[12] It is the home of two National Register of Historic Places - The MMI Chapel and Lovelace Hall, and the President's House.

The then President of Howard College, Colonel J. T. Murfee, LL.D.,[15] and a handful of faculty and students decided to remain in Marion, Alabama and immediately reorganized and founded Marion Military Institute, a military preparatory high school and college.

[2] Although built as a military college, H. O. Murfee, MMI's second president, believed that Marion was destined to become the "American Eton".

[2] As part of the transition to a public institution, Marion phased out its high school program.

Marable claimed he was harassed and fired for bringing up allegations that the school was discriminating against black students, including the idea that race mixing was forbidden.

[22] Currently, MMI has varsity teams for baseball, men's basketball, softball, tennis, cross country, and golf.

[22] The school colors were originally pink and green when established, but they were changed to orange and black following Woodrow Wilson's appearance at the MMI convocation.

[23][24] They also represented Region XXII at the NJCAA Men's National Basketball Championships, but lost to McLennan Community College (70-78) in the first round.

[25] Marion Military Institute men's tennis team showed its dominance in the state of Alabama by holding the NJCAA Region XXII Championship five years in a row from 2011 to 2016.

[26] In 2013, the school hired former MLB player Matt Downs as the head coach of the baseball team.

[27] In 2016, Christopher Lawrence, former personal trainer of Javier Arenas and Kirani James, became the Marion's cross country coach.