Selma University is a private, historically black, Bible College in Selma, Alabama. It is affiliated with the Alabama State Missionary Baptist Convention. The institution was founded in 1878 as the Alabama Baptist Normal and Theological School to train African Americans as ministers and teachers. The school purchased the former Selma Fair Grounds later that same year, moving into the fair's old exposition buildings. Selma University was founded in 1878, with such noted men as the Reverends William H. McAlpine, James A. Foster and R. Murrell leading the effort. The purpose was for preparation of better leaders for the church and schoolroom. At a meeting in Mobile , Alabama in 1874, the first trustees were elected - they were C. O. Booth, Alexander Butler, William H. McAlpine, Holland Thompson and H. J. Europe. The school opened four years later in 1878, in the Saint Phillips Street Baptist Church of Selma. The Saint Phillip Street Baptist Church later became the First Baptist Church . The Convention voted to locate the school in Selma in 1877. In 1881, the school was incorporated by an act of the legislature under the name of Alabama Baptist Normal and Theological School of Selma.