North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public, historically black, land-grant research university in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. It is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina System.
Founded by the North Carolina General Assembly on March 9, 1891, as the Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race, it was the second college established under the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1890, as well as the first for people of color in the State of North Carolina. Initially, the college offered instruction in agriculture, English, horticulture and mathematics. In 1967, the college was designated a Regional University by the North Carolina General Assembly and renamed North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.
With an enrollment of 15,275 students, North Carolina A&T is the largest historically black college or university (HBCU) in the United States, a position it has held since 2014. The university's College of Engineering graduates more black engineers than any other campus in the United States; its College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences produces more African American agriculture graduates than any campus in the country. North Carolina A&T ranks among America's top 10 universities in graduation of African American students in a total of 24 undergraduate, masters and doctoral disciplines.
The university offers 61 undergraduate, 35 master's, and 15 doctoral degree programs through its eight colleges, one school, and one joint school; the university awards more than 2,900 degrees annually and has an alumni base of around 75,000. The main campus encompasses over in area, as well as a working farm, and two research parks totaling a combined . It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The university ranks third in sponsored funding among University of North Carolina System institutions. As of FY25, university principal investigators had received $350 million for academic and scientific research over the three most recent fiscal years and operated 21 research centers and institutes on campus.
The university's students, alumni, and sports teams are known as "Aggies". The university's varsity athletic teams are members of the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) in all sports with the exception of women's bowling and football.
History
Founding and early years
North Carolina A&T's history can be traced back to 1890 when the United States Congress passed the Second Morrill Act. Aimed mainly at the Confederate states, the Second Morrill Act of 1890 required that each state show that race was not an admissions criterion, or else to designate a separate land-grant institution for persons of color. In order to comply with the Second Morrill Act and yet prevent the admission of African Americans to the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, now known as North Carolina State University, the college's board of trustees were empowered to make temporary arrangements for students of color.
On March 9, 1891, the Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race was established by an Act of the North Carolina General Assembly as an annex of the private Shaw University in Raleigh. The Act read in part: "That the leading objective of the college shall be to teach practical agriculture and the mechanic arts and such learning as related thereto, not excluding academic and classical instruction." The college, which started with four teachers and 37 students, initially offered instruction in agriculture, English, horticulture, and mathematics. The college continued to operate in Raleigh until the board of trustees voted, in 1892, to relocate the college to Greensboro. With monetary and land donations totaling $11,000 and , the new Greensboro campus was established the following year and the college's first president, John Oliver Crosby, was elected on May 25, 1892.
The college granted admission to both men and women of color from 1893, until the board of trustees voted to restrict admission to males only in 1901. This policy would remain until 1928, when female students were once again allowed to be admitted. In 1899, the college conferred its first degrees to seven graduates.
In 1904, the college developed a farm equipped with the latest in farm machinery and labor-saving devices. The farm provided much of the food for the campus cafeteria. In 1915, the North Carolina General Assembly changed the name of the college to Negro Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina.
Expansion and growth
In 1925, Ferdinand D. Bluford was selected as the third president of the college and A&T became a member of the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association (now known as the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association). The next year, the college's national alumni association was established. In 1928, the 27-year ban on female students was lifted as the college once again was granted co-educational status. By December 1931, female students were allowed, for the first time, to participate in the student government as members of the student council. In 1939, the college was authorized to grant the Master of Science degree in education and certain other fields. Two years later, the first Master of Science degree was awarded.
The 1940s and 1950s saw the college expand its land holdings. In 1946, the college acquired of land adjacent to the original campus. In 1953, the School of Nursing was established, with the first class graduating four years later. 1955 saw more changes, as Warmoth T. Gibbs was selected as the fourth president of the college. Two years later, the college experienced another name change to the "Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina". In that same year, the college's first white student, Rodney Jaye Miller, of Greensboro, was admitted. In 1959, the college was fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
Civil Rights Movement On February 1, 1960, four male freshmen helped spark the civil rights movement in the South. Ezell Blair (Jibreel Khazan), Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, and David Richmond "sat in" at an all-white eating establishment (Woolworth's) and demanded equal service at the lunch counter. The actions of the four freshmen gained momentum as other students of the college joined them in their non-violent protest to desegregate Woolworth's lunch counter, which became known as the Greensboro sit-ins. By the end of July 1960, Blair, McNeil, McCain and Richmond were dubbed the A&T Four.
In 1964, John A. Steinhauer, a science teacher, was the first white student to earn a degree from A&T, earning the Master of Science in Education with a concentration in Chemistry. The following year, the college acquired the land of the former Immanuel Lutheran College, a coeducational junior college located adjacent to the college. In 1967, the college was designated a "regional university" by the North Carolina General Assembly. The college was renamed "North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University".
In 1969, student protesters from the university, in addition to students of nearby James B. Dudley High School, were involved in a four-day conflict with the Greensboro Police and the National Guard in which there was one casualty. The conflict, referred to as the 1969 Greensboro uprising, lasting May 21 through May 25, was sparked by perceived civil rights issues at the segregated high school, when a popular student council write-in presidential candidate was denied his landslide victory, allegedly because school officials feared his activism in the Black Power Movement. Starting on the campus of Dudley High School, the uprising spread to A&T's campus, where students had stood up in support of the Dudley protest. Escalating violence eventually led to an armed confrontation and the subsequent invasion of the campus. Described at the time as "the most massive armed assault ever made against an American university," the uprising ended soon after the National Guard raided the 505-room male dormitory, W. Kerr Scott Hall, taking hundreds of students into protective custody.
1970s to present In 1971, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation bringing all 16 public institutions that confer bachelor's degrees into the University of North Carolina system. As a result of the consolidation, N.C. A&T became a constituent institution and Lewis Carnegie Dowdy, the university's sixth president, was reappointed as the university's first chancellor in July of the following year. The 1988 academic year saw N.C. A&T set an enrollment record with 6,200 students. The following year, the university bested that record with a total of 6,500 students.
In 2003, N.C. A&T announced the creation of a Joint Millennial Campus, with neighboring UNC Greensboro, with the intent to focus on regional economic development. The following year, the university was classified as a doctoral/research intensive university by the Carnegie Foundation, in addition to forming a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service. On May 1, 2006, Lloyd V. Hackley was named interim chancellor of the university. Hackley served in the position until his successor, Stanley F. Battle, was installed as the 11th chancellor on April 25, 2008. Under the Battle administration, the university was awarded an $18 million grant from the National Science Foundation for an Engineering Research Center, the first time an HBCU was the lead institution for such a center.
On May 22, 2009, Harold L. Martin, Sr., was elected as the twelfth chancellor of the university. The following year, N.C. A&T received approval to establish a Ph.D. program in Computational Science and Engineering beginning in the fall of 2010. That same year, the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering (JSNN) opened with 17 students in the doctoral program in nanoscience and one student in the professional master's program in nanoscience. According to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, the JSNN became one of fewer than 10 schools nationally to offer degree programs in nanotechnology, and is the only program created and operated collaboratively by two universities. In 2011, North Carolina A&T received approval from the University of North Carolina Board of Governors for its Master of Science in Nanoengineering program, offered through the JSNN. In addition to the M.S. degree the university was approved to offer a doctoral program in Nanoengineering.
In 2011, Martin began implementation of "A&T Preeminence 2020," a groundbreaking strategic plan that set ambitious goals for the university in enrollment, research funding, diversity, academic quality and more. As the plan took root, N.C. A&T began a remarkable evolution that saw it become the nation's largest HBCU in 2014, a position it has held ever since. In 2018, it became America's top-ranked public HBCU by U.S. News & World Report, and in 2019, it moved into the numerical rankings of national research universities for the first time in A&T's history. Martin oversaw creation of a new strategic plan in 2018, "A&T Preeminence: Taking the Momentum to 2023." This plan established a new set of growth goals relative to A&T's mission as a doctoral research university, including expansion of A&T's research programs and increasing the size of the student body to 14,000.
In 2020, MacKenzie Scott donated $45 million to North Carolina A&T which is the second largest single gift in the university's history. In 2025, she donated an additional $63 million which is the largest single gift in the university's history.