Alcorn State University

Alcorn State University is a public, historically black, comprehensive, land-grant institution located northwest of Lorman, Mississippi in rural Claiborne County. It was founded in 1871 by the Reconstruction-era legislature to provide higher education for freedmen.

It is the first black land grant college established in the United States. Its main campus is approximately 80 miles southwest of Jackson, Mississippi.

One of Alcorn's most notable alumni, Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist, graduated in 1952. Students at the college were part of the mid-twentieth century civil rights movement, working to register residents for voting and to end racial inequality. Other alumni have been activists, politicians and professionals in Mississippi and other states. The university is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.