San Jose State was founded in 1857 as Minns' Evening Normal School, as a city funded normal school in San Francisco, California, and is the oldest public institution of higher learning on the west coast. In 1862, the California legislature took possession of the school, renaming it the California State Normal School. The school moved to San Jose in 1871, becoming San Jose Normal School, and was given Washington Square Park at Fourth and San Carlos Streets to locate their campus, where it remains.

In 1921, the legislature changed the school's name to San Jose Teachers Training College. In 1935, the name was changed again, this time to San Jose State College. In 1961, SJSC joined the California State College System (later the California State University (CSU) system). In 1972 SJSC was granted university status, and the name was changed to CSU, San Jose. In 1974 the name was changed again, this time to San Jose State University.

The English Department has sponsored the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest since 1982.

In 1999, San Jose State and the City of San Jose agreed to combine their main libraries to form a joint City/University library located on campus, the first known collaboration of this type in the United States. The combined library faced opposition, with critics stating that the two libraries have very different objectives and that the project would be too expensive. [13]  [14]  Despite opposition, the project proceeded, and the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Library opened on-time and on-budget in 2003.