Huston-Tillotson University

East Austin’s premiere institute of higher learning is Huston-Tillotson University. It was created by the amalgamation of Samuel Huston College and Tillotson Collegiate and Normal Institute.

Tillotson and Normal was chartered by the American Missionary Association of Austin as early at 1877 and opened doors to students in 1881—making Tillotson the oldest institute of higher learning in the state of Texas.

Huston College was initially planned out of a Methodist Episcopal conference in 1876, was then named for primary benefactor and Iowa native, Samuel Huston, and opened its doors in 1900.

Both were private institutions created out of the necessity for black higher education, as plans for the state’s public Texas A&M University did not extend to the African American population. In 1952 a merger of the two universities resulted in the integrated, co-ed Huston-Tillotson College and was named Huston-Tillotson University in 2005.

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