Jackson State University (Jackson State or JSU) is a historically Black college and university ("HBCU") in Jackson, Mississippi, United States. It was founded during the Reconstruction era in 1877 in Natchez, Mississippi, as Natchez Seminary by the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York City. The Society moved the school to the capital, Jackson, in 1882, renaming it Jackson College. It developed its present campus in 1902. It became a state-supported public institution in 1940.