Virginia State University

The Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute was chartered on 6 Mar. 1882. The Readjuster Party was instrumental in supporting a state institution of higher education in Virginia for African Americans with some unusual features in the institute's charter. It called for six of the seven members of the board of visitors to be black, an all-black faculty, and the authority to grant college degrees. This contrasted with many African American agricultural and industrial schools established at that time. Classes began in October 1883 with 62 students, six faculty members, and one building. In 1920 it acquired land-grant status, and in 1979 the current name was conferred.

Colonial Heights, Virginia · United States