Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College (“Southern”) is a land-grant Historically Black College and University (HBCU) that was created during segregation as an institution to provide Black Louisianans with access to higher education. From its humble beginnings during the era of lynching, Southern has matured into a site of cultural richness and fostered a reputation for successfully developing and educating students of all races, ethnicities, and educational backgrounds.

Southern is the only HBCU system in America. It is composed of five institutions: Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Baton Rouge (SUBR) (established in 1880), Southern University Law Center (SULC) (established in 1947), Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) (established in 1956), Southern University Shreveport (SUSLA) (established in 1964), and the Southern University Cooperative Extension Program (established in 1972), which became the fifth component of the system in 2001 and is now the Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center (SUAREC). The system has a diverse enrollment of more than twelve thousand students.

Founding

Post-Civil War views on education varied in Louisiana. Most Black people saw education as a means by which to navigate their newfound freedom. Black Reconstructionists T. B. Stamps, Henry Demas, T. T. Allain, Pinckney B. S. Pinchback, and others successfully advocated for a higher education option for Black Louisianans at the 1879 State Constitutional Convention. Some white Louisianans opposed college education for Black people, fearing it could become an obstacle to white supremacist ideals. Eventually some white Louisianans became tolerant of what they viewed as a blueprint for an inferior school to be attended by inferior people to be trained for a life of inferiority.

In 1880 Southern University was chartered “for the education of persons of colors.”  When it first opened in New Orleans in 1881, the university had twelve students, five faculty members, and a $10,000 budget ($307,900 in 2024 USD). The state legislature mandated that Southern be governed by a diverse board of trustees and authorized it to grant “letters and arts” degrees. The institution filled important voids, tailoring its instructional approaches to the unique needs of Louisiana’s post-Civil War Black population. It also created an alternative for those who could not afford private institutions.

The first courses were pre-college-level offerings — a necessity due to high school shortages, briefer instructional days, and/or poor-performing schools for Black students entering the institution. This was short-lived. The 1883–1884 catalog reflects a commitment to college and university work through the study of “classical and scientific culture as well as practical industrial education” and “teaching” instruction. By 1885 a women’s industrial department was operational. There, girls learned skills like sewing, embroidery, and painting in addition to core courses such as math and foreign languages.

Funding was a consistent obstacle. One administrator lamented, “Appropriations never exceeded $10,000.” The annual appropriation to Southern remained $10,000 until 1919, when the state’s constitution was changed. Students, faculty, and administrators persevered. In 1888 the university’s founding charter was amended to add law and medicine as additional degree options. Though neither degree was realized by students at that time, additional significant developments were on the horizon.

Relocation to Baton Rouge and Expanded Scope

In 1890 the US Congress passed the Second Morrill Act, which provided federal allocations to states for the “endowment and maintenance of colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts.” Federal allocations were predicated upon the provision of instruction in food and agricultural sciences and for training teachers in agricultural and mechanical arts. Louisiana’s legislature swiftly designated Southern a land-grant college, prompting the doors of the Agricultural and Mechanical Department to open and the institution’s name to change to Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College.

The Morrill Act inspired course offerings designed to meet the conditions of the appropriations. For example, chemistry was cataloged as “sugar chemistry,” given the importance of sugar to Louisiana’s economy. The university established an agricultural school by 1891, opened a university farm by 1892, and had a fully operational mechanical department by 1893. There, students were taught trades like carpentry, millwrighting, cabinet making, and trimming as well as skills like blueprinting.

By 1912 the legislature decided to move Southern from New Orleans to a rural area and altered its purpose a second time, now seeking to “enlarge the scope” of Southern’s usefulness by establishing the “Industrial and Agricultural Normal School.” The normal school was legislatively designed to employ Black teachers to instruct future Black teachers to teach agricultural and industrial subjects to Black students. By this juncture the legislature abandoned the use of an integrated board of trustees. An all-white board became mandated by law.

J. S. Clark Administration

In 1914 the state purchased a former plantation site, and Southern transferred operations to the all-Black town of Scotlandville, north of Baton Rouge. The school reopened on March 9, 1914, under the presidency of Dr. Joseph Samuel (J. S.) Clark. J. S. Clark was comforted by thoughts of good finally being produced on the tainted soil. In a Founders’ Day speech, J. S. Clark expressed, “The old bell that had called for years the Negro slaves and the Negro tenants, changed her tune for the first time, and called students to an educational feast.”

Enrollment numbers were modest and physical structures left much to be desired. The campus road was a dirt road. Students had to hand wash their laundry outdoors. They cared for the grounds, worked in the gardens, hauled supplies and groceries, and constructed buildings. Appropriations continued to be inadequate. J.S. Clark was unwavering. In 1921 the Louisiana Constitutional Convention authorized a university reorganization. In 1922 the institution was placed under the control of the State Board of Education, and that same year, Southern’s Laboratory School became operational. By 1928 Southern saw increased appropriations along with some other welcomed changes. Enrollment went from forty-seven to five hundred. Degree offerings were extended to four years, and colleges of arts, sciences, and education were developed. Historian Charles Vincent credits J. S. Clark with founding the “new” Southern and building a “mighty fortress of knowledge and culture.” Such changes transformed Southern into an acclaimed Black higher education option.

The school’s designation as an HBCU remained a perplexing reality. During this period the legislature appropriating funding was majority white. The school’s governing board was white, and many faculty members were white, while Black students, faculty, and administrators wielded little power over material matters. Those who understood how vital the university was and believed in its possibilities for Black education refused to allow the arrangement to become an impediment. When J. S. Clark retired in 1938, his son Dr. Felton Grandison (F. G.) Clark succeeded him.

F. G. Clark’s Administration

During F. G. Clark’s administration, the state charted the Southern University Alumni Federation. By 1933 two initial buildings grew to thirty-three. By 1947 Southern’s marching band began performing to the delight of many audiences. In 1947 Southern also opened the law school that its 1888 charter had permitted but failed to fund. To prevent Charles J. Hatfield, III, a Black student, from gaining admission to Louisiana State University (LSU) or any other white institution, the legislature abruptly created the Southern University Law Center (SULC). During F. G. Clark’s administration, enrollment increased to nearly ten thousand students, making it the largest HBCU enrollment in the nation at the time. Additional schools in the Southern University system and a graduate school (1957) were created during the younger Clark’s administration. The legendary Dancing Dolls formed too (1969).

Continued Growth and Challenges

Dr. G. Leon Netterville succeeded F. G. Clark as president. The funding disparities claimed a centerstage seat in his administration. In 1972 Southern received only 57 percent of the direct per-student appropriations that LSU received. Poor funding led to dilapidated conditions on campus, a lack of educational supplies and materials, faculty hiring and retention challenges, and dining hall grievances. There were other issues of contention, such as a shortage of student-requested course offerings and administrative unresponsiveness, all of which led to a prolonged period of student agitation in 1972. This crusade was led by Students United. Better days followed.

The Southern University System was created in 1974 by Louisiana constitutional mandate, which fashioned it into the nation’s only historically black 1890 land-grant university system. That same year the Bayou Classic, an annual college football classic rivalry between the Grambling State University Tigers and the Southern University Jaguars, started.

Not long after, overdue efforts to address state-imposed discrimination in higher education came in the form of a 1975 suit brought by the federal government. It accused the state of maintaining a dual, race-based system of public higher education in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The litigation resulted in a consent decree that manifested commitments to “curricular offerings . . . ; understanding the appropriate role to be played by traditionally Black institutions and making provisions for their immediate enhancement; . . . achieve a more equitable balance in the racial composition of the staff, faculty, and governing boards . . . ; and, increasing other race participation in every aspect of the university system’s life.” Also, in 1975 Southern got its own board, granting it more self-governance than it had had under an all-white State Board of Education.

Today the system consists of five campuses: Baton Rouge (SUBR), New Orleans (SUNO), Shreveport (SULA), SULC, and Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center (SUAREC). Southern is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It offers more than thirty academic programs, and it awards bachelor’s, master’s, professional, and doctoral degrees to a diverse student population representing more than twenty countries. Over the years, Southern’s mission has evolved “to provide a student-focused teaching and learning environment that creates global leadership opportunities for a diverse student population.”

Funding disparities continue to affect Southern’s mission. In 2022 a news source concluded that Southern received 95 percent of LSU’s per-student total but that LSU receives an infusion of state money to cover the tuition of TOPS (Taylor Opportunity Program for Students) scholarship recipients. In September 2023 the US Department of Education and the US Secretary of Agriculture sent a joint letter to various governors, including Louisiana’s governor. The letter expressed that Southern “has not been able to advance in ways that are on par with Louisiana State University … the original Morrill Act of 1862 land-grant institution [in Louisiana] … due to unbalanced funding.”

Southern Today

Despite challenges Southern maintains its institutional commitment to meeting the needs of its student population and supporting research endeavors and instruction that acknowledges the plight of those often overlooked in academic spaces. Recognition and innovation have followed. In 2022 SUBR was named a Carnegie R2 High Research Institution. In 2020 Southern made history by becoming the first HBCU to release its own line of THC medical cannabis products. It is the first and only institution in Louisiana to offer degrees in philanthropic studies.

Southern faculty have conducted research that has led to improvements in outer space; food preservation; and the protection of trees, soil, and water as well as breakthroughs in high-speed information networks. The College of Engineering is among the top-ten producers of Black students who receive undergraduate degrees in engineering. Southern graduates now span the globe and are represented in most occupations and markets. A few noteworthy Southern graduates include General Russel L. Honore (coordinated military relief after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita); Colonel Paris Davis (medal of honor for bravery in Vietnam); Branford Marsalis (jazz saxophonist); Sharon Lavigne (environmental activist); Sherian Grace Cadoria (first Black woman general in the US Army); baseball player Lou Brock; football Hall of Famers Mel Blount, Aneas Williams, and Harold Carmichael; and Olympic gold medal hurdlers Willie Davenport and Rodney Milburn.

Southern’s sister schools produce similar outcomes. In 2023 its College of Nursing and Allied Health won the Nursing School of the Year Award for the sixth time by the Louisiana State Nursing Association and the Louisiana Nurses Foundation. It is the only college in Louisiana to offer a PhD in nursing. The School of Nursing is among the nation’s top ten producers of Black nurses. SULC has been ranked among US News’s Best Law Schools. SULC alumni include the late Johnnie Jones (who won many civil rights victories); Attorney Tony Clayton (one of Louisiana’s few Black District Attorneys and one who has secured some of the largest civil verdicts in the state); Ernest Johnson and Judge Janice Clark (who used the Voting Rights Act to change how judges are elected); Congressmembers William Jefferson and Cleo Fields; State Representative Edmond Jordon and SULC Professor Angela A. Allen-Bell (who changed constitutional history when they helped end the use of non-unanimous juries in Louisiana); and Faith Jenkins (former Miss Louisiana and television personality).

Currently Southern is the only historically Black college system in the United States. Affectionately known as “Jaguar Nation,” Southern remains a symbol of a struggle, a site of refinement, and a beacon of hope. As an educational system built on the site of a former plantation, it remains a defiant monument to the possibilities that Reconstruction often withheld.