Harris-Stowe State University

In 1857, St. Louis Public Schools established a normal school for white students; it was subsequently named Harris Teachers College, after William Torrey Harris, a former St. Louis superintendent of schools and United States Commissioner of Education. In 1920, it was authorized to issue a four-year Bachelor of Arts in Education degree. In 1890, the St. Louis school system established Sumner Normal School to train black teachers. In 1929, its name was changed to Stowe Teachers College, after author Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose Uncle Tom's Cabin had promoted the abolitionist cause in the antebellum United States. The U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education mandated integration of public-school systems. In response to this, Harris and Stowe Colleges were merged into one institution, which retained the "Harris Teachers College" name. At the behest of Stowe alumni and other St. Louisans, the name "Stowe" was added, and the school became Harris-Stowe College. In 1979, the college was added to the state system of public higher education, under the name of Harris-Stowe State College. Its four-year education degree was changed to a Bachelor of Science in Education. It subsequently expanded its programs to offer several new degrees in education, including the B.S. in Urban Education, designed to enable non-teaching urban education personnel to address problems specific to urban schools; and a degree in Business Administration with various professional options. In 2005, the college attained university status, and was renamed Harris–Stowe State University.