Alcorn State University (ASU) is a historically black comprehensive land-grant institution in Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871 by the Reconstruction era legislature to provide higher education for freedmen. It is the first black land grant college established in the United States.The university is counted as a census-designated place and had a resident population of 1,017 at the 2010 census.Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist, graduated from the university in 1948. Students at the college were part of the mid-twentieth century civil rights struggle, working to register residents for voting and struggling to end segregation. Other alumni have been activists, politicians and professionals in Mississippi and other states. The university is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.