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"S" is for South Carolina State University

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"S" is for South Carolina State University. The institution was founded in 1896 in Orangeburg as the Colored Normal, Industrial, Agricultural, and Mechanical College of South Carolina. The school was supported in part by funds provided by the Morrill Land-Grant Act. During its early years the college was devoted to training black youngsters to be teachers, farmers, homemakers, and skilled artisans. The college grew steadily despite hostility to its existence. Among its earliest graduates were biologist Ernest F. Just and Morehouse College president Benjamin E. Mays. In 1947, the General Assembly created a graduate program and law school at South Carolina State rather than admit black students to the state’s white schools. In 1960 the institution was fully accredited. South Carolina State University was and remains, the only state-assisted, historically black, land-grant institution in South Carolina.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.