Southern, Louisiana

Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College

Former names	Southern College
Type	Public flagship university HBCU Land grant
Established	April 1, 1880 (1880-04-01)
Parent institution	SU System
Academic affiliations	TMSF ORAU APLU
Endowment	$9.6 million
Provost	M. Christopher Brown II
President-Chancellor	Ray Belton
Administrative staff	1,600
Students	6,152 (Fall 2016)
Location	Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. 30°31′29″N 91°11′24″W / 30.524674°N 91.190034°W / 30.524674; -91.190034Coordinates: 30°31′29″N 91°11′24″W / 30.524674°N 91.190034°W / 30.524674; -91.190034
Campus	Urban; 512 acres (207 ha)
Newspaper	The Southern Digest
Colors	Columbia Blue and Gold
Nickname	Jaguars & Lady Jaguars
Sporting affiliations	NCAA Division I FCS – SWAC
Website	www.subr.edu

Southern University and A&M College (often referred to as Southern University, SUBR or SU) is a historically black university (HBCU) in the Scotlandville area of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The campus is on Scott’s Bluff overlooking the Mississippi River in the northern section of the city. The campus encompasses 512 acres, with an agricultural experimental station on an additional 372-acre site, five miles north of the main campus. The university is the largest HBCU in Louisiana, a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the flagship institution of the Southern University System.

Southern University's 13 intercollegiate athletics teams are known as the Jaguars, and are members of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) in NCAA Division I. The Human Jukebox is a nationally renowned collegiate marching band that represents the university.

At the 1879 Louisiana State Constitutional Convention, African-American political leaders P.B.S. Pinchback, Theophile T. Allain and Henry Demas proposed founding a higher education institution "for the education of persons of color." Louisiana before the American Civil War had an established class of free people of color, who were often property owners and educated; they kept that tradition for their children.