Coahoma Community College

Coahoma Community College is a community college and HBCU located in Coahoma County, in the U.S. state of Mississippi, approximately four miles north of the city of Clarksdale. The 99-acre (400,000 m2) campus lies in an agrarian setting along Clarksdale-Friars Point Road near the Mississippi River. Establishing Coahoma County Agricultural High School in 1924, Coahoma County became the first county in Mississippi to provide an agricultural high school for Negroes under the then existing “separate but equal” doctrine for education. The junior college curriculum was added in 1949, and the name of the institution was changed to Coahoma Junior College and Agricultural High School.

During the first two years (1949–1950), the junior college program was conducted by one full-time college director-teacher and a sufficient number of part-time teachers from the high school division. A full-time dean and college faculty were employed the third year.

During the first year of operation (1949), Coahoma Junior College was supported entirely by county funds. In 1950 Coahoma junior College became the first educational institution for Negroes to be included in Mississippi's system of public junior colleges and to be eligible to share in funds appropriate by the Mississippi Legislature for the support of public junior colleges. Counties, other than Coahoma, that supported the college were Bolivar, Quitman, and Sunflower.

In 1965, Coahoma Junior College opened its doors to all students regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or disability.

Coahoma Community College and Agricultural High School has been headed by eight superintendents found four presidents: M.L. Strange, 1924-25; J. M. Mosley, 1924-29; J. w. Addison, 1929-37; J. B. Wright, 1937-45; B. F. McLaurin, 1945-66; J. E. Miller, 1966-79; McKinley C. Martin,1980-92; and the incumbent Vivian Presley, 1992 to present. With her appointment as superintendent/president January 6, 1992, Dr, Vivian Presley became the first female to head Coahoma Community College and Agricultural High School and the first woman to head a community college in the state of Mississippi.

With the approval of the Board of Trustees of Coahoma Junior College and the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges, Coahoma Community College’s name was changed to Coahoma Community College, effective July 1, 1989.

In the spring of 1995, after many years of not having an official district, a bill was introduced in to and passed by the Mississippi Legislature and signed by the Governor giving Coahoma Community College a district. Effective July 1, 1995, the Coahoma Community College district became Bolivar, Coahoma, Quitman, Tallahatchie, and Tunica Counties.

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