and 15 students.
Founded as a school for teaching modern agricultural production techniques and homemaking skills to rural school children, First District A&M within two decades shifted its emphasis to meet the growing need for teachers within the state. Its name and mission were changed in 1924 to Georgia Normal School, as a training ground for teachers. Five years later in 1929, after development of a four-year curriculum, it was granted full-fledged senior college status by the state, and the school was renamed as South Georgia Teachers College.
Ensuing decades found more name and mission changes: to Georgia Teachers College in 1939 and Georgia Southern College in 1959.
The university finally integrated its student body in 1965, eleven years after the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). College President Marvin Pittman had been fired in 1941 by Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge for supporting racial integration; he was eventually rehired.
Georgia Southern has continued …
