Alcorn State University is a historically black university comprehensive land-grant institution in Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871. The university is counted as a census-designated place and had a resident population of 1,017 at the 2010 census. It was the first black land grant college in the United States. Jay Searcy of the Philadelphia Inquirer said in 1994 that "Except for Medgar Evers, the slain civil-rights activist who graduated from the school in the 1940s, an occasional Olympic athlete, and a gritty football team that has sent 68 players to the National Football League,... Alcorn rarely gets mentioned outside the state of Mississippi." 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. 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 James L. Alcorn in 1871, then the state's governor. Hiram R.
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| Location: | Alcorn, Mississippi, Mississippi
|
| Founded: | 1871 |
| School type: | Public university, Land-grant university |
| Endowment: | $
7,352,780 |
| Colors: | Purple, Gold |