 |
| ||||||||
|
|
|
Search:
|
Morgan State University
At the close of the Civil War, few Maryland schools accepted African Americans, but opportunities at every level of education soon began to develop. For young black men seeking ministerial training, the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church established the Centenary Biblical Institute in 1867. Some financial support came from Baltimore's Lovely Lane Methodist Church, and early classes were conducted at Sharp Street A.M.E. Church. The school's curriculum later expanded to offer teacher training to both young men and young women. In 1890, to honor a gift from Rev. Lyttleton F. Morgan (the first chairman of the school's board of trustees, 1876-1886), the school changed its name to Morgan College. Classes were conducted in the main building at the northeast corner of Edmonson Avenue and Fulton Avenue, Baltimore. It conferred its first baccalaureate degree in 1895.
In 1917, the campus relocated to a then-sparsely populated suburb on Hillen Road near Cold Spring Lane. The effort to relocate was spurred by the school's steady growth, and by a proposition from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). Carnegie pledged to fund support of an academic building for the college if Morgan met a number of other requirements, including selection of a new campus site. Morgan met the challenge, and as a result, Carnegie Hall, completed in 1919, is the oldest building on campus. Morgan remained a private school until 1939. State officials sought to change that status in an effort to stave off racial desegregation at the University of Maryland at College Park. No other public liberal arts college was open to black citizens prior to 1939, and that condition had recently desegregated the university's law school. Thus, Morgan College became Morgan State College. In spite of the motives behind it, black Marylanders saw much promise in a publicly financed Morgan (efforts to desegregate the University of Maryland continued anyway). Capital development and curricular expansion at Morgan occurred rapidly during the mid-twentieth century, so much so that by 1975 school officials received university status authorizing them to confer advanced degrees. Although Morgan joined the University of Maryland System, an agency which administers various functions of the state's public higher education, it has maintained its own governing board. Morgan has benefited from the talent and dedication of many. President Dwight O. W. Holmes, the first African American in that post, ably guided Morgan from private to public status. Trustees Morris Soper and Carl Murphy brought stability to the board for nearly four decades. The faculty has had brilliant scholars across many disciplines, including Dr. Benjamin Quarles (History) and Dr. Nathan Carter (Chorale Arts).
From its earliest efforts at training ministers, Morgan has prepared its students for service and leadership. Among its more notable alumni are Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, Robert M. Bell (Class of 1966), founder and president of Black Enterprise Magazine, Earl Graves (Class of 1958), and former U.S. Congressman and president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Kweisi Mfume (Class of 1976). Many other Morganites have served the public in varying capacities. Beyond its founding, and its transfer to the state, a number of signature events have shaped Morgan's history. The campus relocation from Edmondson and Fulton in West Baltimore to Hillen and Cold Spring in the northeast was met with much fear and resistance from the white community there. Even after the move was finalized, students coming to campus faced daily harassment and intimidation because of the overall culture of segregation in Baltimore. Faculty found housing around the new campus so restrictive that a new residential community emerged-Morgan Park-simply to serve their needs. Motivated by their own experiences, Morgan's students led many desegregation efforts in Maryland as social protest and civil rights took the national stage during the 1950s and 1960s. While several took part in the more noteworthy national protests, issues closer to campus-in particular, racial desegregation at Northwood Shopping Center-were taken up as well.
On the athletic field the Morgan football team excelled during the 1930s. Led by Coach Edward P. Hurt, Morgan won six Colored (now Central) Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships. Between 1932 and 1938, Morgan played 54 consecutive games without a loss (47 wins, 0 losses, 7 ties). Since then, while the success of the '30s has never been matched, a number of excellent players have passed through the program, including four future National Football League Hall of Fame players: Roosevelt Brown, Len Ford, Leroy Kelly, and Willie Lanier. Morgan has received many honors over its long history. In what became one of his final public appearances, the seminal figure of jazz, Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington performed an original composition, "Salute to Morgan State," at the 1974 commencement. Morgan had conferred an honorary doctorate upon him several years earlier. Two decades later, Morgan received perhaps its highest honor, as President William Jefferson Clinton addressed the 1997 commencement, the first time a sitting president had addressed commencement at a public, historically black college or university. With strong programs in engineering, business, teacher education, architecture, social work, and history, Morgan confers more bachelor's degrees to black students than any other Maryland school. —David Taft Terry
Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture
Further Reading McConnell, Roland C. The History of Morgan Park: A Baltimore Neighborhood, 1917-1999. Baltimore, Md.: Morgan Park Improvement Association, 2000. Wilson, Edward N. The History of Morgan State College: A Century of Purpose in Action, 1867-1967.New York: Vantage Press, 1975. Additional Websites Morgan State University. www.morgan.edu. | |||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
