Tennessee State University (TSU) is a comprehensive, urban, coeducational land-grant university founded in 1912. The 450 acre (1.8 km²) main campus has more than 65 buildings and is located in a residential setting at 3500 John A. Merritt Blvd in Nashville, Tennessee. TSU is the only state funded historically Black university in the state of Tennessee. Avon Williams campus is located downtown, near the center of the Nashville business and government district. It has approximately 8750 students with a faculty/student ratio of 17/1. This university is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) to award 42 baccalaureate degrees, 21 master's degrees, as well as the two-year Associate of Science degree in nursing, dental hygiene, and doctoral degrees in public administration, administration and supervision, curriculum and instruction and psychology. The College of Nursing is accredited for the A.A.S., B.S.N., M.S.N. degrees by the National League for Nursing Accreditation Commission. The TSU College of Engineering, Technology & Computer Science is accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) offering baccalaureate degrees in the areas of Architectural and Facilities Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, & Computer and Information Systems Engineering; graduate degrees in the areas of Computer and Information Systems Engineering, General Engineering (M.E.), Biomedical, Civil, Environmental, Electrical, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Engineering; with the Ph.D. in Computer and Information Systems Engineering with concentrations in Computer Communications and Networks, Control Systems and Signal Processing , Robotics and Computer Integration, and Manufacturing. It is also accredited by the National Association of Industrial Technology (NAIT) offering the B.S. in Aeronautical and Industrial Technology with concentrations in Aeronautical Technology (through Academic Common Market), Aviation Management, Aviation Flight, and Industrial Electronics Technology (through Academic Common Market). The TSU College of Business was THE FIRST to earn dual Association of Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB International) accreditation (accreditation of both the undergraduate and graduate programs at the same time) in 1994.

Though it was organized as the Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School in 1909 and began serving students on June 19, 1912, its status was raised to a four-year teachers' college in 1922. It was then elevated to full-fledged land-grant university status by the Tennessee State Board of Education in 1958. Since 1972 it has been operated under the auspices of the Tennessee Board of Regents.

The present-day Tennessee State University exists as a result of the merger on July 1, 1979, of Tennessee State University and the former University of Tennessee at Nashville.

TSU projects itself to its students, faculty, and alumni and to the citizens of the State through the school's charge "Enter to learn, go forth to serve." and it's motto, "Think, Work, Serve."

website: http://www.tnstate.edu

School Legends

1. Wilma Rudolph
2. Ralph Boston
3. Ed "Too Tall" Jones
4. Wilma Rudolph
5. Willye White
6. Wyomia Tyus
7. Richard Dent