My Morgan State University History
Holmes Hall (1952) The building was named in honor of Dr Dwight O.W. Holmes, the sixth president of the college, who became President Emeritus. He helped transition Morgan College during a critical period. WWII was underway, Morgan was transferred to the State, and postwar sale unprecedented growth of the student body.
There are 107 Historically Black Universities in the United States, four of them are in the state of Maryland. I started my college journey at Bowie State back in 2006 and coming next spring I will complete my undergraduate journey at Morgan State University in Baltimore. I just can’t get enough of the HBCU atmosphere.
Morgan was established in 1867 but wasn’t called Morgan at all. In fact, the school started as the Century Biblical Institute by the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. While its original mission was to train ministers, by 1875 they were admitting women and training men and women to be teachers.
The school would go on to change its name to Morgan College by 1890 in honor of Reverend Lyttleton F. Morgan, who served as the first chairmen of the Board of Trustees from 1876 – 1886 and he donated the land for the original campus.
Morgan College while started in 1867 didn’t have its first black president until Dwight Oliver Wendell Holmes got the job in 1937. He was a sociologist, civil rights activist, collegiate athlete and author. He held that position as the 5th Morgan President until Martin D Jenkins took the helm in 1948.
To this day Morgan State University graduates more African Americans than any other University in Maryland. Plenty of great men and women have walked the campus of then Morgan College, Morgan State College or Morgan State University. People like the Honorable Robert Bell who is a history Maker. In his interview in the History Makers archive he talked about what was his motivation for attending Morgan. His story reminded me a lot of how I got to Bowie state. He said, “I knew I was going to school but didn’t get a lot of counseling as to what exactly our options were.” He also spoke about how he didn’t apply to many places because the applications cost so you can’t just apply everywhere. I could relate to that too. Bell would go on to graduate 2nd in his class and went on to Harvard law school after an extended time at Morgan due to a bout of tuberculosis. He would later be one of five African Americans to pass the bar in Maryland in 1969.
Another great Morgan attendee was the Honorable Parren Mitchell. Mitchell got his undergrad at Morgan after he received the purple heart in WWII. I could honestly write an entire paper about this guy alone. One of the coolest things he accomplished was getting his masters from the University of Maryland. He had to fight for his admission into U of M in court. He ultimately won.
But back to Morgan. Mitchell sat down with History Makers, and he talked about his time at Morgan College. Back in the 40s he remembered being on campus and trying to alert the faculty to the civil rights movement. It was still in its infancy, but Mitchell had no concern with that. Right is right and wrong is wrong. He details during his interview that classmates and himself wanted the staff at Morgan to be more involved and vocal about civil rights or they would shut the school down. The staff didn’t budge, so, they shut the school down. Using chairs and bodies to block classrooms and throughways. He also mentioned the president during this time to be Dwight Holmes. Holmes told Mitchell that segregation was wrong so he couldn’t stop the students from boycotting. This was back in the mid 40’s.
Speaking of segregation, I want to note that Morgan is the largest HBCU in Maryland. It was a private school until 1939 when the state of Maryland purchased the school in response to a statewide study that determined that states needed to provide more opportunity for its black citizens. This happened mainly due to the noise that Donald Murray made. Donald Murray never went to Morgan, but he was a Baltimore city resident. Murray applied to the University of Maryland school of Law. He wasn’t admitted due to race, so he fought it. Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP helped, and Donald Murray became the first black to graduate form that law school.
Due to Murray gaining acceptance Maryland decided to get behind creating a space for African Americans to get a quality education basically to keep U of M white. It helped get Morgan state funding so in the ended up helping everyone.
I wasn’t sure but I decided to search the archive for Donald Murray. I first went straight into my Maker directory search but it was a fruitless search. That sent me back to the home page to search Donald Murrays name in the archive entirely. I found Sylvia Cooke Martin talking about him. Ms. Cooke was an historian and library administrator and was appointed to the Chief of Staff for the Library of Congress. She spoke in length about growing up in Baltimore next door and down the street from a lot of interesting things and people. Namely the Murray family because of what he went on to do and she also talked about being across the street from the NAACP headquarters. There she would see celebrities and Thurgood Marshall coming in and out.
There was no shortage of History Makers in the archive. I used my maker directory tab and searched Morgan State University. That yielded me 58 history maker results. As I started scrolling through, I noticed a few names that were Morgan. That made me go back and tighten my search. This time I put “Morgan State University” in quotes. That bought me 48 History Makers that either attended or worked at Morgan State. From Parren Mitchell who I mentioned earlier to Earl S Richardson a former interim president of the University back in 1984 before accepting the roll full time the following year. He was the 11th president of Morgan State University. I found Brett ruth Quarles, a legend in her own right but she was the wife of the great Benjamin Quarles. Benjamin Quarles was a professor at Morgan but his work as an historian was second to none. He was at the tip of spear as far African American US history goes. His knowledge become well sought after as the civil rights movement took hold In America and the full history of African Americans was sought after. The books he wrote on these topics would go on to become required reading. Even in the History Makers interview with his wife he is referenced as one of the greatest historians that “We” have ever produced. Only competing with John Hope Franklin and maybe Carter G Woodson. That is impressive company.
His wife remembers him as someone who deserves all the good press because he was such a hard worker and he truly believed in the work that he was doing.
Now while I felt like my search was complete after finding so many Morgan History Makers, I did remember one key fact. As I mentioned earlier Morgan’s name changed a couple times over the years. I needed to search Morgan College to be sure I didn’t miss anyone who was affiliated.
Another key reason to search deeper was a key name that I knew of already wasn’t on the initial search. When I went back to my maker search, this time typing “Morgan State College” I only got 8 results. Several were the same but this time I found the Honorable Robert Mack Bell. It also got me to Harry B Johnson. Johnson was a Lieutenant colonel in the Army and served as the Chief of Army corrections. He was a student at Morgan from 58 – 62 and he had very fond memories of his time there. Something that stood out was he remembered his time at Morgan to be the time he had the greatest comradery. This is saying a lot from a former ranger and military man, also an athlete. He felt like the students at that time were all on one accord. Everyone was there to help change things. They worked together and shared in a way he never saw again. He also talked about meeting men from up North. Referencing New York, New Jersey and Philly. He didn’t really understand them well and was offput by there mannerisms. He also didn’t like the way they jokingly seemed to refer to woman. He also thought the music they listened to was to look cool. He now says he loves Miles Davis and cannot go a full day without it. To me I think this is a funny memory and fits directly with how people still feel about college. You start things and find ways about yourself that essentially will be you. You have your whole life to learn about yourself, but those years surrounded by those people transitioning into adulthood at the same time can be truly impactful.
