Alabama State University, founded 1867, is a
historically black universityHistorically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....
located in
Montgomery, AlabamaMontgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
. ASU is a member school of the
Thurgood Marshall Scholarship FundThe Thurgood Marshall College Fund , named for the U.S. Supreme Court's first African-American Justice, was established in 1987. TMCF supports and represents nearly 300,000 students attending 47-member schools, which include public Historically Black Colleges & Universities and Predominantly Black...
.
History
Alabama State University’s 142-year history is a legacy of perseverance, progress and promise. The ASU movement began with the impetus to establish a school for black Alabamians. The Civil War resulted in not only the end of slavery, but also in the opportunity for blacks to have the right to education. With the Northern victory, black Southerners, with the assistance of Northern white missionaries and the leaders of African-American churches, set out to establish educational institutions for the freedmen. ASU was born in that movement. ASU is the global entity it is today because of the fortitude of nine freed slaves from Marion, Ala., who sought to build a school for African-Americans previously denied the right to an education. The foresight of these men, now remembered as the “Marion Nine,” created what is now known as Alabama State University.
Alabama State University founded in 1856 as the
Lincoln Normal SchoolThe Lincoln Normal School, also known as the Lincoln School was a historic African American school in Marion, Alabama. Its roots went back to a Union soldier who remained in Marion after the end of the Civil War to teach newly freed African Americans...
of Marion in
MarionMarion is the county seat of Perry County, Alabama. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 3,511. First called Muckle Ridge, the city was renamed after a hero of the American Revolution, Francis Marion.-Geography:...
. In December 1873, the State Board accepted the transfer of title to the school after a legislative act was passed authorizing the state to fund a Normal School, and George N. Card was named President. Thus, in 1874, this predecessor of Alabama State University became America's first state-supported educational institution for blacks. This began ASU’s rich history as a “Teacher’s College.”
In 1878, the second president, William Paterson, was appointed. He is honored as a founder of Alabama State University and was the president for 37 of the first 48 years of its existence. Paterson was instrumental in the move from Marion to Montgomery in 1887. In 1887, the university opened in its new location in Montgomery but an Alabama State Supreme Court ruling forced the school to change its name; thus, the school was renamed the Normal School for Colored Students.
In the decades that followed Lincoln Normal School became a junior college and in 1928 became a full four-year institution. In 1929 it became State Teachers College, Alabama State College for Negroes in 1948 and Alabama State College in 1954. In 1969, the State Board of Education, then the governing body of the university, approved a name change; the institution became Alabama State University. The 1995 Knight vs. Alabama remedial decree transformed ASU into a comprehensive regional institution paving the way for two new undergraduate programs, four new graduate programs, diversity scholarship funding and endowment, funding to build a state-of-the art health sciences facility and a facility renewal allocation to refurbish three existing buildings.
WVASWVAS is a jazz-music formatted radio station in the Montgomery, Alabama, market licensed to the Alabama State University. WVAS is a member-supported non-commercial, educational station featuring news and other programming from National Public Radio and Public Radio International.WVAS began...
-FM was launched on June 15, 1984, beaming 25,000 watts of power from the fifth floor of the Levi Watkins Learning Center for two years before moving to its current location at Thomas Kilby Hall. Today, WVAS has grown to 80,000 watts and enjoys a listenership that spans 18 counties, reaching a total population of more than 651,000. In recent years, the station has also begun streaming its broadcast via the Web, connecting a global audience to the university.
The early 1990s witnessed the beginning of
WAPRWAPR is a radio station licensed to Selma, Alabama. The station is owned by the University of Alabama, and is an affiliate of Alabama Public Radio, airing the network's programming consisting of news and talk programming, classical music, folk music, jazz, adult album alternative and nostalgic...
-FM (Alabama Public Radio), which Alabama State University and Troy University, both of which already held station licenses of their own, cooperated with the University of Alabama in building and operating. WAPR-FM 88.3—Selma – The signal reaches the region known colloquially as the
Black BeltThe Black Belt is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama, and part of the larger Black Belt Region of the Southern United States, which stretches from Texas to Maryland. The term originally referred to the region underlain by a thin layer of rich, black topsoil developed atop the chalk of the Selma...
, about 13 counties in the west central and central parts of Alabama, including the city of Montgomery.
Academics
Alabama State University has an enrollment of more than 5,000 students from more than 40 states and six countries.
Alabama State University has eight degree-granting colleges or schools or divisions.
- College of Business Administration
- College of Education
- College of Health Sciences
- College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
- College of Science, Mathematics & Technology
- College of Visual & Performing Arts
- Division of Aerospace Studies
- Continuing Education
Alabama State offers 47 degree programs including 31 bachelors’, 11 masters’, two Education Specialist and three doctoral programs (Doctorate in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Law (EdD), Clinical Doctorate in Physical Therapy (DPT), Doctorate in Microbiology (PhD)).
Alabama State is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, the National Association of Schools of Music, the National Association of Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy, the Commission of Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs, Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM, the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST) and the Council of Social Work Education.
Campus
ASU's urban, 172 acre (0.69605992 km²) campus has Georgian-style red-brick classroom buildings and architecturally contemporary structures. ASU is home to the state-of-the-art 7,400-seat academic and sports facility the ASU Acadome; the Levi Watkins Learning Center; a five-story brick structure with more than 267,000 volumes, the state-of-the-art John L. Buskey Health Sciences Center; which is 80000 square feet (7,432.2 m²) facility which houses classrooms, offices, an interdisciplinary clinic, three therapeutic rehabilitation labs, state-of-the-art Gross Anatomy Lab, Laboratory for the Analysis of Human Motion (LAHM), a Women’s Health/Cardiopulmonary lab, and a health sciences computer lab, and WVAS-FM 90.7; the 80,000-watt, university operated public radio station.
Student life
More than 70 student organizations are chartered at Alabama State, including nine Greek-letter organizations, a full range of men’s and women’s intramural and intercollegiate sports, and 17 honors organizations. In addition to social, cultural and religious groups, there are musical opportunities, such as the marching and symphonic bands, the choir, and departmental organizations for most majors.
The Golden Ambassadors
The Golden Ambassadors are a select group of outstanding students who are the official greeting body for Alabama State University.
Student publications
The students are served by two media publications,
The Hornet Tribune (student newspaper) and
The HORNET (the student yearbook).
Athletics
The Alabama State University Department of Athletics currently sponsors men's intercollegiate football, baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, track and cheerleading along with women's intercollegiate basketball, soccer, softball, bowling, tennis, track, volleyball, golf and cheerleading. Sports teams participate in
NCAAThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
Division I (FCS – Football Championship Subdivision for
footballCollege football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
) in the
Southwestern Athletic ConferenceThe Southwestern Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black universities in the Southern United States...
(SWAC), which it joined in 1982. The university's colors are black and old gold and their nickname is the
HornetHornets are the largest eusocial wasps; some species can reach up to in length. The true hornets make up the genus Vespa and are distinguished from other vespines by the width of the vertex , which is proportionally larger in Vespa and by the anteriorly rounded gasters .- Life cycle :In...
s.
Marching Hornets
The Marching Hornets have gained national recognition as a result of their participation in the halftime shows on NBC's national televised professional football games between the NY Jets vs. KC Chiefs on December 10, 1967, and CBS's nationally televised professional football game between the New Orleans Saints vs. the Green Bay Packers in 1969, the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints in October 1976 and 1977; and the pre-game and halftime for the Cincinnati Bengal vs. Houston Oilers at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, 1976. The band was twice televised on the Blue-Gray Football Classic, Montgomery, AL, in December 1976 and 1977.
In 1980, The Marching Hornets put together a halftime show saluting the late, great Joe Louis. In 1985, the Marching Hornets were invited to perform at the second annual Freedom Bowl classic in Fulton Stadium, Atlanta, GA, representing the SWAC Conference. They also performed for the Atlanta Falcon vs. Chicago Bears in 1986, were they presented a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and were the Exhibition Band for the South Central Marching Band Classic in Homewood, AL., November 1, 1986. The Marching Hornets also performed at other classics and games such as the 1991 Bronze Classic in Atlanta, the 1991 Motor City Classic in Pontiac Michigan, the 1991 Alma Heritage Bowl in Miami, the 1992 Circle City Classic of Indianapolis, the 2000 Battle of the Bands in Mobile, AL, the 2003 and 2004 Detroit Football Classic, and the 2006 Battle of the Bands in Atlanta, Ga. The band appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2007.
In 2008 the mighty marching hornets had the largest band in the Southwestern Division(swac) which consisted of 340 musicians.
The Honey Bees
The Honey Bees are a dance team that dance during the football halftime performances.
The Bama State Collegians
The
Bama State CollegiansThe Bama State Collegians is a student jazz orchestra made up of students at Alabama State University. This group, founded in the 1930s, has been directed by a number of notable musicians, including Tommy Stewart and Erskine Hawkins....
is a
big bandA big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
jazz orchestra sponsored by Alabama State University. In the 1930s, the ensemble was directed by noted jazz trumpeter,
Erskine HawkinsErskine Ramsay Hawkins was an American trumpet player and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed "The 20th Century Gabriel". He is most remembered for composing the jazz standard "Tuxedo Junction" with saxophonist and arranger Bill Johnson...
, an inductee of both the
Alabama Jazz Hall of FameThe Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame was founded in 1978, and opened a museum on September 18, 1993, with a mission "to foster, encourage, educate, and cultivate a general appreciation of the medium of jazz music as a legitimate, original and distinctive art form indigenous to America...
and the
Alabama Music Hall of FameThe Alabama Music Hall of Fame, first conceived by the Muscle Shoals Music Association in the early 1980s, was created by the Alabama Music Hall of Fame Board, which then saw to its Phase One construction of a after a state-wide referendum in 1987...
. After moving to New York City, the Collegians, directed by Hawkins, became the
Erskine Hawkins OrchestraErskine Ramsay Hawkins was an American trumpet player and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed "The 20th Century Gabriel". He is most remembered for composing the jazz standard "Tuxedo Junction" with saxophonist and arranger Bill Johnson...
and produced a string of national hit records, including "
Tuxedo Junction"Tuxedo Junction" is a song co-written by Birmingham, Alabama composer Erskine Hawkins and saxophonist and arranger Bill Johnson. Julian Dash is also credited for the music. The song was introduced by Hawkins's orchestra. Lyrics were by Buddy Feyne...
", "
After HoursAfter Hours is a blues piano composition composed by Birmingham, Alabama pianist, Avery Parrish.The first recording of the song, in 1940 on the Bluebird label with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, was an instant hit, and subsequently became a jazz standard...
", "
Tippin' In"Tippin' In" is an American song with music by Robert Lewis "Bobby" Smith and lyrics by Marty Symes. It was a 1945 instrumental hit by Erskine Hawkins and His Orchestra...
" and others. The song "Tuxedo Junction", with its recordings by Hawkins and by the
Glenn Miller OrchestraThe Glenn Miller Orchestra was originally formed in 1938 by Glenn Miller. It was arranged around a clarinet and tenor saxophone playing melody, while three other saxophones played the harmony...
, became one of the anthems of World War II in America.
Notable faculty
Notable alumni
External links
Additional information