Students Fight to End Segregation

After dismantling slavery in the United States, a new system of oppression and dehumanization was established. The creation of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation began in the immediate void left by ending slavery. Institutions of higher education were also not immune to these Jim Crow laws and this new form of white supremacy.

Harry S. Cummings and Charles W. Johnson became the first Black men admitted to the University of Maryland Law School in Baltimore and graduated in 1889. Unfortunately, a growing change in the political winds placed new pressure to stop the acceptance of Black students into dental, law, and medical schools in the Maryland system. Arthur Pue Gorman, Maryland representative in the U.S. Senate launched a campaign the same year these men graduated to stoke fear over the notion of Black people making too many political gains. In 1890, John L. Dozier and William A. Hawkins were expelled from the Law School after the university received several complaints from white students and the administration. A policy banning Black students was formally put into place the following year.

The flagship campus in College Park remained racially homogenous, except for a few international students. While Black students were not allowed to attend classes at the main campus, there is a long history of Black laborers affiliated with the institution's early years, such as the Dory family, whose family members worked on campus for multiple generations.

Arthur P. Gorman. The Parties and the Men, or Political issues, 1896. [Place of publication not identified]: Robert O. Law.

The Princess Anne Academy, located on the Eastern Shore, opened in 1886 as a preparatory institution for Morgan College. In 1919, the Princess Anne Academy was absorbed by the Maryland system in an attempt “to comply with the Second Morrill Act of 1890, which required states to provide equal educational opportunities for Black students in agriculture and the mechanic arts”, but the budget was minuscule in comparison to what the white institutions were receiving. Furthermore, the institution did not have collegiate standing, let alone the charter to provide legal studies.

Harry Clifton Byrd served as president of the university from 1935-1954 and was instrumental in expanding the physical campus, strengthening its athletic program, and increasing its enrollment and budget, but he was also an ardent segregationist. Black students, like Donald Murray, were refused admission to UMD and encouraged to apply to the Princess Anne Academy.

The Princess Anne Academy lacked an adequate budget for sustaining a campus of its size. The buildings were made with wooden frames (a significant fire hazard) and the campus had dirt roads until 1935. On March 31, 1941, a heater in one of the rooms exploded. A total of 55 women were with their children when they became engulfed in flames. Reports indicate that women were jumping from the windows, many with their children in hand. A total of six people died, including a 3-year-old boy. After the fire, an investigation indicated that many of the campus buildings were unsafe.

As the embers from the Princess Anne Academy settled and cooled, the fight for Black students to be accepted more broadly into the Maryland system continued. Although a small number of Black students were admitted to the Graduate Studies Program in the College of Education, these students were not permitted to come to the College Park campus and were taught by professors that traveled to Bowie to provide their coursework.

Harry Clifton Byrd served as president of the university from 1935-1954 and was instrumental in expanding the physical campus, strengthening its athletic program, and increasing its enrollment and budget, but he was also an ardent segregationist. Black students, like Donald Murray, were refused admission to UMD and encouraged to apply to the Princess Anne Academy.

The Princess Anne Academy lacked an adequate budget for sustaining a campus of its size. The buildings were made with wooden frames (a significant fire hazard) and the campus had dirt roads until 1935. On March 31, 1941, a heater in one of the rooms exploded. A total of 55 women were with their children when they became engulfed in flames. Reports indicate that women were jumping from the windows, many with their children in hand. A total of six people died, including a 3-year-old boy. After the fire, an investigation indicated that many of the campus buildings were unsafe.

As the embers from the Princess Anne Academy settled and cooled, the fight for Black students to be accepted more broadly into the Maryland system continued. Although a small number of Black students were admitted to the Graduate Studies Program in the College of Education, these students were not permitted to come to the College Park campus and were taught by professors that traveled to Bowie to provide their coursework.

Princess Anne Academy, Class of 1894. University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Special Collections.

“If we don’t do something about Princess Anne, we’re going to have to educate them at College Park, where our girls are.”

—Harry Clifton Byrd

Harry Clifton Byrd standing in academic garb holding a rolled blueprint, circa 1920-1940. Sterling Byrd collection.