Land Grant University

The Morrill Act of 1862 gave each state scrip for 30,000 acres per member of Congress, to be sold to fund colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts. States in rebellion were excluded, which is why Tennessee's claim waited until after the war. The land behind the scrip was taken from Native nations: a 2020 High Country News investigation counted 162 cessions, many coerced or violent, covering about 10.7 million acres from 245 tribes. The Second Morrill Act of 1890 told southern states to admit Black students or designate separate institutions, and they chose separate ones.

What the plaque says

Land Grant University In 1867, by resolution of the U.S. Congress, Tennessee became eligible to designate an institution to teach areas of learning related to agriculture and the mechanic arts and to receive the proceeds from the sale of federal land as prescribed by the Morrill Act of 1862. On January 16, 1869, East Tennessee University, renamed the University of Tennessee in 1879, received Land Grant University status. The institution accepted its designation January 19, 1869.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blount Mansion — 0.7 mi
  The 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.
• Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 1.9 mi
  Knoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
• Green McAdoo Cultural Center — 16 mi
  The 1935 school in Clinton that sent twelve Black students down Foley Hill to desegregate Clinton High School in August 1956, now a museum with bronze statues of the Clinton 12.
• Museum of Appalachia — 17 mi
  John Rice Irwin's 65-acre collection of moved log cabins and mountain objects north of Knoxville, opened in 1969, with a cabin believed to be Mark Twain's father's.

More markers nearby

• Desegregation of the University of Tennessee — steps away
• University of Tennessee — steps away
• Fort Byington — steps away
• James Rufus Agee — steps away