Although formal instructional programs at Jarvis began on January 13, 1913, with an enrollment of 12 students, all in the elementary grades, the school began as early as 1904, when the Negro Disciples of Christ of Texas began to plan for a school for Black youth. A white couple whose families had owned slaves—Major James Jarvis and his wife Ida Van Zandt Jarvis—donated land upon which the school could be built; the Jarvis family deeded to the Christian Women's Board of Missions on the condition it be maintained as a school for Blacks. Jarvis is the only historically black college which remains of the twelve founded by the Disciples of Christ Church.
1910s Thomas Buchanan Frost came to the school as superintendent in 1912. Charles Albert Berry joined him as the
principal. In 1914, James Nelson Ervin became the first president of Jarvis and served in that capacity until 1938. During the first year of Ervin's tenure, high school classes were added to the curriculum. It became one of the few places at the time at which blacks in
East Texas could complete a high school education. Some college work was offered as early as 1916. The executive committee of the National Women's Board voted in May 1915, to appropriate for a sawmill that was purchased and installed on campus. The sawmill was operated from the 1920s through the 1940s by male students in the summer. They cut wood for structures on campus and to fire furnaces and stoves used during winter months around campus. Most of the buildings on the Jarvis Campus built during the 1920s–1940s were made with wood from this mill. Most of those buildings burned.
2010s In May 2017, it was announced that Jarvis Christian College will open a satellite campus in
Dallas at the
Redbird Mall beginning August 2017. Courses available are in criminal justice, business management, religion, data analytics, and cybersecurity.
2020s During the 2022–2023 academic year, Jarvis Christian College was renamed Jarvis Christian University with the unveiling of the new signage and logos on May 6, 2022, the day before the first graduating class of Jarvis Christian University received the first-ever diplomas with the school's new name. Jarvis was approved to begin offering graduate degrees. The Jarvis Board of Trustees approved the name change, the rebranding as JCU began. The first JCU graduate programs are an MBA and a Master of Science in Criminal Justice, both programs are set to begin classes online in January 2023. ==Athletics==