The History of Virginia State University

The History of Virginia State University. Virginia State University. , Virginia State University was founded on March 6, 1882, when the legislature passed a bill to charter the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. The bill was sponsored by Delegate Alfred W. Harris, a Black attorney whose offices were in Petersburg, but who lived in and represented Dinwiddie County in the General Assembly. A hostile lawsuit delayed opening day for nineteen months, until October 1, 1883. In 1902, the legislature revised the charter act to curtail the collegiate program and to change the name to Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute., In the first academic year, 1883-84, the University had 126 students and seven faculty (all of them Black), one building, 33 acres, a 200-book library, and a $20,000 budget. Virginia State University has a long history of outstanding faculty and administration. The first person to bear the title of PResident, John Mercer Langston, was one of the best-known blacks of his day. Until 1992, he was the only black ever elected to the United States Congress from Virginia (elected in 1888), and he was the great-uncle of the famed writer Langston Hughes. From 1888 to 1968, four presidents , James H. Johnston, John M. Gandy, Luther H. Foster, Robert P. Daniel, Ph.D. served an average of 20 years, helping the school to overcome adversity and move forward. For the next four decades, nine more presidents would lead the University to its current level of excellence including James F. Tucker, Wendell P. Russell, Ed.D., Walker H. Quarles, Jr., Thomas M. Law, Ed.D., Wilbert Greenfield, Ph.D., Wesley C. McClure, Ph.D., Eddie N. Moore, Jr., Keith T. Miller, Ph.D., and Makola M. Abdullah, Ph.D..