Harris-Stowe State University

Harris–Stowe State University is a historically black public university in St. Louis, Missouri. The university offers 50 majors, minors, and certificate programs in education, business, and arts & sciences. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. It is immediately east of the Saint Louis University campus.

In 1857, St. Louis Public Schools established a normal school (teaching college) for white students; it was subsequently named Harris Teachers College, after William Torrey Harris, a former St. Louis superintendent of schools and United States Commissioner of Education. In 1863 philosopher Anna Brackett became principal of the school, and it became the first normal school led by a woman in the United States. In 1920, it was authorized to issue a four-year Bachelor of Arts in Education degree.

In 1890, the St. Louis school system established Sumner Normal School to train black teachers. In 1929, its name was changed to Stowe Teachers College, after author Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, had promoted the abolitionist cause in the antebellum United States.

The U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education mandated integration of public-school systems. In response to this, Harris and Stowe Colleges were merged into one institution, which retained the "Harris Teachers College" name. At the behest of Stowe alumni and other St. Louisans, the name "Stowe" was added, and the school became Harris-Stowe College.

In 1979, the college was added to the state system of public higher education, under the name of Harris-Stowe State College. Its four-year education degree was changed to a Bachelor of Science in Education. It subsequently expanded its programs to offer several new degrees in education, including the B.S. in Urban Education, designed to enable non-teaching urban education personnel to address problems specific to urban schools; and a degree in Business Administration with various professional options.

In 2005, the college attained university status, and was renamed Harris–Stowe State University.

Harris-Stowe State University is a non-profit public higher education institution located in the urban setting of the small city of St. Louis (population range of 250,000-499,999 inhabitants), Missouri. Officially accredited and/or recognized by the Higher Learning Commission, Harris-Stowe State University (HSSU) is a very small (uniRank enrollment range: 1,000-1,999 students) coeducational higher education institution. Harris-Stowe State University (HSSU) offers courses and programs leading to officially recognized higher education degrees such as bachelor degrees in several areas of study. See the uniRank degree levels and areas of study matrix below for further details. The admission rate range is 80-90% making this US higher education organization a least selective institution. International students are welcome to apply for enrollment.