Virginia State University (VSU or Virginia State) is a public historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, Virginia. Founded on March 6, 1882 (1882-03-06), Virginia State developed as the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of higher learning for Black Americans. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

Virginia State University was founded on March 6, 1882, when the legislature passed a bill to charter the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. The bill was sponsored by Delegate Alfred W. Harris, a Black attorney whose offices were in Petersburg, but who lived in and represented Dinwiddie County in the General Assembly. A hostile lawsuit delayed opening day for nineteen months, until October 1, 1883. In 1902, the legislature revised the charter act to curtail the collegiate program and to change the name to Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute.

In 1920, the land-grant program for Black students was moved from a private school, Hampton Institute, where it had been since 1872, to Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute. In 1923 the college program was restored, and the name was changed to Virginia State College for Negroes in 1930. The two-year branch in Norfolk was added to the college in 1944; the Norfolk division became a four-year branch in 1956 and gained independence as Norfolk State College in 1969. Meanwhile, the parent school was renamed Virginia State College in 1946. The legislature passed a law in 1979 that changed the name to Virginia State University.

In the first academic year, 1883–1884, the university had 126 students and seven faculty (all of them Black), one building, 33 acres (13 ha), a 200-book library, and a $20,000 budget. By the centennial year of 1982, the university was fully integrated, with a student body of nearly 5,000, a full-time faculty of about 250, a library containing 200,000 books and 360,000 microform and non-print items, a 236-acre (96 ha) campus and 416-acre (168 ha) farm, more than 50 buildings, including 15 dormitories and 16 classroom buildings, and a biennial budget of $31,000,000, exclusive of capital outlay.

The university is situated in Chesterfield County at Ettrick, on a bluff across the Appomattox River from the city of Petersburg. It is accessible via Interstate Highways 95 and 85, which meet in Petersburg.

The first person to bear the title of President, John Mercer Langston, was one of the best-known Black men of his day. Until 1992, he was the only Black man ever elected to the United States Congress from Virginia (elected in 1888), and he was the great-uncle of the famed writer Langston Hughes. From 1888 to 1968, four presidents – James H. Johnston, John M. Gandy, Luther H. Foster, Robert P. Daniel served an average of 20 years, helping the school to overcome adversity and move forward. The next twenty years, 1968–1992, saw six more presidents—James F. Tucker, Wendell P. Russell, Walker H. Quarles, Jr., Thomas M. Law, Wilbert Greenfield, and Wesley Cornelious McClure. On June 1, 1993, Eddie N. Moore, Jr., the former Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Virginia, became the twelfth President of Virginia State University. Dr. Keith T. Miller became Virginia State University's 13th president from 2010 to 2014. In 2015, Dr. Pamela V. Hammond became the first woman to lead Virginia State University in 133 years. She was appointed as interim president on January 1, 2015. On February 1, 2016, President Makola Abdullah, Ph.D., was named as the 14th president of Virginia State University. Dr. Abdullah previously served as provost and senior vice president at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla. President Abdullah is a Chicago native who is the youngest African American to receive a Ph.D. in engineering. He earned his undergraduate degree from Howard University in civil engineering and a Master of Science in civil engineering from Northwestern University.

In 2020, MacKenzie Scott donated $30 million to Virginia State. Her donation is the largest single gift in Virginia State's history.^[3]

The university has a 231-acre (0.93 km²) main campus and a 412-acre (1.67 km²) agricultural research facility known as the Randolph Farm. The main campus includes more than 50 buildings, including 11 dormitories and 18 academic buildings. The main campus is located close to the Appomattox River in Ettrick, Virginia.^[4]

• Branch Hall
• Byrd Hall
• Eggleston Hall
• Gateway 2
• Langston Hall
• Moore Hall
• Quad Hall (buildings I&II)
• Seward Hall
• Whiting Hall
• Williams Hall
• University Apartments (off-campus)^[5]

This is a list of the departments within each college:^[6]

The 2017–2018 student body was 57.4% female and 43% male. It consists of 69.7% in-state and 30.3% out-of-state students.^[7] 97.2% of students live on campus and 2.8% off-campus.^[7] 91.1% of students self-identify as Black/African American, while 4.0% are White, and 4.0% are racially unreported.

Virginia State has 14 Division II athletic teams on campus and is a member of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) conference.

There are over 70 student organizations on campus, including the Student Government Association and National Pan-Hellenic Council.^[8]

• Dovell Act