Kentucky State University (K-State)

Originally named the State Normal School for Colored Persons, the school received funding from the Kentucky Legislature and opened in 1886. John H. Jackson, a Berea College graduate, was named president and charged with the mission of training Negro teachers for the state's Negro schools. For 20 years, Berea College, an integrated school, had been the main institution for the training of Negro teachers in Kentucky. At the new school, tuition was free to students who pledged to teach in Kentucky; four years later one quarter of the Negro teachers in the state were graduates of the State Normal School for Colored Persons. In 1890 the school became a land-grant college, and in 1902 the name was changed to Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute for Colored Persons. After several additional name changes, references to race were removed in 1952 when the school became Kentucky State College. It was named Kentucky State University in 1973. In 1982 an additional mission was added with K-State aiming to become a major repository for the collection of artifacts, books, and records related to its history of educating black citizens; the Center of Excellence for the Study of Kentucky African Americans (CESKAA) houses that collection. Today, Kentucky State University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges, and the school awards bachelor and associate degrees and the Master's of Public Administration degree. Kentucky State University is the state's Historically Black American College and University (HBCU). For more information about the history of the university see History of the Kentucky State Industrial College for Negroes [i.e. Kentucky Industrial College for Colored Persons] (thesis) by A. Edwards; Onward and upward: a centennial history of Kentucky State University, 1886-1986 by J. A. Hardin; Against the tide: a narrative of a century long struggle ...," by A. J. Heartwell-Hunter; and visit the Kentucky State University Library and Archives and CESKAA.