A Brief History of Tennessee State University
Through successive stages, TSU has developed from a normal school for Negroes to its current status as a national university with students from 42 states and 45 countries. The present-day Tennessee State University exists as a result of the merger on July 1, 1979, of Tennessee State University and the former University of Tennessee at Nashville. By virtue of a 1909 Act of the General Assembly, the Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School was created, along with two other normal schools in the State of Tennessee, and began serving students on June 19, 1912. William Jasper Hale was appointed as head of the school. The original 247 students, along with the faculty and staff, operated as a family. Everyone worked to keep the institution running in its early years, from clearing rocks to harvesting crops to carrying chairs from class to class. As the college grew in scope and stature throughout the 1920s and 1930s, so too did its impressive roster of alumni who embodied the school''s charge: "Enter to learn; go forth to serve." In 1943, when William Hale retired after more than 30 years at the school''s helm, an alumnus was chosen to succeed him. From 1943 until his retirement in 1968, Walter S. Davis led the institution through an era of tremendous growth, in areas as multifaceted as academics, facilities, and worldwide recognition. Pictures from the 1949 yearbook highlight the university''s historical mission for agricultural and industrial training. Accreditation of the institution by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools was first obtained in 1946. In August 1951, the institution was granted univers |