History
Alcorn State University was founded on the site originally occupied by Oakland College, a school for whites established by the Presbyterian Church.
Oakland College closed its doors at the beginning of the American Civil War so that its students could fight for the Confederate States of America. When the college failed to reopen at the end of the war, the property was sold to the state of Mississippi. It renamed the facility Alcorn University in honor of James L. Alcorn in 1871, then the state's governor, and established it as a historically black college.
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. The state also granted Alcorn three-fifths of the proceeds earned from the sale of 30,000 acres (120,000,000 m2) of land scrip for agricultural colleges. The land was sold for $188,928 with Alcorn receiving a share of $113,400. This money was to be used solely for the agricultural and mechanical components of the college. From its beginning, Alcorn State University was a land-grant college.
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 grown to become a 1,700 acres (6.9 km2) campus. The goals for the college set by the Mississippi legislature clearly emphasized training rather than 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 most of their hometowns.
At first the school was exclusively for black males but in 1895 women were admitted. Today, women outnumber men at the university eighteen hundred to twelve hundred.
In 1974 Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College became Alcorn State University. 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. 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.
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 4,000 students from all over the world.
While early graduates of Alcorn had limited horizons, more recent alumni are successful physicians, lawyers, pharmacists, dentists, educators, administrators, managers, and entrepreneurs. Alcorn has had eighteen presidents, with Dr. M. Christopher Brown II becoming the eighteenth president in 2011.
Alcorn State is now fully accredited, with seven schools and degree programs in more than fifty areas, including a nursing program. The facilities have increased from three historic buildings to approximately 80 modern structures with an approximate value of $71 million.
==Past Presidents==
| Name | Years | 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 | 2011– | No |
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