Alcorn State University

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Alcorn State University, located near Lorman, Mississippi, United States, is a public land grant university founded in 1871 as the nation's first state-supported higher education institution for blacks.

ASU was founded on the site originally occupied by the Oakland College, a school for whites established by the Presbyterian Church. Oakland College closed its doors at the beginning of the Civil War so that its students could answer the call to arms. Upon failing to reopen at the end of the war, the property was sold to the state of Mississippi and renamed Alcorn University in honor of then-Governor James L. Alcorn in 1871.

The college opened with eight faculty members and 179 students in three buildings on a 225 acre campus.

Hiram R. Revels resigned his seat in the United States Senate to become 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.

In 1878, the name Alcorn University was changed to Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College. The goals for the college set by the Mississippi legislature clearly emphasized training rather than education. The school, like other historically black colleges during this period, was less a college than a trade school.

In 1974 Alcorn A&M College became Alcorn State University. Governor William L. Waller signed House Bill 298, granting university status to Alcorn and the other state supported colleges.

The university currently enrolls over 3,200 full-time and 220 part-time undergraduate students and 175 graduate students. Women outnumber men by a ratio 3:2.

The main campus is located near Lorman, Mississippi, while the Nursing School and the Business School's Master of Business Administration (MBA) program is located in Natchez, Mississippi. There is also a Vicksburg, Mississippi site.

The campus includes approximately 80 modern structures with an approximate value of $71 million.

Notable alumni include:

Medgar Evers, civil rights leader and the NAACP's first Field Secretary

Alex Haley, author of "Roots"

Steve McNair, former pro football player

Alexander O'Neal, R&B recording artist

Larry Smith, former pro basketball player

Kimberly Morgan, Miss Mississippi 2007