May 13 …
Alcorn State University is a public historically Black land-grant research university near Lorman, MS.
Founded May 13, 1871, Alcorn University was the first Black land-grant college established in the United States. Mississippi’s Reconstructionist legislature, dominated by Republicans sympathetic to the cause of educating the formerly enslaved, established the college on the site of Oakland College, a college that had gone defunct at the Civil War.
United States Senator from Mississippi (1870-71) Hiram R. Revels, the first African American to serve in either house of the United States Congress, resigned his seat to serve as Alcorn’s first president.
In 1878, Alcorn University became Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College. The college was initially exclusively for men, but beginning in 1895 women were admitted. A women’s dormitory was built in 1902.
Over time, facilities increased from three historic buildings to more than 80 structures. The original purchase of 225 acres of land grew to a campus of more than 1,700 acres. The student body grew from 179 mostly local male students at its founding, to today more than 2,933 students from all over the world.
In 1974, Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College was renamed Alcorn State University, representing the development of its programs. The university consistently ranks among the top 25 HBCUs in the nation according to the annual U.S. News & World Report HBCU rankings.
Notable alumni include Medgar Evers (1948), NAACP field secretary and assassinated civil rights activist; Alex Haley (attended), author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and The Autobiography of Malcolm X; and actor Michael Clarke Duncan (attended) of The Green Mile fame.
Sources:
- “Alcorn State University is Founded.” African American Registry.
