Jackson State University - History

History

Jackson State University started as Natchez Seminary, a private school, under the auspices of the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York, to educate Mississippi's newly freed and underprivileged blacks.

• 1877: Operated for 63 years as a private church school beginning with only twenty students. Inman Edward Page was the only black member of the original faculty.
• 1882:, the decision was made to purchase the fifty-two-acre J.A.P. Campbell estate in North Jackson, Mississippi. In 1883, the Society moved the school to Jackson, to the site where Millsaps College now stands. A part of this transition was the renaming of the school to Jackson College in recognition of the institution’s new, central location in the City of Jackson. Natchez Seminary soon relocated from its site in north Jackson to a tract of land in the southwest section of the city.

• In 1902, construction on the present campus's site began.

• In 1924, the first bachelor’s degree was awarded. During this period, the major educational activities were directed toward teacher education for in-service teachers.

• When the American Baptist Home Mission Society withdrew its support from the institution in 1934, A new board of trustees was organized that kept the school open. On May 30, 1938, control of the Board of Trustees was transferred to Jackson College, Incorporated.

• In 1940, the school was transferred from the private control of the church to the state education system and renamed Mississippi Negro Training School. Initially, the school had been specifically designated by the state to train rural and elementary teachers. In 1942, the Board of Trustees expanded the curriculum to a full four-year teacher education program, culminating in the Bachelor of Science Degree in Education. In May 1944, the first four-year graduating class under state support received their degrees. In 1944, Mississippi Negro Training School was renamed Jackson College for Negro Teachers

• In 1953, the Division of Graduate Studies was organized during the Summer and the program of Liberal Arts started in the fall of that year. In 1956, Jackson College for Negro Teachers was renamed Jackson State College.

• During the late 1960s, the entire curriculum was reorganized and the following schools were established: the Schools of Liberal Studies, Education, Science and Technology, Business and Economics and the Graduate School.

• On 14 May 1970, two black students were shot and killed (and 12 wounded) by state police during anti-Vietnam War protests in the Jackson State killings. Four hundred pieces of buckshot had struck the woman's dormatory. Howard Zinn reports a local grand jury found the attack justified.

• On March 15, 1974, Jackson State College was designated Jackson State University. Jackson State College gained university status in accordance with the expanded breadth and quality of its faculty and academic programs. From 1967-1977, the faculty tripled in size and the number of faculty members with graduate degrees increased eightfold. In 1979, the University was officially designated the state’s Urban University by the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning.

• In the late 1980s, the University and its surrounding community was enriched through the expansion of the Universities Center; the establishment of the West Jackson Community Development Corporation to improve blighted housing around the campus; the organization of a Staff Senate; and the creation of a Center for Professional Development and the Center for Technology Transfer.

• In the 1990s, a Campus Master Plan that projected the growth of the University into the 21st Century was developed. Fifteen new graduate and undergraduate programs evolved. These academic achievements were bolstered by the establishment of the School of Social Work, the formation of the School of Engineering, and the fall 1998 opening of the School of Allied Health Sciences, the School of Business received accreditation of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), a $13.5 million expansion of the H. T. Sampson Library, which doubled the capacity of the original structure, was completed, and the $17.2 million School of Liberal Arts building was occupied in 2001.

• In Fall 2000, the University received doctoral research intensive status with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. This prestigious designation was based on the awarding of more than 20 doctoral degrees from the Division of Graduate Studies and the $40 million in federally funded research contracts secured through the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

• In 2002, the University celebrated its 125th anniversary. It developed and implemented its strategic plan–Beyond Survival: The Millennium Agenda for Jackson State University. The five-point strategic plan is moving Jackson State University to a new academic excellence. Thus, Vision 2020 was created to fulfill the first strategy–Remodel the Learning System at JSU. In 2002, the University was reorganized into six colleges: College of Business; College of Public Service; College of Liberal Arts; College of Science, Engineering and Technology; College of Lifelong Learning; and College of Education and Human Development.

• In 2004, a $20 million College of Business building was completed.

• In 2006, a new 91,000-square-foot (8,500 m2) student health wellness center opened. For the first time in the University’s history, private bond financing was secured to renovate some facilities on campus and to build new facilities, including a new Campus Union, a new president’s house, new student apartments, and dormitories which opened in 2006. The campus transformation and wide array of academic programs enhanced Jackson State’s presence.