Winston-Salem State University

History

Winston-Salem State University traces its origins to September 28, 1892, when Dr. Simon Green Atkins — a graduate of St. Augustine's College and a leading Black educator in North Carolina — opened a one-room frame schoolhouse with 25 pupils and a single teacher. The institution was named the Slater Industrial Academy in recognition of a benefaction from the Slater Fund, a northern philanthropic source that supported the establishment of industrial education for Black students across the South.

The academy expanded its mission steadily. In 1925, the North Carolina General Assembly renamed the institution Winston-Salem Teachers College and authorized it to award four-year baccalaureate degrees in elementary education. This authorization was historically significant: it made Winston-Salem the first Black institution in the United States to confer a four-year degree in elementary teacher education — a credentialing achievement that placed it at the center of teacher production for North Carolina's segregated public schools.

The college expanded its curriculum through the mid-twentieth century, adding programs in nursing, business, and the liberal arts. It was renamed Winston-Salem State College in 1963 and Winston-Salem State University in 1969 to reflect its broader academic scope. In 1972, it became one of the original sixteen constituent institutions of the consolidated University of North Carolina System.

Today Winston-Salem State enrolls approximately 5,210 students — its largest headcount since 2021 and a 9.1 percent increase over 2023 — including a decade-high graduate population of roughly 681 and an incoming freshman class of about 1,120 whose average high school GPA of 3.4 is the strongest in the university's recent enrollment data. Its School of Health Sciences — particularly the program in nursing — has become a regional leader in producing Black health professionals. The university maintains SACSCOC accreditation across the baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral levels. In September 2025, Bonita J. Brown was installed as the university's 14th chancellor, becoming the first permanent female chief executive in WSSU's history; under her leadership the university established a new Division of Student Success to coordinate retention, persistence, and graduation, and in 2025 it received a UNCF UNITE Student Champion Award. Effective July 2025, Stevie L. Lawrence II became provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, and the university announced new public health degree programs slated to launch in fall 2026.

Notable Alumni

A representative selection. Winston-Salem State's alumni body includes leaders in education, professional sports, public health, and the performing arts.

Significance

Winston-Salem State's authorization in 1925 to grant a four-year degree in elementary education was a structural breakthrough. In the segregated South, the legal mechanism by which Black teachers could be credentialed was the principal bottleneck constraining the supply of qualified Black educators. By becoming the first Black institution permitted to award that credential, Winston-Salem absorbed a disproportionate share of the responsibility for staffing Black public schools across the Carolinas — a responsibility it continued to discharge for the next half-century.

In the modern era, Winston-Salem has reoriented around health sciences, with its nursing program producing a substantial share of the Black nursing workforce in North Carolina. Its athletic program — anchored by the Rams football and basketball traditions, and forever defined by Earl Monroe's 1967 championship season — remains a cultural touchstone for HBCU sports and a recruiting asset that continues to draw national attention.

Source notes: This entry draws from the Winston-Salem State University institutional history; the University of North Carolina System constituent-institution records; NCpedia; the WSSU 2025 enrollment summary; and contemporaneous press coverage of Earl Monroe's WSSU career and subsequent NBA induction. Discrepancies noted in the corrections log.