AgKnowledge | 2023 6

In 1886, the institution that would become Kentucky State University was chartered as the State Normal School for Colored Persons. Four years later, it became a land grant institution thanks to the Second Morrill Act of 1890.

The land grant system was founded with the Morrill Act of 1862, which provided financial support for a land grant institution in each state to educate in agriculture, home economics, the mechanic arts, and other useful professions. However, southern states did not extend that education to minority students and colleges; therefore, the Second Morrill Act of 1890 was passed specifically for minority institutions, and Kentucky State became one of the now nineteen 1890 land grant institutions.

Today, the Kentucky State University Land Grant Program works to uphold the mission of the university through its commitment to research, Extension, and teaching in the food and agricultural sciences. The Land Grant Program— in collaboration with the Cooperative Extension Program and the College of Agriculture, Community, and the Sciences— is committed to resolving agricultural, educational, economic, and social problems of the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, especially the underserved in rural and urban settings.

That commitment includes researching best aquaculture practices and sharing findings with farmers; hosting the Third Thursday Thing workshop for 25 years; teaching those who will enter, take over, and advance the agriculture industry; and much more. In these pages and by contacting us at kysuag@gmail.com, learn how this land grant university can serve you.

OPPOSITE: Women students of the Kentucky Industrial Institute pose with tea kettles. | Archive

SECOND RIGHT: Stakeholders tour the goat barn during the 24th annual Small, Limited-Resource, Minority Farmers Conference at the Harold R. Benson Research and Demonstration Farm in Frankfort, Kentucky, on Nov. 16, 2022. | Photo by Anthony Guglielmi THIRD RIGHT: A man works on an aquaculture project at the Harold R. Benson Research and Demonstration Farm in Frankfort, Kentucky. | Archive FOURTH RIGHT: Dr. Ken Semmens, left, discusses raceway technology and other aquaculture practices while STEM Day participants Dion Patterson and London White feed fish in a raceway at the Harold R. Benson Research and Demonstration Farm in Frankfort, Kentucky, on July 16, 2022. | Photo by Jonathan Palmer FIFTH RIGHT: Dr. Oliver Freeman, left, and Matt Behrends plant pepper plants in plastic mulch at the Harold R. Benson Research and Demonstration Farm in Frankfort, Kentucky, on June 24, 2020. | Photo by Jonathan Palmer BOTTOM RIGHT: Men plant vegetables in plastic mulch. | Archive

TOP RIGHT: Stakeholders participate in a goat workshop during the 15th anniversary of Third Thursday Thing at the Harold R. Benson Research and Demonstration Farm in Frankfort, Kentucky, on July 19, 2012. | Photo by Jonathan Palmer

BOTTOM RIGHT: Men plant vegetables in plastic mulch. | Archive