Mississippi Valley State University

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Mississippi Valley State University is an historically black university located near Itta Bena, Mississippi. The university is commonly referred to as MVSU or simply "The Valley."

Opened in 1950, the institution was created by the Mississippi 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 by the United States Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision) and thus 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).

To garner support from those who opposed any government action to provide higher education to blacks, the term "vocational" was used to imply that the institution's main purpose would be to train blacks to take on blue-collar jobs.

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

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 of the state's historically black institutions from "colleges" to "universities." Subsequently, the institution was renamed Mississippi Valley State University in 1974.

SCHOOL COLORS: Kelly Green and White
SCHOOL MASCOT: Delta Devils

Notable alumni include:

Jerry Rice, former pro football player

Willie Totten, former MVSU football player and current head football coach
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Valley_State_University
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   33°30'43"N   90°20'34"W

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This article was last modified 7 years ago