Central State University

Central State University (CSU) is a public, historically black land-grant university in Wilberforce, Ohio. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Established by the state legislature in 1887 as a two-year program for teacher and industrial training, it was originally located with Wilberforce University, a four-year institution devoted to classical academic education. It was originally known as the Combined Normal and Industrial Department. In 1941 the college gained a four-year curriculum, independent status in 1947, and was renamed as Central State College in 1951. With further development, it gained university status in 1965. In 2014, Central State University received designation as a land-grant university. History Central State University started in 1887 as a two-year normal and industrial department funded by the state. It was first located at Wilberforce University, a historically black college in southern Ohio that was owned and operated by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1941, its curriculum was expanded to a four-year program emphasizing teacher education. In 1947, it was separated from the university, and in 1951 renamed as Central State College. In 1965, with further development, it achieved university status. Wilberforce University had been founded in 1855 jointly by the Cincinnati Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in collaboration with the AME Church; they had a biracial group of trustees to manage it, including founders Bishop Daniel A. Payne and Salmon Chase, then governor of Ohio. By 1860 the college, based on a classical education, had 200 students, mostly the mixed-race children of wealthy Southern planters. With the advance of the Civil War, most of the southerners were pulled out of the school, and it was forced to close in 1862. The Methodist Church felt it could not support it financially given the demands of the war.