race admission policy. Thirteen years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), ruling that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and three years after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the state and administration ended racial segregation at DSU. Shirley Antoinette Washington was the first African-American student to enroll at DSU that year.
Beginning in the 1980s, the university developed an aviation program, which continues.
In 2005, Delta State assisted evacuees from Hurricane Katrina by opening Hugh White Hall as temporary housing.
=== Presidents ===
James Wesley Broom – 1925–1926
William Marion Kethley – 1926–1956
James Milton Ewing – 1956–1971
Aubrey K. Lucas – 1971–1975
Kent Wyatt – 1975–1999
David Potter – 1999–2002
John Thornell – 2002–2003 (interim)
John Hilpert – 2003–2013
William N. LaForge – 2013–2022
E. E. Caston – 2022–2023 (interim)
Daniel J. Ennis – 2023–present
== Campus ==
Delta State University is located on 332 acres (1.34 …
