Bobby Scott: “Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 182 is a resolution commending and congratulating Virginia State University on the occasion of its…”

“Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 182 is a resolution commending and congratulating Virginia State University on the occasion of its 125th anniversary. H. Res. 182 was introduced by my colleague from Virginia from the Fourth Congressional District of Virginia, Mr. Forbes. Virginia State University was founded on March 6, 1882, as the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, making it the first fully State-supported 4-year institution of higher learning for African Americans. Today, it is one of Virginia's two land-grant institutions. The first president of Virginia State University was John Mercer Langston who upon his election to Congress in 1890 was the first African American elected to Congress and, until my election in 1992, had been the only African American elected from Virginia. In 1935, Virginia State University founded a 2-year satellite school at Norfolk, Virginia. That school today is known as Norfolk State University. Today, Virginia State has an enrollment of nearly 5,000 students who live and learn on a 236-acre main campus overlooking the Appomattox River in Chesterfield County, Virginia.”