Southern University and A&M College

Overview

Southern University and A&M College is a public historically Black land-grant university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the largest HBCU in Louisiana and flagship of the Southern University System. It traces its founding to the 1879 Louisiana State Constitutional Convention, where African-American political leaders P. B. S. Pinchback, Theophile T. Allain, and Henry Demas proposed a higher-education institution “for the education of persons of color.” In 1880 the Louisiana General Assembly chartered Southern University for Colored Students in New Orleans, which opened its doors on March 7, 1881, with 12 students, holding classes for a time at the former Israel Sinai Temple on Calliope Street. The university later relocated to Baton Rouge, where its main campus today spans 512 acres overlooking the Mississippi River.

The Move to Baton Rouge

In 1890 the Louisiana legislature designated Southern a land-grant college for Black students, establishing an agricultural and mechanical department. In 1914, facing pressure from white neighbors near its original New Orleans site, the university relocated to Scotlandville, just north of Baton Rouge along the Mississippi River — the area is now a historic stop on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail. Joseph Samuel Clark, an African-American educator from Baton Rouge, became the college’s first president after the move, and oversaw its growth from 47 to 500 students following a 1921-22 reorganization by the Louisiana legislature.