South Carolina State University (SCSU or SC State) is a public, historically black, land-grant university in Orangeburg, South Carolina. It is the only public, historically black land-grant research university in South Carolina, is a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The university's beginnings were as the South Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical Institute in 1872 in compliance with the 1862 Land Grant Act within the institution of Claflin College—now known as Claflin University.