Arkansas Baptist's History

Arkansas Baptist College, originally named the Minister’s Institute, was founded in 1884 by the Colored Baptists of Arkansas during their annual convention at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Little Rock. The primary objective of the institute was to raise the educational level within the Negro Ministry. The secondary objective was to aid the state in making higher education available to young Negro men and women. Most of the College’s students were trained in the ministry. Today, Religious Studies continues to be one of the major disciplines of matriculation into the College. In April 1885, the name of the College was changed to Arkansas Baptist College and the location was moved to 16th and High Street. The current address is 1600 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.

Arkansas Baptist College is an urban Historically Black College located in the historic Little Rock Central High District. It also neighbors the Wright Avenue District and the famous Paul Lawrence Dunbar Junior High School. The College is the only Baptist-affiliated Historically Black College west of the Mississippi and has a student population close to one thousand from all across the United States. Founded in 1884 as the Minister’s Institute, the College continues to be supported by the Consolidated Missionary Baptist State Convention.

Arkansas Baptist's Culture 

Traditionally, we are a religion center institution, whose primary goal was to help anyone that wanted to be helped. As time passed, we discovered the opportunity to bring Athletics to campus, primarily Football. Football is currently the driving force for our campus life. Greek Life and the Marching band is a couple of our greatest recruiting pieces. HBCUs are iconic for being known by their marching band and WE here at Arkansas Baptist College are excited to announce and present to everyone the rebirth of our Marching Band. We can't wait to see how our culture and campus life is revitalized as we continue to move Onward and Upward.

What to know about Arkansas Baptist

As a new member of the NAIA, we are amazed at the many opportunities that have been afforded to us to help highlight the many great things we have going on. We are extremely proud of some of our new programs coming to campus, especially our Esports program. As a member of the HBCU C2, an Apple’s Community Education Initiative which puts emphasis on coding and creativity. Apple is supporting the College with equipment and professional development as well as providing a way for our students to see the direct correlation between coding/innovation and the games they enjoy so much.

Arkansas Baptist Photo Gallery