WATCH: VSU Legacy
Strolling the manicured campus of Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia, set on rolling hills atop the Appomattox River with classical architectural styles evocative of a century past, you’d never know, or guess, or even imagine what happened on these very grounds 160 years ago.
VSU was founded in 1882 as the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. It’s one of the nation’s oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and was the first to offer a four-year degree. It’s a land-grant university, established, fittingly, by Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Morrill Act in 1862. Funds were set aside for schools with a practical focus on agriculture and science and engineering. It was the first time in history a college education wasn’t just for the “haves” – these were schools where people learned to overcome adversity and unequal beginnings.
VSU has grown over the years, of course. But it’s never strayed far from its original mission. Other fields of study have been added, and the focus of some of the other programs has evolved to match modern needs.
Like agriculture.
I came to Virginia State in fall 2024 to film several episodes of my YouTube and TV series Where The Food Comes From, with—as you might expect from a show with a name like that— an eye on how the ag program has changed in the last 140 years.
Modern fields of ag studies—and the focus of some of our episodes—include areas like Urban Agriculture, Hydroponics and Aquaponics, and Food As Medicine. Though small family farms have always been the backbone of conventional agriculture, in terms of production, they’ve now taken a far backseat to larger operations. Those big farms are still family-owned, but they’re mammoth.
WATCH: Urban Farmer Tyrone Cherry PLUGs In At Virginia State U In Petersburg
And in today’s economy, finding the resources to acquire hundreds or thousands of acres of arable land, plus infrastructure, equipment and a labor force, is out of the reach of almost everyone. Ain’t got no land, can’t get no land. Without the generational transfer of land ownership, it simply doesn’t happen. And most people and cultures were excluded from that game when the original lines were drawn.
So you do what resourceful people have always done: Diversify. Pivot. Do it different. Instead of focusing on teaching agriculture at the macro scale, look at the micro. Farming that can do more with less. On our show, we’ve seen inner city farms where they’re producing 45 acres worth of, say, greens and herbs, on a one-third-acre plot of asphalt. That’s the kind of innovation that’s taking place here.
As you roam the campus, talking to students and faculty, you can’t help but notice the air of excitement that pervades. We’ve filmed at a lot of colleges and universities, and I always appreciate the enthusiasm of youth, but there’s a vibrance here that’s different. It all feels so fresh. And it’s clear everyone on campus is aware of the opportunities ahead of them.
Which makes it all the more staggering to realize: the first class of students at VSU represented the first generation of Black Americans to be born free. Their parents could not have even dreamed of such.
WATCH: Nation’s First College Curriculum On HBCU Legacy Is Live At VA State U
It’s clear the students and staff are keenly aware of that. And if they’re not when they arrive, they certainly are when they leave. That’s due in no small part to programs like Dr. Cheryl Mango’s first-of-its-kind course on the history, impact, and legacy of America’s HBCUs.
“The HBCU is a world marvel. The reason why I say that and why you hear the term ‘HBCUs’ is we are the only entity in the world exclusively created to train the formerly enslaved population of a society and turn them into a thriving professional class,” Dr. Mango says. “For 250 years, people like myself were not allowed to read and write, so my ability to dialog with you would have been completely different. These institutions (gave) us the ability to learn how to articulate ourselves and how to put our ideas forward. This is something unmatched in history; a set of institutions that have that particular mandate and charge.”
The capacity was there, the ability was there. The opportunity was not there.
WATCH: VSU Alum Tyrone Cherry’s Urban Farm Is A Place To Grow And Learn
And that’s evident everywhere you turn on the VSU campus. The murals of celebrated alumni. That vibrancy. That freshness. This is where the door to opportunity opened.
“Right after the Civil War, HBCUs became a unifying force: What were you going to do with an illiterate population of four million? These institutions had a commitment to living up to the highest ideals of our nation, to making us live up to our greatest potential—without force. They believed in us. They never excluded anyone,” Dr. Mango says. “It’s one of the few areas where we can talk about a place where we always treated people as people. We never discriminated. And one of the reasons we are still relevant is we continue to do what we do and we do it well: We continue to put forth the best and brightest of that formerly enslaved population. We continue the transformation process of moving people from a place where they couldn’t read and write to now; you can look at me and say: ‘Dr. Mango.’”
One other dramatic note about VSU: This is literally where institutionalized slavery ended in America. The Emancipation Proclamation didn’t do that—the states it impacted weren’t exactly paying attention to U.S. law. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse didn’t do that —that was simple ceremony, a historical exclamation mark.
Slavery ended during the brutal 10-month Siege of Petersburg of 1864-1865, much of which happened on this very soil. At the same time, Sherman was leading his March to The Sea through Georgia. When both concluded, there was nothing left of the old Confederacy. Less than a week later, Lee surrendered his sword.
What’s risen from the carnage on the hills above the Appomattox in the century and a half since is nothing less than a shining example of what the world can be. What it should be. What it might still be.
And that’s what VSU and America’s HBCUs best represent: Hope.
Chip Carter is the producer and host of the network and YouTube show Where The Food Comes From. The son of a farmtown minister who was born in Newnan, GA, Chip grew up working farm jobs until he took off for a Big City media career. He was an internationally syndicated columnist with The Chicago Tribune and a columnist for The Washington Post and Huffington Post, where he first got the chance to produce video. Among many others, he’s written for The New York Times, Yahoo, Newsweek, Marvel, the NFL, Parents Magazine, Atlanta Magazine, Southern Magazine and every major American newspaper except The Wall Street Journal. He has been around long enough to remember what a typewriter was.
