T HE U NIVERSITY
Z
rambling State University opened on November 1, 1901 as the Colored Industrial and
Agricultural School. It was founded by the North Louisiana Colored Agriculture Relief Association,
organized in 1896 by a group of African-American farmers who wanted to organize and operate a
school for African Americans in their region of the state. In response to the Association’s request for
assistance, Tuskegee Institute’s Booker T. Washington sent Charles P. Adams to help the group
organize an industrial school. Adams became its founding president.
In 1905, the school moved to its present location and
was renamed the North Louisiana Agricultural and
Industrial School. By 1928, after becoming a state
junior college and being renamed the Louisiana
Negro Normal and Industrial Institute, the school
began to award two-year professional certificates and
diplomas. In 1936, the curriculum emphasis shifted
to rural teacher education; students were able to
receive professional teaching certificates after
completing a third academic year. The first
baccalaureate degree was awarded in1944, in
elementary education.
In 1946, the school became Grambling College,
named after P.G. Grambling, the white sawmill
owner who had donated the parcel of land where the
school was constructed. In addition to elementary
educators, Grambling prepared secondary teachers
and added curricula in sciences, liberal arts and
business, transforming the college from a single
purpose institution of teacher education into a
multipurpose college. In 1949, the college earned its
first accreditation by the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools.
In 1974, the addition of graduate programs in early
childhood and elementary education gave the school
a new status and a new name, Grambling State University. The university expanded and prospered
between1977 and 2000. Several new academic programs were incorporated and new facilities were
added to the 384-acre campus, including a business and computer science building, school of
nursing, student services building, stadium, s tadium support facility and an intramural sports
center.
Following Founding President Charles P. Adams, who served for 35 years, Ralph Waldo Emerson
Jones became the second president in 1936. Dr. Joseph Benjamin Johnson became the third
president of Grambling State University in 1977 and served in this capacity until 1991. During that
period, the university increased the number of students enrolled and its degree offerings. Several
capital outlay projects were also realized under the Johnson Administration.
Page 1
Academic Viewbook