Utica, Mississippi · Founded 1903 · Bulldogs
“A 'Little Tuskegee' in the Mississippi Black Belt — a 1903 Black-founded school that became the HBCU heart of Mississippi's largest community college.”
The oldest surviving Utica audio — the Jubilee Singers' 1928 Victor Talking Machine Co. recording, played on a period Victrola. Direct link to Holtzclaw's 1925 fundraising choir.
Another historic Jubilee Singers spiritual recording — the group that toured New York and New England by bus in the 1920s to keep the school funded.
Brief documentary history of the Institute made for the 2003 centennial, built from Black Man's Burden and William Henry Holtzclaw: Scholar in Ebony — the best video telling of the founding story.
The Utica Concert Choir under Dr. Bobby G. Cooper at the B.G. Cooper Fine Arts Building — the campus's living gospel-choral tradition.
Student-made 'Happy' lip-dub from the campus Radio/TV department — a fun snapshot of Utica campus life and student faces.
The student-run WHRU jazz radio show out of Utica, with campus news and weather — the modern voice of the campus broadcast program.
Student sideline coverage of the Hinds–Jones basketball rivalry game — the Bulldogs' biggest home-court nights happen in J.D. Boyd Gym.
WHUC reporter Ja'Niyah Bounds covers a Mississippi Museum of Natural Science event — example of the Utica broadcast students covering the wider community.
A Radio/TV freshman explains why he picked the Utica Campus — first-person student testimony on what draws people to the HBCU campus.
WHUC News 7's Maya McFadden on how Utica celebrates Black History Month 'in a musical fashion' — the campus's February traditions on camera.
The Utica Institute Museum's oral-history podcast episode with a Utica native — gospel quartet roots, Army service in Iraq, and the music that holds the town together.
U.S. Representative for Mississippi's 2nd District since 1993; 1965 Hinds AHS graduate; longest-serving Black elected official in Mississippi history.
Utica Junior College president (1958–69), then president of Alcorn College/Alcorn State University; first Black person to earn a doctorate from a predominantly white Mississippi institution (USM, 1969).
Superintendent/president (1951–57) who created Utica Junior College, then became president of Alcorn College.
1975 Hinds AHS / 1977 Utica Junior College graduate — Mr. UJC and co-valedictorian; 25+ years in the U.S. Army Transportation Corps; director of Army Instruction for Jackson Public Schools; co-owner of Gazebo Lake Ranch in Utica.
1975 Hinds AHS / 1978 Utica Junior College graduate (A.A., Social Services); co-owner/operator of Gazebo Lake Ranch, Utica.
1974 Hinds AHS / Utica Junior College (Auto Body Repair) alumnus; played concert and marching band and ran track; longtime pastor of Belmont Missionary Baptist Church.
Utica native and Hinds AHS/Utica music student under Dr. Bobby Cooper; member of the Mississippi Mass Choir since its 1987 founding, performing in Spain, Japan, and for the Pope.
The founder's mother, who graduated from the Institute at age 94 — the school's oldest graduate on record.
The founder's wife; co-donor of the school to Hinds County and namesake of Utica Institute — Hinds Agricultural High School in the county era.
The founder's son; scholar and 1971 keynote speaker at the Holtzclaw Memorial Library dedication; author of William Henry Holtzclaw: Scholar in Ebony.
Not an alumnus but the campus's defining faculty figure: 45 years teaching, revived the Utica Jubilee Singers (1980), honored in the Congressional Record (2025).
51-year Utica career from math teacher to vice president of the Utica Campus; acting president through the 1982 merger.
Vice President of the Utica Campus (2017); led the campus through its women's basketball renaissance and TMCF-era positioning.
Dean Emeritus and campus historian; authored the 'Time Capsule' history and secured the $3.5M HUD dormitory loan application in the early 1980s.
Utica native featured by the Utica Institute Museum; gospel quartet singer, Army veteran who founded the Voices of Reason in Iraq, and educator.
After three failed attempts to start a school for Black Mississippians, Tuskegee graduate William H. Holtzclaw walked into Utica with two dollars and a dollar watch in his pocket. Inspired by Booker T. Washington's philosophy and Orison Swett Marden's book Pushing to the Front, he began teaching about 20 students under a tree near St. Peter M.B. Church. He and the townspeople built a small schoolhouse with lumber from Curry Brothers' lumber yard.
The school was chartered in Mississippi as the Utica Normal and Industrial Institute for the Training of Colored Young Men and Women. Holtzclaw opened it in a rented log cabin that served as both his family's home and quarters for two of the first boarding students. For its first seven years the school operated in the town of Utica near St. Peter Church, teaching Black students to read, write, compute, and develop their farmland communities.
Wanting to move away from town distractions and near subterranean water, Holtzclaw raised $25,000 from friends and bought 2,000 acres about five miles south of Utica. Three structures near St. Peter Church were physically relocated to the new site. He sold 400 of the 2,000 acres to five teachers and bought the plantation mansion on the property for his family — the land the Utica Campus still occupies.
Holtzclaw wrote and published his autobiography, The Black Man's Burden, making him one of the first Black Mississippians to publish a book. Alongside the school, he organized the Farmers' Conference to raise standards on Black farms and the Black Belt Society to push economic self-sufficiency through land sales to farmers. Up until 1935 the Institute even ran its own 20-bed hospital for nurse training, until a storm swept it away.
Holtzclaw organized the Utica Institute Jubilee Singers, taking the name from the famous Fisk Jubilee Singers, to tour and raise funds for the school. Their first trip took them through New York and New England, and by 1926 the group had its own bus. In 1928 the Victor Talking Machine Company recorded them singing the spiritual 'Leaning on the Lord' — a recording that still exists and circulates today, nearly a century later.
When William H. Holtzclaw died, he left a school of 22 teachers, 1,600 acres of land, fourteen buildings, and more than 400 students, with a curriculum of academic and vocational courses patterned after Tuskegee Institute. His mother Addie Holtzclaw had graduated from the school at age 94, and all of his children — Robert Fulton, Jerry Herbert, Alice Marie, Ella Adelene, and William Jr. — graduated from and taught at the Institute. His son William Holtzclaw Jr. succeeded him as principal.
In 1946, William Holtzclaw Jr. and his mother Mary Ella Holtzclaw agreed to donate the school and its property to Hinds County. The County Board of Trustees assumed control and the name changed to Hinds County Agricultural High School, Colored. During Holtzclaw Jr.'s four-year tenure (1943–47) the campus had still grown, adding the Brick Masonry Shop and Trades building (1944), the Health and Homemaking building (1945), the Music-Art building (1946), and Paine Hall (1946), while keeping livestock, registered hogs, chickens, and farmland.
J. W. Grantham of Collins, Mississippi, became superintendent (1947–51). The Board renamed the school for the founder's wife: Utica Institute — Hinds Agricultural High School. Grantham raised the idea of becoming a junior college, though it never materialized, and recruited aggressively — 17 faculty his first year, 24 by the time he left. On a tight budget the school bought used plumbing and wiring from Camp Van Dorn and six barracks from Camp Shelby to build the principal's first home and a farm shop.
Under superintendent John Dewey Boyd (1951–57), the Board of Trustees acted on its 1952 resolution and formed Utica Institute Junior College as a separate institution from Hinds County AHS — the first junior college curriculum, a student government, clubs, and an organized bus transportation system. In 1955 Boyd converted the old Music-Art building into a Band Room, and Mr. Louis Lee began developing the school's band. Boyd's era also adopted 'The Utica Ode,' written by a graduate, and Ginn Hall — built in 1924 during Holtzclaw's time — anchored the growing campus.
Hinds Agricultural High School won accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1957. That same year J.D. Boyd left to become president of Alcorn College, with Dean of Instruction Rudolph Waters serving as interim. The tradition began that the college's president would simultaneously serve as superintendent of the high school, as Walter Washington of Hazlehurst — then principal of Sumner Hill in Clinton — was selected as his successor.
In 1958 the Board renamed the school from The Utica Institute Junior College to Utica Junior College, titling Washington president of the college and superintendent of the high school. His administration delivered the greatest physical plant expansion since Holtzclaw's own tenure: the first vocational-technical department (carpentry, then secretarial science, 1957–58), faculty apartment buildings (1960), the Old High School Annex (1962), a student union (1967), an academic-administration building (1968), and a second vo-tech building (1969) — plus a football field with bleachers, tennis courts, a new water system, and enrollment past 1,500.
In fall 1969 Walter Washington became the first Black person to earn a doctorate from a predominantly white institution in Mississippi — the University of Southern Mississippi, with a dissertation titled 'Utica Junior College, 1903–1957: A Half Century of Education for Negroes.' He then left Utica to become president of Alcorn College (later Alcorn State University). J. Louis Stokes, a Tennessee native who had been the school's business manager for 11 years, became the next president. Arthur Kinnard served as acting president from 1970–73 while Stokes pursued graduate study, and George E. Barnes became Dean of Academic Instruction in 1972.
The William H. Holtzclaw Memorial Library was completed and dedicated in 1971, with Holtzclaw's son Robert Fulton Holtzclaw traveling from Cincinnati, Ohio, to give the keynote address. Stokes continued the physical plant expansion, and in 1968 the campus had launched two Adult Basic Education Centers in Hinds County — early evidence of the school reaching beyond its fences. But larger forces were moving: the federal courts were pressing the state's dual-system community colleges toward a merger.
Utica Junior College, a historically Black college, was merged with Hinds Junior College in 1982 under a federal court order as part of a class-action racial discrimination lawsuit — the two schools had operated just 21 miles apart under the same board. George E. Barnes served as acting president through the transition, and Dr. Clyde Muse became president of the combined Hinds Junior College District. Utica faculty worried about lost identity and the demotion of President Stokes to vice president, but the merger brought faculty salary parity, aligned curricula, and new investment in the physical plant — and when the Reagan administration cut federal student aid in 1982, Utica faculty formed a Special Needs Fund from their own monthly contributions so students could buy classroom materials.
A $3.5 million housing loan secured from the Federal Housing Urban Development program — with Senator Thad Cochran notifying the college of approval after the Board signed off in 1983 — produced a four-structure dormitory complex completed and dedicated in 1985. During the 82nd Founder's Day (March 19, 1985), the halls were named for people who had served the school and community: B.E. Lewis Hall, Newton-Walker Hall, Maggie Dunson Hall, and the McGriggs-Williams Cafeteria, plus a director's residence with laundry and office space.
Dr. George E. Barnes — who had started at Hinds AHS in 1962 as a math teacher and climbed through assistant basketball coach, principal, academic dean, and acting president — became Vice President of the Utica Campus of the Hinds Junior College District in 1987. That same year the Mississippi Legislature changed 'Junior College' to 'Community College,' and the district became Hinds Community College. Under Barnes and Muse, the Utica Campus kept its HBCU designation and its traditions — Mr. and Miss Utica, Founder's Week, its own commencement and homecoming — even inside the larger district.
The Utica Campus marked 100 years since Holtzclaw founded the Institute, and a centennial history video was produced drawing on Black Man's Burden, William Henry Holtzclaw: Scholar in Ebony, and the documentary series Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Daniel Fuller, the campus humanities chair, later chronicled this era as 'Becoming Hinds-Utica' — the administrative and campus restructuring that followed the centennial. In 2013 the Mississippi Legislature's Concurrent Resolution 576 formally recognized the school's 110-year history and significance as a Mississippi landmark.
On February 17, 2017, the Utica Institute Museum officially opened in the former vice president's home on campus, telling the story of Southern Black education in rural Mississippi and the 'Little Tuskegee.' Congressman Bennie Thompson — a 1965 Hinds AHS graduate — keynoted alongside Mississippi Humanities Council director Stuart Rockoff, whose council had awarded the museum two highly competitive National Endowment for the Humanities grants. In 2022 the museum joined the National Park Service's African American Civil Rights Network, housing the Utica Institute Archives and Oral History Center.
On February 9, 2017, the Hinds women's basketball team — based at the Utica Campus and coached by Reed — beat division foe Copiah-Lincoln 78–61, the first time a Hinds women's team had defeated Co-Lin in 29 years. The Lady Bulldogs rode a five-game winning streak to the MACJC tournament as a third seed, the program's first playoff appearance in 22 years, capping a 18–5 turnaround season built on belief and recruiting after a decade of struggle.
In May 2025 the Thurgood Marshall College Fund approved Hinds Community College at Utica as a member institution alongside Hampton University, opening scholarships, leadership development, and career pipelines to Utica students. That November, Congressman Thompson entered a tribute into the Congressional Record honoring Dr. Bobby G. Cooper — the man who revived the Utica Jubilee Singers in 1980, carried the spirituals to stages in Italy and beyond, and spent 45 years on the Utica faculty. The campus also became a site for TMCF's SOAR summer program, bringing high schoolers onto the HBCU campus.
The defining rivalry for Utica-based Hinds basketball. On February 9, 2017, the Lady Bulldogs beat Co-Lin 78–61 — the first Hinds women's win over Co-Lin in 29 years — then rode a five-game winning streak to their first MACJC tournament berth in 22 years. It was the exclamation point on coach Reed's two-year rebuild of a program that had gone a decade without double-digit wins.
WHUC News 7 covered 'Hinds Community College vs Jones College' as 'a battle of rivals that had fans excited for the match up' — the Mississippi community-college hoops rivalry with real heat on the Utica campus, where both Bulldog teams are based.
🥁 Utica Campus band tradition; today the Hinds Community College Marching Band (district-wide, Raymond-based) · since 1955
The marching band at Utica has real roots — Louis Lee built it from 1955, and students marched and played concert band through the Utica Junior College decades. Today the district's formal band program (marching, wind ensemble, percussion) is based at the Raymond Campus under Dr. Joseph Earp, while the Utica Campus's signature sound is the revived Jubilee Singers and the HindsCC (Utica) Concert Choir, directed by Dr. Bobby G. Cooper. The Music-Art building that became the first Band Room still anchors the story. Utica band-director records before Lee are unverified — the campus archives (Utica Institute Archives) hold the deeper material.
Began developing the Utica school's band in 1955 when Superintendent Boyd converted the old Music-Art building into a Band Room; alumni of that era, like Pastor Phillip Burks, remember playing in both the concert band and the marching band.
Chairman of the Humanities Division and director of Choral Activities who revived the historic Utica Jubilee Singers in 1980 as a young men's spirituals choir, carrying it to national and Italian stages over 45 years; honored in the Congressional Record in November 2025. Utica's musical identity today runs through his choirs more than a marching band.
No verifiable Greek-letter fraternity or sorority chapters on the Utica Campus. The documented student organization is Phi Theta Kappa, an academic honor society — Mr. Utica 2024-25 Roy Maye Jr. was a member. No published roster of Divine Nine chapters on the Utica Campus was found in the sources checked (college site, catalog, Mississippi Link coverage).
Still digging this up — check back soon.
Built during William Holtzclaw Jr.'s wartime tenure, anchoring the campus's trades training — bricklaying and manual arts were core to the Institute's Tuskegee-model curriculum.
The Music-Art building (1946) later became the Post Office and grill (1951–55), then in 1955 was converted into the Band Room where Louis Lee built the Utica band. Paine Hall (1946) served as dining, recreation, and classrooms.
The Boyd administration built the main high school building and gym in 1953, letting Ginn Hall (1924) finally retire as the high school's classroom-and-administration building.
Faculty apartments in the shape of an 'H' went up in 1956 (planned 1955), part of Boyd's push to house the growing faculty on the rural campus; the superintendent's home was remodeled the same year.
First building out of Washington's 1965–66 master plan — a student union in 1967 that gave the campus a real social center, followed by an academic-administration building (1968) and a second vocational-technical building (1969).
The beautifully constructed memorial library was completed and dedicated in 1971, with the founder's son Robert Fulton Holtzclaw as keynote speaker. Today it houses the William H. Holtzclaw Jr. Black Heritage Collection, the Utica Normal and Industrial Institute Archives, and 27,000+ print and non-print items.
A $3.5 million federal housing loan — shepherded through with help from Senator Thad Cochran and applied for by acting Title III coordinator Dr. Shirley Hopkins-Davis — delivered four residence structures dedicated at the 82nd Founder's Day: B.E. Lewis Hall, Newton-Walker Hall, Maggie Dunson Hall, and the McGriggs-Williams Cafeteria, plus a director's residence.
The museum opened February 17, 2017 in the former vice president's home, with two NEH grants and Bennie Thompson keynoting. It holds the Utica Institute Archives and Oral History Center and joined the NPS African American Civil Rights Network in 2022.
Bid documents show a multi-phase renovation of the campus's high-school-era buildings (HCC Bid #3281), with pre-bid walkthroughs at the Utica physical plant building on Highway 18 — the district continuing to reinvest in the oldest campus's aging plant.
The award-winning Radio & Television Production program runs WHUC News 7 and the WHRU jazz radio show out of Utica, with student newscasts covering campus sports, weather, and community stories — the campus's modern media voice. (Year the studios were built is not published.)
Coaching: the men's and women's basketball teams are based at Utica — Yusef Fitzgerald was named head men's basketball coach in 2017 (ex-Iona director of operations, Tougaloo player), and the women's program was turned around by head coach Reed (first name not published) in 2015–17. Faculty: Dr. Shirley Hopkins-Davis, Dean Emeritus, who authored the campus's time-capsule history and secured the 1980s dormitory loan application.
Seventh president; took office July 1, 2020.
Led the Utica Campus during the Lady Bulldogs' basketball breakthrough; title confirmed in 2017 press coverage — current campus VP not separately published.
45 years on the Utica faculty; revived the Jubilee Singers in 1980; honored in the Congressional Record (Nov 2025).
The district's HBCU-initiatives lead; quoted on the 2025 Thurgood Marshall College Fund membership.
Runs the museum and hosts its 'Sips from the Sipp' oral-history podcast.
Named as dean of instruction in the museum's concise-history front matter.
Utica is the only Hinds campus with residence halls, so it feels like a real residential HBCU rather than a commuter branch — Bulldog Plaza, the WWAB Amphitheater, and the residence-hall lawns anchor a week of homecoming rituals that are uniquely Utica's, not the district's. The campus is deliberately small and rural (Highway 18 west of Jackson), built around the legacy of Holtzclaw's 'Little Tuskegee,' and students describe it as a place where Black students are expected to lead. The Radio/TV students run WHUC News 7 and WHRU as the campus's daily voice.