The Rise · HBCU

Philander Smith University

Little Rock, Arkansas · Private · Four-year · Founded 1877

Founding

Philander Smith University was founded in 1877 as the first attempt west of the Mississippi River to make education available to freedmen. It was chartered as a four-year college on March 3, 1883.

Source: History Through the Years, Philander Smith University, read 2026-09-14.

As the Department of Education lists it

Campus address: 900 W. Daisy Bates Drive, Little Rock, AR 72202-3799
Control: Private not-for-profit
IPEDS unit id: 107600
OPE id: 00110300
Federal student aid: Participates in Title IV federal student aid
Title III Part B list, FY 2026: Listed
On the map: Not placed on the map: the Census Bureau returned a near match, not an exact one (Census proposed: 900 W DAISY L GATSON BATES DR, LITTLE ROCK, AR, 72202). Held on 2026-09-14 until a person resolves the address; no other geocoder was consulted.

No enrollment figure is published on this page. The Ledger prints one only with a dated NCES citation, and none is attached to this record.

Sources

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. IPEDS Institutional Characteristics, Directory information (HD2024), 2024-25 provisional data collection. Unit id 107600. 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.
History Through the Years, Philander Smith University. https://www.philander.edu/about/history/. Read 2026-09-14.
U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder, batch address service, benchmark Public_AR_Current. https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/.

Machine-readable: /api/v1/hbcus/philander-smith-university · All HBCUs

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