Introduction
The university has a long and proud history dating back to 1857, with Harris Teachers College, a normal school for white students to train future teachers. Later in 1890, the Sumner Normal School for black students was founded, which changed its name to Stowe Teachers College. The two schools existed separately for decades, until the historic Brown v. Board of Education mandate of 1954 when the two merged but retained only the Harris name. Later, alumni and others pointed out that the Stowe name should be attached, and was known as Harris-Stowe College until 2005 when the school became Harris-Stowe State University.
The school today has expanded beyond just a teacher’s college and is now a public university awarding a variety of degrees. The institution can be found in St. Louis, Missouri on a 31-acre campus in an urban setting. It has been recently rated as one of the best regional colleges in the Midwest and was also listed as one of the remaining historically black colleges or universities. Part of the school’s baseball field was once used as the Negro National League Stars’ Park – a fact of pride among students and alumni.
