Mississippi College (MC) is a
private university
Private universities and private colleges are higher education institutions not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. However, they often receive tax breaks, public student loans, and government grants. Depending on the count ...
affiliated with the
Mississippi Baptist Convention and located in
Clinton, Mississippi
Clinton is a List of cities in Mississippi, city in Hinds County, Mississippi, United States. Situated in the Jackson, Mississippi metropolitan area, Jackson metropolitan area, it is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, 10th most populous c ...
, United States. Founded in 1826, MC is the second oldest
Baptist
Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
-affiliated college or university in the United States and the oldest college or university in
Mississippi
Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
.
History
Founding

On January 24, 1826, the college received its first charter, signed by Mississippi Governor
David Holmes. In 1827, the name was changed from Hampstead Academy to Mississippi Academy at the request of the
board of trustees
A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency.
The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...
.
On December 18, 1830, having become a
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...
, the name was changed to Mississippi College. It offered degrees in arts, sciences, and languages.
In 1831, Mississippi College became the first coeducational college in the United States to award a degree to a female student. That year it granted degrees to two women, Alice Robinson and Catherine Hall.
In the beginning, Mississippi College was not church-related. For a number of years, it was affiliated with the
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
and
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
churches. Since 1850, Mississippi College has been affiliated with the
Mississippi Baptist Convention, and the board of trustees oversees the institution.
Civil War and reconstruction
Classes were not held during the
Civil War
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
, and the buildings deteriorated. Many students joined with faculty, a school trustee and townspeople to form the Mississippi College Rifles, a company of the
18th Mississippi Infantry Regiment during the war years or signed up with other units.
In the half-century after the war, the college enrollment and campus slowly recovered. The college president Walter Hillman helped refurbish the buildings by securing Northern financing prior to being offered the college presidency. The endowment fund was renewed, and the physical structures were renovated.
From 1911 through 1932, the construction of Provine Science Building, Lowrey Hall, Alumni Hall and Farr-Hall Hospital was completed. The college endowment grew to $500,000 and in 1922, the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is a regional educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. As of 2022, the organization oversees ap ...
approved accreditation for the college. Enrollment reached 400 students.
World War II and later 20th century
In 1942, Mississippi College acquired
Hillman College. A new Nelson Hall administration building was erected in 1948, and new residence halls were built.

In 1943, MC was among 131 colleges and universities nationwide taking part in the
V-12 Navy College Training Program
The V-12 Navy College Training Program was designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers in the United States Navy during World War II. Between July 1, 1943, and June 30, 1946, more than 125,000 participants were enrolled in 131 colleg ...
, which offered students a path to a Navy commission. During the V-12 period, the Navy had exclusive use of Chrestman, Alumni Hall, and the cafeteria. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, enrollment was between 550 and 600 students. After the war ended and veterans returned, enrollment increased. About 1,000 students were enrolled in 1950, and 1,581 students by fall 1956.
Mississippi College was one of the last private colleges in the country to drop its segregation policy, and did not do so until the 1969–70 school year.
From 1957 through 1968, the college built the B.C. Rogers Student Center, Hederman Science Building, Self Hall, and a pair of residence halls. Provine Chapel was restored. The School of Nursing began in 1969. MC purchased the former Jackson School of Law in 1975, leading to the
Mississippi College School of Law. In 1975, the division of business became the School of Business. In 1977, the division of education became the School of Education. In 1982, the 12 remaining departments were grouped into the College of Arts and Sciences.
In May 1992, MC absorbed Clarke College after the smaller school was forced to close due to declining enrollments. Throughout the 1990s, the college renovated and expanded; work was carried out on the library, electronic media center, Cockroft Hall (for the School of Nursing), A.E. Wood Coliseum, the Law School building in downtown Jackson, the New Men's Residence Hall, the New Women's Residence Hall, Jennings Hall, and Latimer House (a Victorian house later used for alumni receptions).
21st century
From 2002 to 2015, the college's enrollment grew from 3,227 to 5,152. The number includes a record of 618 freshmen.
The number of international students rose from nine to a record 505 students from more than two dozen nations in fall 2015.
The college added a
physician assistant
A physician assistant or physician associate (PA) is a type of non-physician practitioner. While these job titles are used internationally, there is significant variation in training and scope of practice from country to country, and sometimes be ...
program in 2011. MC was the first institution in Mississippi to offer such a degree. MC now offers doctorates in educational leadership and professional counseling.
Mississippi College was granted an exception to
Title IX
Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receiv ...
in 2015, which allows it to legally discriminate against LGBT students for religious reasons.
As part of a restructuring process for the school's bicentennial in 2026, the school's name will be changed to Mississippi Christian University starting that academic year.
Presidents
Mississippi College has had 23 presidents/principals, including three interim presidents. The first three presidents were known as "principals", before changing the official title to "president".
* F. G. Hopkins (1826 to 1828)
* Daniel Comfort (1828 to 1834)
* N. Shepherd (1835 to 1836)
* E. N. Elliott (1836 to 1837)
* Daniel Comfort (1837 to 1841)
* Alexander Campbell (Jan. to April 1842)
* Alexander Campbell (1842 to 1844)
* ''Interim'' Robert McLain (1844 to 1845)
* Daniel Comfort (1845 to 1846)
*
Simeon Colton (1846 to 1848)
* Consider Parish (1848 to 1850)
*
Isaac Newton Urner (1850 to 1867)
* Walter Hillman (1867 to 1873)
* Warren Sheldon Webb (1873 to 1890)
* James M. Moore (1890 to 1891)
* Robert Abram Venable (1891 to 1895)
*
John William Provine (1895 to 1897)
* John William Provine (1897 to 1898)
* William Tyndale Lowrey (1898 to 1911)
*
John William Provine (1911 to 1932)
*
Dotson McGinnis Nelson (1932 to 1957)
* Richard Aubrey McLemore (1957 to 1968)
*
Lewis Nobles (1968 to 1993)
* ''Interim'' Rory Lee (1993 to 1994)
* Howell W. Todd (1994 to 2001)
* ''Interim'' Lloyd Roberts (2001 to 2002)
* Lee G. Royce (2002 to 2018)
* Blake Thompson (2018 to present)
Campus
Mississippi College's main campus in Clinton is more than 80 acres. The
Mississippi College School of Law is located in downtown Jackson.
Notable buildings at Mississippi College include its historic Provine Chapel, the oldest building on the Clinton campus, which opened in 1860. During the Civil War, U.S. General
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...
used it as a hospital for his wounded troops and reports say it was also used as a stable for his horses.
Opened in 1926, Alumni Hall houses a gymnasium and a pool. Built in 1948, Nelson Hall serves as the university's administration building and contains Swor Auditorium, the venue for musical performances. Aven Hall houses the recitals at the Jean Pittman Williams Recital Hall and some theatre performances in the Aven Little Theater. The Samuel Marshall Gore Galleries hosts fine art exhibitions.
The A.E. Wood Coliseum is used for MC Choctaws basketball games and is the site for university graduations. Self-Hall houses the MC School of Business and Lowrey Hall, the former MC library, and the School of Education. The Leland Speed Library houses its Learning Resources Center which includes studios for the Department of Communication. The 20,000-square-foot Royce Medical Science Center, named in honor of President Emeritus Lee G. Royce, opened in January 2013.
The 106,000-square-foot Baptist Healthplex contains a gym and medical offices. The Healthplex is also the home of MC's Physician Assistant Program. Cockroft Hall houses the nursing and kinesiology departments. The 8,500-seat
Robinson-Hale Stadium is the home field for MC Choctaws football games and track meets on the Clinton campus.
University Place residence halls opened in August 2015 to accommodate 189 students. Cost of the eight modern brick units was $16 million. The facilities were the first new residence hall construction in nearly 20 years on the Clinton campus.
The Rhoda Royce Prayer Garden is named in the honor of the wife of retired President Lee Royce. It contains fountains and rocks with scriptures from the Bible. The MC Dyslexia Center was expanded in January 2019 to include additional rooms to evaluate children with the learning disability, and other offices.
Academics
The School of Business is
AACSB
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is an American professional and accreditation organization. It was founded as the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business in 1916 to provide accreditation to business ...
-accredited and located in Self Hall. The school offers 6 undergraduate business majors and the MBA. With an enrollment of 850 students, business is the single largest undergraduate major on campus.
The School of Education includes the Department of Kinesiology, the Department of Psychology and Counseling, the Department of Teacher Education and Leadership, and the Dyslexia Center. The School of Christian Studies and the Arts includes the Department of Art, the Department of Christian Studies and Philosophy, the Department of Communication, and the Department of Music.
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences spans the Department of English, the Department of Modern Languages, the Department of History and Political Science, and the Department of Sociology and Social Work; The School of Science and Mathematics includes the Department of Biological Science, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Department of Computer Science and Physics, the Department of Mathematics, and the Department of Physician Assistant Studies. The School of Nursing is based at Cockcroft Hall on the Clinton campus. The MC School of Law serves more than 400 students on East Griffith Street in downtown Jackson. Overall, Mississippi College consists of more than 80 academic programs.
The Physician Assistant Program enrolls 94 students. The doctorate in professional counseling, the first of its type in the United States, enrolls 120 students.
The MC student/faculty ratio is 14:1.
The average
ACT score for incoming freshmen is 24.
The institution is ranked among the "Absolute Worst Campuses for
LGBTQ
LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...
Youth" in the US by
Campus Pride
Campus Pride is an American national nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded by M. Chad Wilson, Sarah E. Holmes and Shane L. Windmeyer in 2001 which serves lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and ally student leaders and/or campus o ...
.
Athletics
Mississippi College competes in
NCAA Division II
NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...
as a member of the
Gulf South Conference
The Gulf South Conference (GSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the Southeastern United States.
History
Originally known as the ...
as of 2014.
The college sponsors teams in
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
,
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
(men's and women's),
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
,
softball
Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...
,
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
(men's and women's),
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
(men's and women's),
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
(men's and women's),
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
,
track and field
Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...
(men's indoor and outdoor, and women's indoor and outdoor),
cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...
(men's and women's),
equestrian (women's), and
table tennis
Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...
(men's and women's).
The MC men's baseball team won the 2018 Gulf South Conference championship.
In 2015, the women's soccer team advanced to the championship game of the National Christian College Athletic Association, losing in penalty kicks after playing to a draw with
Houghton College. In Fall 2018, the women's soccer team finished the season ranked 14th in the nation. The team competed in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division II post-season tournament.
From 2012 through 2014, MC's table tennis team ended the season ranked second of the 250 participating universities. In 2015, the table tennis team won the national championship at the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association games in Wisconsin. The MC table tennis team finished the 2017–18 season ranked third in the nation at the championship games in Round Rock, Texas in April 2018.
MC became the first college in the state to field an archery team in Fall 2014. The university's bass fishing and sporting clays squads takes part in regional and national competitions. An archery team member won a gold medal as the best collegiate male bow hunter at the Spring 2017 U.S. Collegiate Archery Championship in South Dakota. The men's compound team and the bowhunter women's squad won first place at the National 3D Championships in Foley, Alabama in 2018.
The MC women's softball team was the 2017 Gulf South Conference champion.
The university's equestrian team began in 2008.
Notable alumni
*
Jake Allen, former
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...
,
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...
,
Calgary Stampeders
The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division (CFL), West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium a ...
,
Georgia Force football star
*
Lance Barksdale, Major League Baseball umpire
*
Ross Barnett, 53rd Governor of Mississippi
*
Phil Bryant, Governor of Mississippi
*
Alston Callahan, ophthalmologist
*
Michael Catt, Christian movie producer and pastor
*
Ted DiBiase, Jr., retired professional wrestler, most known with the
WWE
*
James R. Dow, distinguished folklore scholar, Professor Emeritus at
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...
*
Bernard Ebbers
Bernard John Ebbers (August 27, 1941 – February 2, 2020) was a Canadian-American businessman and the co-founder and CEO of WorldCom. Under his management, WorldCom grew rapidly but collapsed in 2002 amid revelations of accounting irregulariti ...
, co-founder and former CEO of
WorldCom
MCI, Inc. (formerly WorldCom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second-largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. WorldCom grew largely by acquiring other telecommunicatio ...
*
Larry Evans, former
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...
and
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...
football star
*
Major Everett, former
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...
,
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...
,
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...
football star
*
W.C. Friley, president of
Hardin–Simmons University from 1892 to 1894 and
Louisiana College from 1909 to 1910
*
J. Andrew Gipson, Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture;
Former
Mississippi House of Representatives
The Mississippi House of Representatives is the lower house of the Mississippi Legislature, the lawmaking body of the U.S. state of Mississippi. According to the state constitution of 1890, it is to comprise no more than 122 members elected for ...
member and attorney
*
Edgar Godbold, president of
Howard Payne University from 1923 to 1929 and Louisiana College from 1942 to 1951
*
Mary Lou Godbold, Mississippi state senator
*
Alice Haining, actress
*
Barry Hannah, author
*
Gregg Harper, U.S. Congressman from Mississippi
*
Fred McAfee, former
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...
football star, later the team's director of player personnel
*
Leon C. Megginson, business professor noted for his clarifying statements about
Darwinism
''Darwinism'' is a term used to describe a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others. The theory states that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural sel ...
*
Larry Myricks, U.S. Olympic track and field medalist
*
Horace Newcomb, Lambdin Kay Chair at the
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
*
George Coleman Osborn (1904–1982), American historian and author; class of 1927
*
Joseph Turner Patterson (D) - Former Attorney General of Mississippi
*
Dayn Perry, Baseball writer, author and poet
*
Anita Raj, developmental psychologist, academic, and global public health researcher
*
Anita Renfroe, Christian humorist
*
Harold Ritchie, member of the
Louisiana House of Representatives
The Louisiana House of Representatives (; ) is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. This chamber is composed of 105 representatives, each of whom represents approximately 4 ...
, 2004–2016, term-limited
*
Carroll Waller, First Lady of Mississippi (1972–1976) and historic preservationist
*
Michael Williams, former NFL player
*
Lee Yancey, Mississippi senator
See also
*
The Cedars, historic home in Clinton owned by various university faculty for over a decade.
References
Further reading
* Charles E. Martin, ''Mississippi College with Pride: A History of Mississippi College, 1826–2004.'' Clinton, Mississippi: Mississippi College, 2007.
* Richard Aubrey McLemore and Nannie Pitts McLemore, ''The History of Mississippi College.'' Jackson, Mississippi: Hederman Brothers, 1979.
* A.V. Rowe, ''History of Mississippi College : an address delivered before the Alumni Society at Clinton, Hinds County, June 28, 1881.'' Jackson, Mississippi: Charles Winkley, 1881.
* William Herrington Weathersby, "A History of Mississippi College", ''Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society'', Centenary Series. vol. 5, pp. 184–220.
External links
*
*
{{authority control
Educational institutions established in 1826
Universities and colleges in the Jackson metropolitan area, Mississippi
Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Universities and colleges affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention
Private universities and colleges in Mississippi
Education in Hinds County, Mississippi
1826 establishments in Mississippi
Council for Christian Colleges and Universities