ABOUT RUST COLLEGE
RUST COLLEGE is a historically Black, coeducational, senior liberal arts college founded in 1866 by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  The College is related to the United Methodist Church, and dedicated to serving students with a variety of academic preparations, through instruction in the humanities, social behavior sciences, natural science, business, technology and education.  

Rust College recognizes the three-fold function of education as being teaching, research, and community service. Its primary mission, however, is teaching. It offers a well-rounded program designed to acquaint students with cultural, moral, and spiritual values, both in theory and in practice.  Rust College provides an opportunity for education to all, regardless of race, religion, sex, national origin, or ethnic background.   Rust College maintains an academic environment that fosters a love of learning, a spirit of independent inquiry, the free exchange of ideas, a broad and active Christian life, and a concern for the world at large.

Rust College's mission is to grant access to higher education for individuals who are, or have potential to be, academically talented, regardless of their social, economic, or educational background.  This mission includes the holistic development of students, with the goal of helping students reach their full potential as human beings by becoming contributing members of society, prepared for life in a pluralistic, complex and technological society, and enabled to understand other cultures. 

Rust College is an accredited four year, co-educational, liberal arts college.  It is the oldest of the eleven Historically Black Colleges and Universities related to the United Methodist Church, the second oldest private college in Mississippi, the oldest historically Black College in the State, and one of the remaining five historically Black Colleges in America founded before 1867. 

In the early history of Rust College, its first president, the Reverend A.C. McDonald, stated the purpose of Rust College as follows.  It is our aim to not do hot-house work, seeking to hurry students through a college curriculum, as do many mushroom schools in the South, sending them into the battle of life only to disgrace themselves and bring reproach upon the cause of education at large, but take the by far more difficult and tedious plan of trying to lay well a foundation for a broad, thorough, and practical education, such as shall fit our pupils for long lives of usefulness to themselves, their race and the church. 

President McDonald gave the criterion for testing this purpose:  "By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them," which is the motto of Rust College, and a good criterion for its purpose.  While the elements of the purpose as originally stated by President McDonald remain in essence, the scope and expression of the purpose have expanded and must be expressed in terms of complexities and demands of education in a more complex and sophisticated society.       

 

RUST COLLEGE was established in 1866 by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal church. The founders were missionaries from the North who opened a school in Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, where Moses Adams, a local Negro preacher was pastor. The school accepted adults of all ages, as well as children, for instruction in elementary subjects. A year later the first building on the present campus was erected.

In 1870, the school was chartered as Shaw University, honoring the Reverend S.O. Shaw, who made a gift of $10,000 to the new institution. In 1882, the name was changed to Rust University. The name is a tribute to Richard S. Rust of Cincinnati, Ohio, Secretary of the Freedman's Aid Society. In 1915, the title was changed to a more realistic name, Rust College.

As students progressed, high school and college courses were added to the curriculum, and in 1878 two students were graduated from the college department. As public schools for Negroes became more widespread the need for private schools decreased, and in 1930 the grade school was discontinued.  The high school continued to function until 1953.

A significant change in the administration of the institution took place in 1920 when Dr. M.S. Davage became president, the first Negro to hold that position. Dr. L. M. McCoy, his successor, was the first alumnus to serve his Alma Mater as president. He was followed in 1957 by Dr. Earnest A. Smith, an alumnus, class of 1937. In 1967, Dr. William A. McMillan, a non-alumnus assumed the presidency. In 1993, Dr. David L. Beckley, an alumnus, class of 1967, became the eleventh president of Rust College.

Among approximately 20,000 former students of Rust College, many completed only their elementary or secondary education. However, more than 5,500 have graduated from the college department. Among these alumni are bishops of the United Methodist Church and other Church denominations, public school teachers and administrators, college presidents, lawyers, physicians, businessmen, government leaders and ministers.