Skip to content
The Ledger
The Rise · HBCU

Tennessee State University

School colors: Blue and white

WTN PeepHoles 052, Tennessee State University
Not stated on Wikimedia Commons, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Nashville, Tennessee · Founded 1912

Public · Four-year · ~8,200 students

www.tnstate.edu · official site

Founding

Tennessee State University was founded in 1912, after the Tennessee General Assembly created three normal schools in 1909, including the Agricultural and Industrial Normal School that became TSU. Its first 247 students began on June 19, 1912, with William Jasper Hale as head of the school.

Source: History, Tennessee State University, read 2026-09-14.

What the school says about itself

Motto
Think. Work. Serve.Source, read 2026-09-17.

On the official record

Campus address
3500 John A. Merritt Blvd, Nashville, TN 37209-1561
Control
Public
Students
~8,200 students
Directory id
221838
OPE id
00352200
Student aid
Takes part in Title IV student aid
Title III Part B list, FY 2026
Listed
Location
3500 John A. Merritt Blvd, Nashville, TN. See it on the Ledger map.
Where this location comes fromCampus 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 36.166321, -86.828275 as published. The Census Bureau geocoder also matched this address exactly on 2026-09-14.

Across newBWS

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. IPEDS Institutional Characteristics, Directory information (HD2024), 2024-25 provisional data collection. Unit id 221838. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/data/HD2024.zip. File dated 2025-09-21.
  2. 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.
  3. History, Tennessee State University. https://www.tnstate.edu/about_tsu/history.aspx. Read 2026-09-14.
  4. Home, Tennessee State University. https://www.tnstate.edu/. Read 2026-09-17.
  5. Students: 8,198 total, Fall 2023 (6,765 undergraduate, 1,433 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.
  6. School colors: Blue and white. Values as stated. Tennessee State University, Wikipedia (revision 1373440992). Read 2026-09-16.
  7. Photograph: Not stated on Wikimedia Commons, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WTN_PeepHoles_052.JPG. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  8. 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/tennessee-state-university · All HBCUs

These campuses have gathered generations. TheCookout is where the newBWS community gathers now. Pull up a plate.