East Texas Baptist University

ETBU is located on the site of the former Van Zandt Farm at the highest altitude in Harrison County. It was founded as the College of Marshall in 1912, after a campaign to create a Southern Baptist college in East Texas. The campus' first building, Marshall Hall, was completed in 1916. It was designed to house a gymnasium, library, chapel/theatre, administrative offices, and classrooms. The College of Marshall opened the following year as a two-year junior college and academy. The college was greatly enlarged during the tenure of President Frank Shelby Groner, who served as president of the college from 1928 until 1942. It became East Texas Baptist College in 1944.

In June 2015, J. Blair Blackburn, a native of Minden, Louisiana, was inaugurated as the 13th president of East Texas Baptist University. He succeeded Samuel "Dub" Oliver, who became in 2014 the president of Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.

In 2015, the university applied for and received an exception to Title IX allowing it to discriminate against LGBT students for religious reasons.

In June of 2024, ETBU announced a merger with B.H. Carroll Theological Institute, thus expanding the institution to a level VI institution of higher learning.