Southern University

Southern University. Southern University is a public historically black university (HBCU) located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Founded in 1880, it is the flagship institution of the Southern University System and has played a significant role in the US Civil Rights Movement as a crucible for student activism and the education of prominent leaders.

History and Founding

Southern University was founded in New Orleans in 1880 during the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War. It was established under the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1890, which provided for land-grant institutions for African Americans in segregated states. The university was created by the Louisiana State Legislature with the mission of providing higher education to the state's black citizens. In 1914, the campus was relocated to its current location in Scotlandville, a community now part of Baton Rouge. The move to a rural area provided space for the university's agricultural and mechanical programs, which were central to its land-grant mission. The institution grew steadily, evolving from a normal school into a comprehensive university, and later became the anchor for the multi-campus Southern University System.

Role in the Civil Rights Movement

Southern University served as a pivotal center for civil rights organizing and intellectual discourse in the Southern United States. Its faculty and students were deeply engaged in the struggle against Jim Crow segregation and for voting rights. The university's location in the capital city of Louisiana placed it at the heart of political battles over racial segregation. Notably, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and activists like Thurgood Marshall were involved in legal challenges connected to the university. Southern University was also a key site for voter registration drives and a staging ground for major protests, directly confronting the white supremacist power structure in the state.

Student Activism and Protests

Student activism at Southern University was intense and often met with severe repression. A major flashpoint occurred in 1960, when students organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Baton Rouge, inspired by the Greensboro sit-ins. The most tragic episode took place in November 1972, when a peaceful protest over university conditions turned deadly. During a confrontation with the Louisiana State Police, two students, Denver Smith and Leonard Brown, were shot and killed on campus. This event, known as the Southern University shooting of 1972, marked one of the most violent suppressions of student protest in U.S. history and galvanized further national attention on civil rights issues at HBCUs. These protests were part of a broader wave of activism across campuses like Howard University and Jackson State University.

Notable Alumni and Figures

Southern University has produced a distinguished roster of alumni who have made substantial contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, law, politics, and culture. Among the most prominent is Rosa Parks, who attended the university for a time, though she is most famously associated with the Montgomery bus boycott. Other notable figures include Vernon Jordan, a civil rights leader and advisor to President Bill Clinton; Alexis Herman, who served as U.S. Secretary of Labor; and Ronald Dellums, a long-serving Congressman known for his progressive activism. In the realm of law, Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana is an alumnus. The university's faculty has also included influential intellectuals engaged in the freedom struggle.

Academic Programs and Civil Rights Focus

As a comprehensive land-grant institution, Southern University offers a wide array of academic programs through colleges such as the College of Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The university has maintained a strong focus on social justice, civil rights history, and African-American studies. Academic departments often integrate the history of the movement into their curricula, and the university hosts archives and institutes dedicated to preserving this legacy. The Southern University Law Center, founded in 1947, was established to provide African Americans access to legal education and has produced many attorneys who fought segregation and discrimination through the court system, continuing the tradition of "cause lawyering" inspired by figures like Thurgood Marshall.

Campus and Historical Landmarks

The main campus in Baton Rouge features several sites of historical significance to the Civil Rights Movement. The Smith-Brown Memorial Union is named in honor of the two students killed in the 1972 protest. The university's John B. Cade Library houses important archival collections documenting African American history and the student protest movement. The campus also includes landmarks like the Southern University Museum of Art, which highlights African and African American cultural heritage. The physical landscape of the university, from its historic buildings to protest sites, serves as a living monument to the courage of its students and their role in challenging institutional racism in higher education and society at large.