Southern University and A&M College

History

Southern University was chartered by the Louisiana General Assembly in April 1880 and originally opened in New Orleans on March 7, 1881. Its founding came out of the 1879 state constitutional convention, where Black delegates secured a provision establishing a state-supported institution “for the education of persons of color.” In 1890, the university was designated Louisiana's 1890 land-grant institution under the second Morrill Act, paired with Louisiana State University as the state's 1862 land-grant.

In 1914, Southern was relocated from New Orleans to Scotlandville, an unincorporated community immediately north of Baton Rouge, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. The relocation was driven both by inadequate facilities in New Orleans and by mounting pressure from the city's white political establishment. The Scotlandville campus became and remains the flagship of the Southern University System, which today comprises five institutions: Southern in Baton Rouge, Southern University at New Orleans (1956), Southern University at Shreveport (1964), the Southern University Law Center, and the Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center.

Southern is the only HBCU system in the United States and the only land-grant institution in Louisiana with a primary mission of educating Black students. As with the other 1890 land-grants, the federal land-grant match owed by the state of Louisiana to Southern has been chronically underfunded relative to the 1862 institution; this gap has been formally documented by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Education in their 2023 review of state land-grant funding.

Notable Alumni

A representative selection. Southern's alumni span elected office, the federal judiciary, professional sports, and entertainment.

Significance

Southern is the only HBCU in the United States organized as a multi-campus system, and it remains Louisiana's only public land-grant institution with a primary mission of educating Black students. Its A&M, law, agricultural research, and extension functions place it at the center of Black agricultural, legal, and engineering education in the Gulf South.

The Human Jukebox — Southern's marching band — is among the most influential collegiate marching bands in the country, and its style has shaped the visual and musical vocabulary of HBCU bands nationally.

John K. Pierre, formerly chancellor of the Southern University Law Center, became chancellor of Southern University and A&M College on July 1, 2024, and was formally invested in March 2026. His administration has made undergraduate persistence and completion its central priority — Southern’s six-year graduation rate has trailed peer institutions — advancing a data-infrastructure initiative to identify academically at-risk students earlier, with stated targets to raise the four- and six-year graduation rates by 2027. Preliminary fall 2025 figures showed roughly 7,660 students enrolled and a 17.5 percent rise in first-time freshmen, part of a system-wide enrollment increase across the four Southern University campuses. At the system level, the Southern University System Board of Supervisors dismissed President Dennis J. Shields in late 2025 after roughly two years, giving no stated reason; Dr. Orlando F. McMeans, chancellor of the system’s Agricultural Research and Extension Center, was named interim president in December 2025, and by October 2026 the search for a permanent president had narrowed to three finalists.

Source notes: Institutional history and enrollment from Southern University System (sus.edu) and Southern University and A&M College (subr.edu). Land-grant funding analysis from the joint USDA – U.S. Department of Education letter to states with 1890 institutions (September 2023). Leadership and graduation-initiative details from Southern University and A&M College (subr.edu, 2024–2026). Notable alumni biographical details from the Southern University alumni record and contemporaneous published sources.