Despite Obstacles, Morgan State University Soars

As Morgan State University recently concluded the celebration of its historic 150thanniversary, it is appropriate to review some of the milestones in its development and acknowledge how a dual system of higher education in Maryland has adversely affected higher education in the state today.

Morgan, like many other HBCUs, was founded by well-intentioned churches and white leaders to provide for the education of freed slaves and other blacks who had been denied education prior to the Civil War. Founded in 1867 by the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and originally named the Centenary Biblical Institute, the institution was private until 1939 when the state purchased it to create an institution for black Marylanders who were barred from attending the white schools in the state.

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