Delta State University

The school was established in 1924 by the State of Mississippi, using the facilities of the former Bolivar County Agricultural High School, which consisted of three buildings in Cleveland. On February 19, 1924, Senators William B. Roberts and Arthur Marshall cosponsored Senate Bill No. 263, which established Delta State Teachers College , which Mississippi Governor Henry L. Whitfield signed on April 9, 1924; [ 6 ] the bill had been sponsored in the Mississippi House of Representatives by Nellie Nugent Somerville , the first woman to serve in the Mississippi state legislature. [ 7 ] The three buildings were Hill Hall, an administration and classroom building, Hardee Hall, a men's dormitory, and Taylor Hall, a women's dormitory. On February 14, 1924, James Wesley Broom was appointed president of the college, and the college opened its doors on September 15, 1925. In May 1926, Broom died following complications from an ear infection. William Zeigel was named his successor. The seal of the college was designed in 1928 as a project of an art class. [ 8 ] World War II greatly affected the college. Anticipating the war in 1941, the college created a civilian pilot training program. When the war began, 254 Delta State students joined the armed forces. When the war ended, student enrollment at Delta State increased from 185 to 483, aided by the federal program for veterans known as the GI Bill to encourage education. [ 9 ] During the 1947 session of the Delta Council, Dean Acheson (Under-Secretary of State in Truman's administration) delivered a speech on campus that unveiled the Marshall Plan . He detailed plans for postwar relief and investment in Europe to help the nations recover from destruction. [ 9 ] In 1955, the name Delta State Teachers College was changed to Delta State College . Delta State earned full accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1963. It developed graduate programs, which it opened for admission in 1965.

Given graduate program and research development, in 1974 the state legislature authorized the college to be named as the current Delta State University. [ 10 ] In 1965, Delta State initiated a graduate program (Master of Education in Elementary Education, Elementary Supervision, Guidance, English, History, Math, Music, Social Studies, Business Education, Physical Education, and Science). [ 11 ] From 1925 to 1967 the university had a whites-only 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. [ 11 ] 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

Bologna Performing Arts Center Delta State University is located on 332 acres (1.34 km 2 ) at 1003 W Sunflower Rd (Highway 8 West), in the northwest area of Cleveland, MS, 38733. [ 12 ] About 30 percent of students reside in on-campus housing. [ 13 ] Delta State provides both men's dormitories and women's dormitories, as well as apartments for married students. [ 14 ] Most of the 64 buildings on campus use a particular brick pattern of yellow, orange, and white bricks. Particularly famous facilities at Delta State University are the large natatorium for holding swimming competitions, the Bologna Performing Arts Center (pictured left) with two theaters (one that seats 1,178, and another that seats 135), and the sound recording studios of the Delta Music Institute.

Delta State has two mascots, the Statesman (official) and the Fighting Okra (unofficial). Since its inception, Delta State's sports teams have officially been known as the Statesmen because of the role State Rep. Walter Sillers Jr. played in the location of the school in Cleveland. Sillers was Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives for 20 years. The teams with female athletes are called the Lady Statesmen. However, since the late 1980s, the student body embraced the Fighting Okra, a mascot that depicts a piece of okra wearing boxing gloves and brandishing a fierce expression. [ 15 ] [ 16 ] In 2006, the mascot was a character in the 2006 episode of Good Eats titled "Okraphobia". [ 17 ] The Fighting Okra was featured on an ESPN commercial during the 2023 College National Championship Game.