Qualla: University of Missouri

University of Missouri: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Grey Wanderer, CC BY-SA 3.0. The six columns standing on Francis Quadrangle are remnants of a building that no longer exists. Academic Hall burned on January 9, 1892, and Columbia nearly lost the university entirely -- rival Sedalia mounted a campaign to relocate it. Columbia rallied, the university stayed, and the columns were kept as a symbol of institutional survival. They remain the most iconic image of the University of Missouri, founded in 1839 as the first public university west of the Mississippi River and the first in the vast Louisiana Purchase territory. Thomas Jefferson's ideas about public education shaped its founding, and the school has spent nearly two centuries living up to -- and sometimes falling short of -- that idealistic origin.

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Image: Grey Wanderer | CC BY-SA 3.0

University of Missouri: The Fighting Tigers of Columbia

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Grey Wanderer, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1839, the Missouri Legislature passed the Geyer Act to fund a state university. Citizens of Columbia and Boone County pledged $117,921 in cash and land to beat five rival counties for the prize. The school initially admitted only white male students. When the Civil War forced ...

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Image: Grey Wanderer | CC BY-SA 3.0

University of Missouri: Where Journalism Was Born

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mojourcomm, Public domain. In 1908, Walter Williams founded the Missouri School of Journalism at Mizzou, establishing what claims to be the world's first school of journalism. The school operates on a 'Missouri Method' of learning by doing: students publish the daily Columbia Missourian, run NBC affiliate ...

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Image: Mojourcomm | Public domain

University of Missouri: Red Campus, White Campus

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Adam Procter, CC BY 3.0. The burned columns of Academic Hall anchor Red Campus, the historic core of brick buildings surrounding Francis Quadrangle, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Jesse Hall, named for president Richard Jesse, replaced Academic Hall in 1895 and now serves as...

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Image: Adam Procter | CC BY 3.0

University of Missouri: Pioneers and Protests

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Grey Wanderer, CC BY-SA 3.0. The university's history of racial reckoning runs deep. In 1923, a Black janitor named James T. Scott was lynched by a mob of townspeople and students near campus. In 1935, Lloyd L. Gaines, a graduate of Lincoln University in Jefferson City, was denied admission to MU's law schoo...

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Image: Grey Wanderer | CC BY-SA 3.0

University of Missouri: From Sam Walton to Sheryl Crow

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Matt Moffitt, CC BY-SA 3.0. Mizzou's alumni list reads like a cross-section of American achievement. Sam Walton founded Walmart. William W. Mayo founded the Mayo Clinic. Tennessee Williams wrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire. Brad Pitt and Jon Hamm became Hollywood stars. Sheryl Crow bu...

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Image: Matt Moffitt | CC BY-SA 3.0