Alcorn State University

Alcorn State University (Alcorn State, ASU or Alcorn) is a public historically black land-grant university adjacent to Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871 and was the first black land grant college established in the United States. The university is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

Alcorn State’s athletic teams are known as the Braves and compete in the NCAA’s Division I. All teams compete as members of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).

Alcorn State University was the first black land grant college in the country. 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 due to the Civil War.^[9] Alcorn University started with what is recognized as three historic buildings.^[10][11][12]

United States Senator Hiram R. Revels resigned his seat when he accepted the position as Alcorn’s first president. The state legislature provided $50,000 in cash for ten successive years for the establishment and overall operations of the college. The state also granted Alcorn three-fifths of the proceeds earned from the sale of 30,000 acres (12,000 ha) of land scrip for agricultural or land grant colleges under federal legislation. The land was sold for $188,928 with Alcorn receiving a share of $113,400. This money was to be used solely to support the agricultural and mechanical components of the college, which Congress wanted to develop nationally. From its beginning, Alcorn State University was a land-grant college.^[10] After a group of white Democrats known as Redeemers took over the legislature, Alcorn’s appropriation was slashed by almost 90 percent, to $5,500 per year, and an all-white board of trustees was appointed.^[9]

In 1878, the name Alcorn University was changed to Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College. The university’s original 225 acres (0.91 km²) of land have been expanded to develop a 1,700 acres (6.9 km²) campus. The goals for the college set by the Mississippi legislature following the Reconstruction era emphasized training for blacks rather than academic education. The school, like other black schools during these years, was less a college than a vocational school intended to prepare students for the agricultural economy of the state and of most of their hometowns.

At first the school was exclusively for black males, but women were admitted in 1895. Alcorn began with eight faculty members in 1871. Today the faculty and staff number more than 500. The student body has grown from 179 mostly local male students to more than 2,933 students from all over the world.^[13]

In 1974, Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College was renamed Alcorn State University, representing the development of its programs. Governor William L. Waller signed House Bill 298 granting university status to Alcorn and the other state-supported colleges. Alcorn had already become a more diversified university, with graduate programs. It provides an undergraduate education that enables students to continue their work in graduate and professional schools, engage in teaching, and enter other professions. It also provides graduate education to equip students for further training in specialized fields.

In 1994 Jay Searcy of the Philadelphia Inquirer said that except for its football team, Evers, and “an occasional Olympic athlete,” “Alcorn rarely gets mentioned outside the state of Mississippi” although attention on the university increased after Steve McNair‘s athletic successes.^[14]

In 2020, MacKenzie Scott donated $25 million to Alcorn State. Her donation is the largest single gift in Alcorn State’s history.^[15]

Alcorn State is accredited, with seven schools and degree programs in more than 50 areas, including a nursing and a Master of Business Administration program. The facilities number approximately 80 modern structures with an approximate value of $71 million.^[16]

Name	Years[17][18]	Interim
Hiram Rhodes Revels	1871–1882	No
John Houston Burrus	1882–1893	No
Wilson H. Reynolds	1893–1894	No
Thomas J. Calloway	1894–1896	No
Edward H. Triplett	1896–1899	No
William H. Lanier	1899–1905	No
Levi John Rowan	1905–1911	No
John Adams Martin	1911–1915	No
Levi John Rowan	1915–1934	No
Isiah S. Sanders, acting president	1934–1934	No
William Harrison Bell	1934–1944	No
Preston Sewell Bowles	1944–1945	No
William Harrison Pipes	1945–1949	No
Jesse R. Otis	1949–1957	No
John Dewey Boyd	1957–1969	No
Walter Washington	1969–1994	No
Rudolph E. Waters Sr.	1994–1995	Yes
Clinton Bristow Jr.	1995–2006	No
Malvin A. Williams Sr.	2006–2008	Yes
George E. Ross	2008–2010	No
Norris Allen Edney	2010–2011	Yes
M. Christopher Brown II	2011–2013	No
Norris Edney	2013–2014	Yes
Alfred Rankins, Jr.	2014–2018	No
Donzell Lee	2018–2019	Yes
Felecia M. Nave	2019–2023	No
Ontario Wooden	2023	Yes
Tracy M. Cook	2023–	No[a]

Alcorn State is the second largest historically black college or university (HBCU) and the fifth largest university in Mississippi with an enrollment of approximately 3,700 undergraduate students and 600 graduate students. The university has seven schools, offering more than 50 different fields of study.

• College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
• College of Arts and Sciences
• School of Business
• School of Education and Psychology
• School of Nursing

Alcorn State University consistently ranks among the top 25 HBCUs in the nation according to the annual U.S. News & World Report HBCU rankings.^[19]

Alcorn State University is the only HBCU in Mississippi with a comprehensive nursing program, and the first institution in Mississippi and at an HBCU nationwide offering a STEM MBA.^[20]

The Myrlie Evers-Williams Honors Program is available to highly motivated undergraduate students seeking to enhance their academic experience and leadership skills.^[21]

Alcorn State University’s School of Business offers a Traditional Master of Business Administration (MBA) program with a general business management emphasis and a concentration in tourism and hospitality management, as well as a STEM Master of Business Administration program with four concentrations in accounting, healthcare management, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Both programs are 30 hour credited and structured on an eight-week model, allowing students to complete their degree within one year. All classes are conducted online through Alcorn’s learning management system, CANVAS. The MBA program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), a global accrediting body for business degree programs.

Besides coordinating study-abroad opportunities, Global Programs brings worldwide perspectives to campus through exchange programs and special events.^[22]

Alcorn offers pre-professional programs to better prepare students for a transition to specialized studies in the fields of law, engineering, nursing, physical therapy, medicine, pharmacy and dentistry.^[23]

Alcorn State University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award the Associate, Bachelor’s, Master’s, Specialist’s, and Doctorate degrees.

Alcorn’s teacher education program is accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. The Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics is accredited by the American Dietetics Association. The Associate of Science in Nursing degree, the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, and the Master of Science in Nursing degree programs are accredited by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission. Alcorn State University is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music, the National Association of Industrial Technology, and the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.

The main campus is located in Alcorn State University census-designated place,^[24] an unincorporated area in Claiborne County, Mississippi. The campus is often referred to as “The Reservation”.^[25] It is 45 miles (72 km) south of Vicksburg,^[14] 40 miles (64 km) north of Natchez, and 80 miles (130 km) southwest of Jackson.^[26] It is near Lorman.

The Nursing School is located in Natchez, Mississippi. The university also has technology centers at the Thad Cochran Mississippi Center for Innovation and Technology (MCITy) in Vicksburg.

Male residence halls include Medgar Wiley Evers Heritage Village Complex A and B, Hiram Revels Hall and Albert Lott Hall.^[27] Female residence halls include Medgar Wiley Evers Heritage Village Complex buildings C and D, John Burrus Hall, Beulah Robinson Hall, and the Female Honors Residence Hall.^[28] D Faculty housing, which is open to full time employees,^[29] and their dependents, is zoned to the Claiborne County School District.^[30] Port Gibson High School is the comprehensive high school of the district.

The county is in the district of Copiah–Lincoln Community College, and has been since 1967.^[31]

Alcorn State is a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and participates in NCAA Division I FCS. Alcorn sponsors 15 athletic programs.^[32]

Alcorn State University’s marching band was founded in the 1960s; the band is known as the “Sounds of Dyn-O-mite” (SOD). Led by four or five drum majors, SOD has more than 190+ members. The band was invited to perform in the 2025 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.^[33]

The “World Renowned Golden Girls” (GGs) is the danceline that has been featured with SOD since its inception. Founded in 1968, they are the first danceline (no twirling batons) featured with a HBCU marching band hence why they often refer to themselves as “The Mother of HBCU dancelines.”