10/29/2026
On November 26, 1890, the Georgia General Assembly created a school with a very long name: the Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth. Today it is Savannah State University, the oldest historically Black public university in the state.
Classes first met in Athens in 1891, then the school moved to Savannah on October 7, 1891, with Richard R. Wright Sr. as first president, five faculty members and eight students. The campus was built on land that had been part of Placentia Plantation, including its cemetery for Black residents. The first bachelor's degree came in 1898, the school became a full four-year college in 1928, and it took its current name in 1996. 🎓
Is there a college in your own family story that started small?
Photo: Ammodramus, CC0 (Hill Hall)