Langston University is an institution of higher learning located in Langston, Oklahoma, USA. It is the only historically black college in the state, and the westernmost historically black college in the United States. Though located in a rural setting just 10 miles (16 km) east of Guthrie, Langston also serves an urban mission with University Centers in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The school was founded in 1897 and was known as the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University. Langston University was created as a result of the second Morrill Act in 1890. The law required states with land-grant colleges (such as Oklahoma State University, then Oklahoma A&M) to either admit African-Americans, or provide an alternative school for them to attend as a condition of receiving federal funds. Langston University is named for John Mercer Langston (1829–1897), civil rights pioneer, first African American member of Congress from Virginia, founder of the Howard University Law School, and American consul-general to Haiti. Poet Melvin B. Tolson taught at Langston from 1947 until 1964. Tolson was portrayed by Denzel Washington in the film The Great Debaters.