Alabama State University

Overview

Alabama State University is a public historically Black university in Montgomery, Alabama, founded in 1867 during Reconstruction as the Lincoln Normal School of Marion — one of about 180 state-founded normal schools nationwide, and one of 23 established to train Black teachers for segregated schools. In December 1874, the state board accepted the transfer of the school’s title after a legislative act authorized state funding, and George N. Card was named president; the school’s own history describes this as making it America’s first state-supported educational institution for Black students. Its second president, William Burns Paterson, appointed in 1878, led the school for 37 of its first 48 years and oversaw its 1887 move to Montgomery, where an Alabama Supreme Court ruling forced a name change to the Normal School for Colored Students.

The Knight v. Alabama Decree

The 1995 Knight v. Alabama remedial decree transformed Alabama State into a more comprehensive regional institution, funding two new undergraduate programs, four new graduate programs, diversity scholarships and endowment, and a new health sciences facility. The university also operates WVAS-FM, a public radio station that launched on June 15, 1984, broadcasting at 25,000 watts before growing to its current 80,000 watts and a listenership spanning 18 counties and more than 651,000 people.