Dance & Aux Forum

Virginia State University "Trojan Explosion" 

Virginia State University is a land-grant HBCU located north of the Appomattox River in Chesterfield, in the Richmond area. Founded on March 6, 1882, Virginia State was 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 Scholarship Fund.

Following the American Civil War, William Mahone (1826–1895) of Petersburg, VA was the driving force in the linkage of Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, South Side Railraod and the VA & TN Railroad in 1870 to form the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio (AM&O), a new line extending from Norfolk to Bristol After several years of operating under receiverships, Mahone's role as a railroad builder ended in 1881 when the AM&O was sold at auction to form the Norfolk and Western Railway. 

Mahone, a former Confederate general best known as the hero of the Battle of the Crater, later led Virginia's Readjuster Party and was a major proponent of public schools for the education of the former slaves and free blacks. He became a United States Senator from Virginia, and arranged for the proceeds of the AM&O sale to help found a school for teachers near Petersburg. In 1882, the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute at Petersburg was established. State delegate Alfred W. Harris, a black attorney, introduced the bill that established the institute.

The school was designated one of Virginia's land grant colleges in response to the 1890 Amendments to the Morrill Act, which required that states either open their land-grant colleges to all races or else establish a separate land-grant educational facilities for blacks.

Virginia State's first president was John Mercer Langston, who later became the first African-American elected to Congress from Virginia. The board of trustees was almost entirely African-American, except for one member. The faculty of the collegiate program and the normal school was African-American until the mid-1960s.

In 1902, the legislature revised the school's charter and renamed it the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute. In 1923, the college was renamed Virginia State College for Negroes, shortened toVirginia State College in 1946, and finally renamed Virginia State University in 1979. Meanwhile, the school's two-year branch in Norfolk, Virginia, founded in 1935, became Norfolk State College, now known as Norfolk State University.

In 2003, the university accepted its first students in its first Ph.D. program.

On July 1, 2010, President Keith T. Miller assumed his position as the 13th President of Virginia State University, a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) located in Virginia State University, Virginia. He brings to this position a wealth of knowledge in academics and business both in the public and private sector. Dr. Miller earned his bachelor, master and doctoral degrees from the University of Arizona. Dr. Miller comes to VSU after having served as President of Lock Haven University.

The Virginia State University Trojan Explosion is comprised of approximately 180 members including the Essence of Troy Dancers, Satin Divas Flag Corps & the Troy Elegance Majorette Squad in addition to instrumentalists.

The famed "Marching 110," as it was once known, was built during the leadership of Dr. F. Nathaniel Pops Gatlin and expanded during the leadership of O'Neil Sanford from 1973 - 1976 as the "Sounds of Distinction." In 1984 seventeen students showed up for the first day of practice when Harold J. Haughton, Sr. became director; after leaving his 180 member band at Jackson State University The Sonic Boom of the South. Accompanied by arranger James Holden, Jr. & assistant Sylvester Bullock the band continued to grow. After retiring in 2003, Harold "Big Whistle" Haughton, Sr. passed his baton to longtime confidant Dr. Mark W. Phillips. Mark W. Phillips, a native of Petersburg, Virginia, taught ten years at Prairie View A&M University, including assistant director of the Marching Storm before coming to the Department of Music, Art and Design at Virginia State University, where he currently serves as the department Chairman and Director of Bands.

VSU Band Website