Tougaloo College is the home of the Jackson Heart Study Education and Training Program where minority high school students, college students and health professionals are trained in Public Health and Epidemiology. 

Tougaloo College was founded in 1869 by the American Missionary Association.  It is a private, coeducational, historically black, church-related college in north Jackson.

Six years after Tougaloo's founding, the Home Missionary Society of the Disciples of Christ obtained a charter from the Mississippi State Legislature to establish a school at Edwards, Mississippi, to be known as Southern Christian Institute.  As the two schools had similar ideals and objectives, the supporting denominations completed the merger of the institutions in 1954 changing the name of the new institution to Tougaloo Southern Christian College.  The new college combined the resources of the two supporting bodies and renewed its dedication to educational advancement and the improvement of race relations in Mississippi.

The faculty and the administration challenged students to be prepared to take advantage of opportunities available in the changing South and throughout the nation.  The alumni bodies of the two institutions united to become the National Alumni Association of Tougaloo Southern Christian College.  In 1962, by vote of the Board of Trustees, and with the agreement of the supporting bodies, the name was changed again to Tougaloo College.

In summer of 2002 Tougaloo College and Brown University began a collaborative research project that is entitled "Freedom Now".  The project has three components: 1) an archival/research project; 2) a project by and for students; and 3) a website with a searchable database of documents from Brown University and Tougaloo College archives.  Tougaloo College project supporters believe that the Mississippi Freedom Movement remains an important example of grass-roots activism in U.S. history, and the fight for racial equality in this country.  They believe that students should learn the details of the Freedom Movement documents that are available in the Tougaloo College archives as a result of the Freedom Now Project.

 Website: http://www.tougaloo.edu/