itta Bena. Even that town, however, objected to too close a proximity of a black institution, so the final site was chosen to place the college away from the downtown area, on cheap, uncultivatable land.

Related Topics:
Greenwood - Itta Bena

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The first president of the institution, J. H. White, an African-American, sought to reassure the state's political leaders that the institution would not be a center of black agitation. One of his symbolic acts was to name the college's two most important buildings after prominent segregationists Walter Sillers Jr. and Fielding Wright. After the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown decision, state Gov. Hugh White invited 90 black leaders to support the idea of voluntary segregation of public education in Mississippi. President White was one of only two at the meeting to support the governor. When a young black man, Clyde Kennard, applied to the all-white Mississippi Southern College, President White tried to dissuade him. (Kennard was later framed for his attempts to attend white universities.)

Related Topics:
J. H. White - Walter Sillers Jr. - Fielding Wright - Hugh White - Clyde Kennard - Mississippi Southern College

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In 1964, Mississippi Vocational College was renamed Mississippi Valley State College.

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In 1970, a student boycott was organized to protest President White's administration of the institution. Half the enrolled students of the institution -- about 900 -- were arrested.

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In the early 1970s, civil rights leaders continued to protest the inequalities in higher education opportunities offered to whites and blacks in Mississippi. In an effort to defuse some of the criticism, Gov. Bill Waller proposed changing the names of three black institutions from "colleges" to "universities." Thus, in 1974, the institution was renamed again, as Mississippi Valley State University.

Related Topics:
Civil rights - Bill Waller

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In 1998, the university renamed many of the buildings on campus, except for the ones named after Sillers, Wright, and J. H. White.

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