JCSU(Johnson C Smith University)
School colors: Gold and navy blue

Charlotte, North Carolina · Founded 1867 · Golden Bulls · International Institution of Sound Marching Band
Private · Four-year · ~1,100 students
www.jcsu.edu · official site
Founding
Johnson C. Smith University was founded in 1867 as the Freedmen's College of North Carolina. The North Carolina State Board of Education recognized it as a four-year college in 1924, and it was a founding member of the United Negro College Fund in 1944.
Source: Our History, Johnson C. Smith University, read 2026-09-14.
What the school says about itself
- On the record
- Johnson C. Smith University, then Biddle University, helped launch a tradition when its football team faced Livingstone College on a snowy field in the first Black college football game. Source, read 2026-09-17.
On the official record
- Campus address
- 100 Beatties Ford Road, Charlotte, NC 28216-5398
- Control
- Private not-for-profit
- Students
- ~1,100 students
- Directory id
- 198756
- OPE id
- 00293600
- Student aid
- Takes part in Title IV student aid
- Title III Part B list, FY 2026
- Listed
- Location
- 100 Beatties Ford Road, Charlotte, NC. See it on the Ledger map.
Where this location comes from
Campus location from IPEDS 2024-25This campus location comes from the federal IPEDS 2024-25 record, used as published, so the pin on the map is the campus.IPEDS Institutional Characteristics, Directory information (HD2024), 2024-25 collection, file dated 2025-09-21, retrieved 2026-09-14: coordinate 35.243033, -80.857251 as published. The Census Bureau geocoder also matched this address exactly on 2026-09-14.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. IPEDS Institutional Characteristics, Directory information (HD2024), 2024-25 provisional data collection. Unit id 198756. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/data/HD2024.zip. File dated 2025-09-21.
- U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education. Higher Education Programs Eligibility Matrix, sheet 'HBCU', dated 2026-06-08. https://www.ed.gov/media/document/fy-2026-higher-education-programs-eligibility-matrix-june-8-2026-114185.xlsx.
- Our History, Johnson C. Smith University. https://www.jcsu.edu/who-we-are/our-history. Read 2026-09-14.
- Students: 1,102 total, Fall 2023 (1,058 undergraduate, 44 graduate). IPEDS Fall Enrollment 2023, derived variables (DRVEF2023). https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/data/DRVEF2023.zip. File dated 2024-09-30, read 2026-09-17.
- Golden Bulls Explore Football History, Johnson C. Smith University. https://www.jcsu.edu/news/golden-bulls-explore-football-history-pro-football-hall-fame. Read 2026-09-17.
- Home, Johnson C. Smith University. https://www.jcsu.edu/. Read 2026-09-17.
- School colors: Gold and navy blue. Values as stated. Johnson C. Smith University, Wikipedia (revision 1368429218). Read 2026-09-16.
- Photograph: James Willamor, 2011-02-12 05:11:49, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Skyline_view_of_Johnson_C._Smith_University.jpg. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
- U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder, batch address service, benchmark Public_AR_Current. https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/.
Enrollment is the official 2023 count, rounded. Tap a school for its source.
Machine-readable: /api/v1/hbcus/johnson-c-smith-university · All HBCUs
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