Norfolk State University

Overview

Norfolk State University is a public historically Black university in Norfolk, Virginia, founded September 18, 1935, as the Norfolk Unit of Virginia Union University, with 85 students in its first classes. Samuel Fischer Scott, a Virginia Union alumnus, served as its first director; Dr. Lyman Beecher Brooks, also a Virginia Union alumnus, succeeded him in 1938 and later became the school’s first president, from 1969 to 1975. The school became independent of Virginia Union in 1942 as Norfolk Polytechnic College, then within two years became part of Virginia State College (now Virginia State University) by act of the Virginia Legislature. By 1950 its faculty had grown to fifty and enrollment to 1,018; the City of Norfolk provided a permanent campus site on Corprew Avenue, where Brown Hall opened in 1955 as the first permanent building, and the school granted its first bachelor’s degrees in 1956. In 1969 it separated from Virginia State College as the independent Norfolk State College.