The University of Tennessee at Nashville began in 1947 as an extension center of the University of Tennessee and offered only one year of extension credit until 1960, when it was empowered by the Board of Trustees of the University of Tennessee to offer two years of resident credit. Authorization was granted to extend this to three years of resident credit in 1963, even though degrees were awarded by the Knoxville unit.

    To more fully realize its commitment as a full-function evening university, the UT-Nashville campus became a full-fledged, four-year degree-granting institution in 1971 upon successfully meeting the requirements for accreditation of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. During the same year, the General Assembly sanctioned the institution as a bona fide campus of the University of Tennessee, and the new university occupied its quarters in the building at the corner of Tenth and Charlotte avenues in downtown Nashville.

    It was the erection of the above-mentioned building which gave rise to the decades-long litigation to "dismantle the dual system" of higher education in Tennessee. The litigation resulted in the merger of both institutions (ordered by Judge Frank Gray in February 1977), resulting in an expansion of the present-day Tennessee State University as a Tennessee Board of Regents institution.

    The Geier v. Tennessee case went on for 32 years. Initially brought by Rita Sanders Geier, who taught at TSU, TSU professors Ray Richardson and H. Coleman McGinnis intervened as co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit, as did the U.S. Department of Justice. After numerous court-ordered plans failed to produce progress on the matter, a mediated Consent Decree, agreed upon by all parties, was ordered by the court on Jan. 4, 2001.

    TSU Today: The Floyd-Payne Student Center (left) and the McWherter Administration Building (right).
TSU''s fifth president, Otis Floyd, assumed his post in 1987 following a year as interim president. He left the university when he was appointed chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents in 1990. Floyd kept TSU moving forward in both capacities, initiating efforts that resulted in the university''s receiving an unprecedented $112 million from the state general assembly for capital improvements in 1988. Under this plan, nearly all buildings on campus were renovated, and eight new buildings were constructed, including the Floyd-Payne Campus Center, the Ned McWherter Administration Building, the Wilma Rudolph Residence Center, and the Performing Arts Center. Currently, the downtown campus is undergoing a renovation project.

    In 1991, James Hefner became the sixth president of Tennessee State University. He oversaw implementation of the capital improvements pr