Tennessee State University (TSU) is a land-grant university located in Nashville, Tennessee. TSU is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennessee. TSU has approximately 10,389 students with a student/faculty ratio of 24/1.

Though it was organized as the Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School in 1909 and began serving students on June 19, 1912, its status was raised to a four-year teachers' college in 1922. It was then elevated to full-fledged land-grant university status by the Tennessee State Board of Education in 1958. Since 1972 it has been operated under the auspices of the Tennessee Board of Regents.

The present-day Tennessee State University exists as a result of the merger on July 1, 1979, of Tennessee State University and the former University of Tennessee at Nashville. This resulted in a downtown campus.