Livingstone College, founded in 1879 by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, is one of the historic black colleges of the American South. Its 272-acre campus on the west side of Salisbury includes the 1908 Carnegie Library and the older Ballard Hall, the latter a focal point of the college's distinctive collection of late-19th- and early-20th-century brick buildings.
The campus is open to visitors during daylight hours, and the small Heritage Hall museum in the library documents the college's history and its role in the AME Zion Church and the early Civil Rights movement. The annual football rivalry with Johnson C. Smith — the Commemorative Classic — is the oldest in black-college sport.