Dave Clark

Jackson State University is a historically black university in Jackson, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1877 in Natchez, Mississippi by the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York, the Society moved the school to Jackson in 1882, renaming it Jackson College, and developed its... present campus in 1902. It became a state-supported public institution in 1940. A member of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, JSU holds an important place in the history of US civil rights. 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. Jackson State University is located in Jackson, the capital city and the cultural, political, geographic and business center of Mississippi. The campus is a 245-acre campus with 51 academic and administrative buildings. The main campus is located on JR Lynch St between Prentiss and Dalton St. Ayer Hall was constructed in 1903 and is the oldest structure on campus.
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Tupelo is the largest city in and the county seat of Lee County, Mississippi. It is the seventh largest city in the state of Mississippi, smaller than Meridian, and larger than Greenville. As of the 2000 United States Census, the city's population was 34,211. By 2010 census, the population was... 34,546, with surrounding counties of Lee, Pontotoc and Itawamba supporting a population of 146,131. The city is best known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley. Situated in northeast Mississippi, the city lies between Memphis, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama, along U.S. Route 78 — slated to become Interstate 22 within a few years. European-American settlers had first named the town Gum Pond prior to the American Civil War, supposedly due to the high number of tupelo trees, locally known as blackgum, that grew in the area. The city still hosts the annual Gumtree Arts Festival. The Southern expression, Possum Up A Gum Tree came from this area. During the war, the local Battle of Tupelo was named after the trees in the area. In the post-Civil War era, Tupelo became the northern Mississippi site for the crossing of a railroad, which encouraged industry in the town.
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