Mississippi Valley State University

Mississippi Valley State University (commonly referred to as MVSU  or “The Valley”) is a historically black university located in Itta Bena, Mississippi, in the United States. MVSU is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund.

The institution, which opened in 1950, was created by the Mississippi Legislature as Mississippi Vocational College. The legislature anticipated that legal segregation of public education was in danger (and would in four years be declared unconstitutional in the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education the institution, hoping that its existence would draw African-American applicants who might have otherwise applied to attend Mississippi’s premier whites-only institutions—the University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, and the University of Southern Mississippi. Creating separate institutions of higher learning for Mississippi’s black population, the state’s political leaders hoped, would help ease the pressure to integrate the state’s premier universities.

In 1964, Mississippi Vocational College was renamed Mississippi Valley State College. In 1970, a student boycott was organized to protest President White’s administration of the institution. Half the enrolled students of the institution—about 900—were arrested. However, White was ousted as president soon afterward.

Mississippi Valley State University has academic programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level. There are 2 colleges: the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Education and Professional Studies, and a Graduate School.

Courses offered

• Undergraduate Programs
• Graduate Programs

Contact Details
Official Website: http://www.mvsu.edu/