About Us:

Rust College is a historically Black, coeducational, senior liberal arts college founded in 1866 by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The College is related to the United Methodist Church, and dedicated to serving students with a variety of academic preparations, through instruction in the humanities, social behavior sciences, natural science, business, technology and education.

Rust College is an accredited four year, co-educational, liberal arts college. It is the oldest of the eleven Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the second oldest private college in Mississippi, the oldest historically Black College in the State, and one of the remaining five historically Black Colleges in America founded before 1867.

Rust College was established in 1866 by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal church. The founders were missionaries from the North who opened a school in Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, where Moses Adams, a local Negro preacher was pastor. The school accepted adults of all ages, as well as children, for instruction in elementary subjects. A year later the first building on the present campus was erected.