Morgan Magazine 2017, Vol. 1

MORGAN MAGAZ I N E

VOLUME I 2017

Purpose Progress Promise

Special Sesquicentennial Issue

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M a g a z i n e

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Magazine

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2 – Cover Story

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President’s Letter

Purpose, Progress and Promise

Preserving a Civil Rights Legacy

Prominent Morgan Women

The history of Morgan: a kaleidoscopic view of the struggles and triumphs of the AfricanAmerican experience

The Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum

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Tennis, Anyone?

Morgan Graduate Catherine E. Pugh, Mayor, City of Baltimore

Spring Commencement Honored History, Featured Firsts

Refilling the Source

A former Bears cheerleader takes on City Hall

Former Vice President Joe Biden energized the undergraduate ceremony

Celebrating Morgan’s sesquicentennial and the next 150 years

Ann Koger, sports trailblazer and champion

A snapshot of notable alumnae who have left an indelible imprint

Businessman James Waddy gives back to MSU

Morgan Magazine is published by the Division of Institutional Advancement of MSU for alumni, parents, faculty, students, prospective students and friends.

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Send correspondence directly to: Morgan Magazine Office of Public Relations and Communications 1700 E. Cold Spring Lane 507 McMechen Building Baltimore, MD 21251 (443) 885-3022 office main PR@morgan.edu

MORGAN MAGAZINE STAFF Vice President for Institutional Advancement

Cheryl Y. Hitchcock

Hermes Creative Awards

Interim Director of Public Relations and Communications

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2017 Gold Winner Morgan Magazine 2016 Vol 1

Publications Manager

Ferdinand Mehlinger Contributing Editor

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P. A. Greene Contributing Writers

Iris Leigh Barnes Toya Corbett, Ph.D. Ida Jones, Ph.D. Donna M. Owens

MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2017

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President’sLetter

growing

the future, GROWING THE FUTURE leading LEADING the world.™ THE WORLD TM

President’s Letter Alumni and Friends, Hollywood would be hard-pressed to create a story of triumph over adversity more inspiring than that presented in the history of Morgan State University. In this special Sesquicentennial Issue of Morgan Magazine, our University archivist, Dr. Ida Jones, outlines that story, from the national and regional events leading up to our institution’s founding as Centenary Biblical Institute in 1867 to our present-day status as Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University. At center stage in this account is the providential partnership of Black Church activists and white religious leaders, humanitarians and philanthropists who made that founding and development possible.

The real-life characters spotlighted in this story, albeit briefly, are more fascinating than fiction, as are the achievements of three Morgan alumni also featured in these pages: sports legend Ann Koger, who knocked down gender and racial barriers during her stellar career as a player, coach and referee in tennis and basketball; prominent businessman and Morgan benefactor James Waddy Jr., whose wife, Patricia, is also a Morgan graduate; and Catherine E. Pugh, who made history last year as the first Morgan graduate to lead Baltimore City and is now in the second year of her tenure as the city’s 50th mayor. Their successes, and those of the more than 50,000 other graduates of Morgan, prove the ultimate success of Morgan’s mission, which is, as it was in 1867, to offer the opportunities of higher education to a broader segment of our citizenry. Proof abounds elsewhere, as well, in our recent gains in student success statistics, in our new facilities and other campus enhancements, in our increased government funding for research, and in many other areas.

Morgan exists and prospers today because alumni and supporters like you have remained rooted in our powerful tradition, continuing to look upward and reach higher to grow the future and lead the world.

Please enjoy this keepsake issue of Morgan Magazine as we move boldly into Morgan State University’s next 150 years.

Sincerely,

David Wilson President

MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2017

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Purpose, Progress Morgan State University, in Celebration of 150 Years

By Ida Jones, Ph.D.

STATE UNIVERSITY The Vision and The Commitment (1864—1867) Centenary Biblical Institute (1867—1890) Morgan College (1890—1939) Morgan State College (1939—1975) Morgan State University (1975— Present)

The history of Morgan State University is a composite picture of the drive, passion and determination of African Americans to enjoy the benefits of a proper education. Their advancement toward their goal was marked by the assistance of key allies in Morgan’s struggle, ultimately successful, to eke out its right to exist within the state of Maryland as an independently operating educational institution.

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1864—1890

and Promise Sections

I. II. III. IV. V.

Maryland The Black Church Three Men on a Mission African-American Presidents To the Present

Union troops at Fells Point with cannons pointed at City Hall, during the federal occupation of Baltimore during the American Civil War (1862)

Morgan is principally a product of Marylanders: African Americans and whites who understood the urgent need to create the school.

Opening its doors in 1867 in a Southern state was not a simple feat, and the harsh realities of that era imperiled the very concept. Yet they persevered.

I. Maryland Enslavement in Maryland, one of the original 13 colonies, did not end until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, in 1865. Yet Baltimore’s free black community was the largest in the country during the period leading up to the American Civil War. —Continued on page 4 MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2017

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The “Pratt Street Riot,” Baltimore, 1861

Baltimore City was one of three main population centers of African Americans in the state, along with the mid-Eastern Shore Counties of Talbot; Caroline, the first home of Frederick Douglass; and Dorchester, birthplace of Harriett Tubman.

The agrarian economy of Maryland’s Eastern Shore flourished — enriching the region’s plantation owners and many of its small farmers — thanks to the export of tobacco and corn, and the thankless work of enslaved Africans who made up the lion’s share of the workforce.

Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church opened its first school in 1802.

Thomas Kelso Chairman, Founding Board of Trustees 1867–1876

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Baltimore City and its main industries of shipbuilding and ship maintenance attracted many African Americans, both free born and enslaved. Before the War of 1812, Baltimore was a small port town that employed skilled and semiskilled workers who served as caulkers, sailmakers, painters, carvers and common laborers. Sixteen years after the end of the war, construction on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began, drawing larger pools of laborers: free and enslaved Africans, domestic and immigrant whites and a smattering of mixed race people. The unique feature of Baltimore from the 1830s to 1850s was a commingling of races working beside one another.

Many of the free black residents of Baltimore during this time organized their communities into neighborhoods, fraternal orders, churches and benevolent societies. They also established schools. Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church opened its first school in 1802.

Sharp Street’s congregation embraced the egalitarian vision of John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield, the founders of Methodism, who promoted education in sacred and secular matters as essential to citizenship.

President Lincoln ordered federal troops to occupy Baltimore during the Civil War.

However, beneath the apparent social progress, an undercurrent of animosity toward African Americans ran strong. The 1860s was a turbulent decade for the U.S. as a whole and for Baltimore in particular. On April 19, 1861, a week after the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter, S.C., a movement of Union troops through Baltimore sparked a riot that caused the war’s first deaths by hostile action.

The “Pratt Street Riot,” Baltimore’s proximity to the nation’s capital and the ardent, pro-Confederate passions among Baltimore’s citizenry led President Lincoln to order Federal troops to occupy the city throughout the course of the war.

Increasing growth of Baltimore’s black population, from 27,898 in 1860 to 39,558 in 1870, compounded the racial tensions. Baltimore’s government could not accommodate the influx of needy blacks leaving the Eastern Shore and perhaps lacked the will to find a solution. There were few jobs available for the semiskilled or unskilled, and housing became increasingly difficult to find. In response, city officials criminalized African Americans for vagrancy and fined them for lingering on city streets.

The stigma attached to black skin infuriated African-American and radical white Christians.

Both groups spoke out against the abuse black people suffered in Baltimore and charged that police and city officials fanned the embers of racism. By the close of the 1870s and in the wake of a cholera epidemic in 1866, white Baltimoreans gradually separated themselves, leaving black Baltimoreans to fill small areas within the city. In response to racism, the Black Church galvanized itself to provide social services for the community — including higher education.

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II. The Black Church Sociologist C. Eric Lincoln defined the Black Church as denominations and congregations started by black people. This institution, Lincoln purported, served as a prism that refracted the light and life of the African-American community.

The 19th century Black Church in Baltimore was a community of enslaved and free women and men, some literate, others barely literate, others unable to read, who worked jobs in agriculture, menial labor, in the shipyard and as domestic workers.

They were keenly aware that education and citizenship were a dual inheritance for the rising generation, especially those born in the wake of the Civil War, and they funded their dream with their pennies, dimes and dollars. These African Americans utilized their churches to house fledgling schools that operated apart from the mainstream institutions that practiced de jure and de facto segregation against non-whites seeking an education.

One such school, opened in the basement of Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church in 1867, is now celebrating its 150th anniversary as Morgan State University. But Sharp Street was not alone in its ambitious undertaking. Rather, it was part of a 12-church coalition named the Washington Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in 1864.

‘Moral and Intellectual Elevation’ African Americans had been allowed to join the Methodist denomination since its arrival in the U.S. in the 1760s. However, the ugly specter of racism eventually infected the church, resulting in the formation of separate African-American congregations within the larger Methodist Episcopal denomination. The parishioners of Sharp Street opted to remain within the white denominational structure, unlike Richard Allen, who left and formed the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816, or James Varick, who formed the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1822, or William Henry Miles, who formed the Colored (Christian) Methodist Episcopal Church in 1870.

In October 1864, at Sharp Street, under the direction of Bishop Levi Scott, the pastors of 12 African-American congregations opened the first meeting of the Washington Conference, a regional governing body within the larger General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Washington Conference provided regional jurisdiction for African-American M.E. churches in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Most of the meeting’s attendees, all men, were formerly enslaved, self-educated and desirous of opening places of learning for ministerial training.

African Americans formed congregations within the larger Methodist Episcopal denomination.

Levi Scott, D.D., Senior Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church

—Continued on page 6 MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2017

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The original churches of the Conference were: Asbury: Baltimore, Md. Asbury: Washington, D.C. Dallas Street: Baltimore, Md. Ebenezer: Washington, D.C. John Wesley: Baltimore, Md. Linganore: Frederick, Md. Mount Zion: Georgetown Washington, D.C. Orchard Street: Baltimore, Md. Patapsco: Baltimore County, Md. Roberts Memorial: Alexandria, Va. Sharp Street: Sandy Springs, Md. Sharp Street: Baltimore, Md. At the closing session, the delegates resolved “above all, that we do hereby offer devout thanksgiving and praise to the Giver of all good things, for the blessings of His Providence in making Maryland a Free State, and restoring to liberty many of our brethren who have been in bondage. To God be the glory, and to us, the privilege and duty of making this dispensation available for our moral and intellectual elevation.”

SECRETARIES OF THE FREEDMEN’S AID SOCIETY, 1866–1912 Standing: W.P. Thirkield and M.C.B. Mason Seated: J.C. Hartzell, J.M. Walden, R.S. Rust and J.W. Hamilton

From the outset, these church leaders realized that freedom without education was a bankrupt prospect. Many of the founding Washington Conference churches operated Sabbath schools that instructed Christian catechism, ensuring proper biblical training and understanding.

In August 1866, the General Conference of the M.E. church conferred concerning the work and education of the African-American freedmen. The result of the meeting was the formation of the Freedmen’s Aid Society (FAS).

“The Society operated from1866 to 1880,” wrote A.A. McPheeters in “Interest of the Methodist Church in the Education of Negroes.” “The work of the FAS anticipated that the time would come

when it would be necessary to aid the education of the illiterate masses among the whites. With this in view, the phrase, ‘and others,’ was placed in the constitution to permit the Society to undertake such work.... As a result of this action, the Society labored for over 20 years fostering the missionary program of the Church in the South among both white and colored persons until 1908.”

Other Protestant denominations crafted similar organizations to ameliorate the dire condition of the freed population.

The Founding The Washington Conference met with leaders of the white Baltimore Conference for two years to discuss and organize their idea of a school. On Dec. 25, 1866, the General Conference approved the formation of the Centenary Biblical Institute of the M.E. Church. The first classes were held on April 30, 1867 at Sharp Street, which served as the first campus of CBI. The Washington, Delaware and Baltimore Conferences contributed funds, students and resources to their school, which provided the state with its first program of higher education for African Americans (“Negroes”).

In 1872, CBI moved to 44 East Saratoga Street in Baltimore City and employed its first president, the Rev. J. Emory Round, a white man who served in the position for 10 years. Four black trustees were added to the administration in 1872. They were Wesley J. Parker, R.H. Robinson, Henry W. Martin and William Perkins. Also during Round’s tenure, the school’s first female student, Susie H. Carr, was admitted, in 1874. In 1879, a 90-foot x 140-foot lot at Fulton and Edmonson Avenues in Baltimore City was gifted to CBI. The inclusion of women augmented the development of the theological institute into a normal school then a preparatory institution. By 1881–

The following is a partial list of black clergymen who were integral in the formation of CBI.

The Rev. J. Emory Round First President 1872–1882

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The Rev. Benjamin Brown Sr., Pastor of Sharp Street M.E. Church, 1864

The Rev. Warner Cook, Pastor of Sharp Street M.E. Church, 1867–68

The Rev. James H. Harper, Pastor of Sharp Street M.E. Church, 1865–66

The Rev. James Peck, Pastor of Sharp Street M.E. Church, 1868–69

The Rev. Samuel Green, A.M.E. Church Minister and Member of the Education and Religious Instruction Committee for CBI

The Rev. Thomas A. Davis, A.M.E. Church Elder and Pastor of Sharp Street M.E. Church, 1869–70

The Rev. John H. Brice, Pastor of Sharp Street M.E. Church, 1866–67

The Rev. Robert H. Robinson, Pastor of Sharp Street M.E. Church, 1870–1873

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1882, 36 of the 136 students at CBI were women.

In the 16 years after its founding, CBI “never graduated a student in the theological course,” and none of its students solely studied that field in 1881. The Theological course was modified, and the Normal course continued, while the Preparatory course was slated for abolition in 1884, to be replaced by Classical course studies. This shift in curriculum made a political impact that countered stereotypical beliefs that ministry was the only profession suitable for black men. This statement from CBI’s second president, William M. Frysinger, D.D., captured in “The History of Morgan State College” by Edward N. Wilson, was typical:

of Maryland (UMD) decided to end its “colored students Department.” Many Maryland legislators believed it was “inexpedient” to admit such students. This move drove out black scholars, who appealed to Morgan College to establish a law school for their continued studies within Maryland. The idea initially was tabled, possibly because of a lack of available funds.

“Educational work among a people recently freed from slavery with all its attendant degradation of the intellectual and moral forces cannot be pursued by methods approved in schools intended for the instruction of youth who have been favored with all preliminary advantages of freedom and social standing.”

Friends in Need

Explosive Growth President Frysinger’s opinion notwithstanding, CBI was expanded with the acquisition of the Olney Estate in Princess Anne, Somerset County, Md., in 1886. John F. Goucher, D.D., contributed $500 to the $2,000 purchase price. The property provided the needed additional space for the growing school. The Delaware Conference, which comprised African-American congregations in New Jersey, Delaware, Eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland’s Eastern Shore and northern Virginia, contributed the initial portion of the purchase price of the property, which was named Delaware Conference Academy at Princess Anne.

As the physical campus grew, the curriculum morphed into a collegiate course of study. President Frysinger resigned in 1888, and President Francis J. Wagner, D.D., was selected by a committee of three composed of Goucher, Lyttleton F. Morgan, D.D., and Summerfield Baldwin. Dr. Wagner concerned himself with the mounting debt of CBI. To offset the fiscal imbalance, he opted to reduce the teaching, increase the endowment and shift the curriculum from academic to collegiate. The new curriculum allowed students a longer experience at CBI, thus providing a steady income of tuitions not subject to wavering attendance.

The 1890s brought booms and busts for the school. On March 13, 1890, the Committee on Corporations of the M.E. Church favorably resolved that CBI would become Morgan College, effective April 3 of that year. The name was in honor of Dr. Morgan, in acknowledgement of his largess in providing funds for everything from supplies to scholarships. Later that year, in October, the University

By 1900, CBI had experienced explosive growth and a name change. The initial class of 20 students on April 30, 1867 blossomed to 226 in 1885– 1886 and 263 in 1887.

Concurrent with CBI’s and Morgan’s growth was the departure of the U.S. government and its troops from the Civil War-ravaged South, marking the end of Reconstruction. In 1877, a mere 10 years after the founding of Morgan, the fate of the majority of African Americans was resigned to the legislative hands of white citizens, many of whom blamed African Americans and their allies for the precarious economic position of whites and the deep emotional wounds white suffered from the war. Repeal of civil rights legislation soon followed, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 instituted a stringent color line and “separate but equal” ideology. These two indelible marks blemished the entire 20th century.

During this time, dubbed “the nadir” by historian Rayford Logan, God provided Morgan with the Methodist Episcopal Church and a small group of well-intentioned white men who pushed with Sisyphean ardor to turn the tide in favor of the black college. They leveraged their connections — in the pulpit, in courts of law, in private meetings with philanthropists and elsewhere — to expand the original idea of theological education for African-American men and develop a larger vision of liberal arts education for African Americans of both genders.

Chief among Morgan’s white advocates were John F. Goucher, chairman of the CBI Board of Trustees; John Oakley Spencer, Ph.D., LL.D., fourth president of Morgan College; and Judge Morris Ames Soper, who succeeded Goucher as chairman of the Board of Trustees. Together, they left Morgan College solvent, on land large enough to expand its physical plants and educational programs and with broader appeal among white Methodists in Maryland. The lingering impact of their contributions resonates today.

William M. Frysinger, D.D. Second President 1882–1888

Francis J. Wagner, D.D. Third President 1888–1901

Lyttleton F. Morgan Chairman of Trustees 1876–1886

—Continued on page 8 MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2017

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III. Three Men on a Mission

Goucher Spencer

Soper

John F. Goucher Photo courtesy of Goucher College

John Oakley Spencer Judge Morris A. Soper

Who Was Goucher?

John F. Goucher was born in Pennsylvania on June 7, 1845. His parents were devoted Methodists. He attended Dickinson College, moved to Maryland in the late 1860s and began a career in ministry serving the M.E. Church through the Baltimore Conference. In Maryland, his ministry grew, and he met his future bride, Mary Cecilia Fisher. They wed on Dec. 24, 1877.

The Rev. John F. Goucher Chairman of Trustees 1890—1922

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The Gouchers shared a love for higher education and world mission programs serving people of many ethnicities.

Goucher’s position within the Baltimore Conference enabled him to participate in Methodist activities surrounding education, at Morgan and later at the Woman’s College of Baltimore City. Although offered the presidency of CBI, Goucher declined, remaining active in his ministerial work at First M.E. Church. He became president of the Woman’s College of Baltimore City in 1891 and remained actively involved with Morgan.

Goucher was appointed to CBI’s Board of Trustees on Dec. 24, 1879, succeeding Francis A. Crook, one of CBI’s founders.

On Jan. 27, 1880, he became vice chairman of the Board, serving under Lyttleton F. Morgan. His involvement with the institute’s founders and students afforded him a visceral experience to assess their earnest desire for a school, a desire that Goucher embraced and funded. He donated the plot of land at Edmondson and Fulton Avenues that became CBI’s second location, and included $5,000 to be spent on improvements. The stone building formally opened on May 17, 1881.

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1890—1939

Three Locations Goucher’s positive contributions were notable, nevertheless, his charity rang hollow to some in the wake of the special meeting on Dec. 9, 1890. The State Agricultural College of Maryland did not seek to integrate its school for all residents. An alternative opportunity to provide for African-American students, brokered in part

by Goucher, acquiesced to the separate and unequal principle of segregation, subsequently undermining the growth of CBI while strengthening the bigotry of certain Maryland legislators and educators. The outcome of the meeting signaled the beginning of an insidious struggle between CBI (later Morgan) and those Maryland legislators, who withheld needed funding from Morgan at every opportunity.

The land purchased in Princess Anne proved a contested space. Initially the purchase was an intended expansion of CBI. The removal of African Americans from the University of Maryland provided Morgan an opportunity to become the “colored campus” for the state of Maryland. This plan was rejected, however, the Princess Anne campus became the Eastern Branch of the Agricultural College of Maryland, which admitted black students so the school could receive $3,000 in federal funding through the Morrill Act. Morgan waited 16 years before being compensated for the sale of the campus.

The concession with Princess Anne was oppressive in the mind of one African-American trustee of Morgan, the Rev. D.H. Carroll, and other black Methodists. To add insult to injury, the campus was renamed Princess Anne Academy, scrubbing the African-American contribution from the land. The campus was subsumed by the University of Maryland in 1926.

In 1970, the campus became the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Another Morgan campus was opened, in Lynchburg, Va., in 1893. The additional location enabled CBI to expand its normal school curriculum, as the institute’s students continued to seek liberal arts instruction rather than ministerial training. The Trustees solicited the services of builder B.F. Bennett to replicate the stone structure at Edmondson and Fulton Avenues in Lynchburg. Anticipating the opening of the campus, President Wagner reported: “I never saw a school under better discipline. The classes were prompt and orderly and make good progress in their work.”

Wagner and Goucher witnessed the expansion of Morgan on three campus locations. The

exhaustive work and failing health forced Wagner into retirement in 1901. Goucher, in good health, remained committed to growing the school. In seeking a new president for Morgan, Goucher invited John Oakley Spencer to apply. Spencer visited the campus and found the work honorable yet not overly appealing.

He stated, “I will accept the position and endeavor to the College,” with the condition that Goucher and the entire Board support an expansion program. They agreed.

The Social Gospel In 1902, John Oakley Spencer, Ph.D., LL.D., assumed the presidency of Morgan. President Spencer’s greatest concerns were the institutional finances. There was a $15,000 mortgage on the Baltimore property and a $5,000 institutional endowment. Attracting students was not a problem, and providing housing, instruction and scholarships proved a difficult yet accomplishable mission. Spencer organized a fundraising campaign within the Methodist Conferences. Operating in the age of the social gospel, a Protestant movement that called for action against social problems such as racism and cultural imperialism, Spencer thought his appeal to Methodist communities to garner funds for a Methodist institution would be successful.

John Oakley Spencer, Ph.D., LL.D. Fourth President 1902—1937

Spencer was also aware of the Methodist position on education. The Methodists’ work immediately after the Civil War pointed the denominational resources in the direction of funding and instruction.

Spencer knew the times in which he lived, and he was aware that his social currency would benefit Morgan and ensure its survival.

Who Was Spencer?

John Oakley Spencer was born in an old red farmhouse near Wyoming Valley, Pa., in 1857 to Henry A. Spencer and Sarah Rachel. Farming and nature held special places in the Spencer family, and John’s humble and rustic upbringing provided him an understanding of service.

The Rev. Charles W. Baldwin Chairman of Trustees 1922—1938

Spencer enjoyed school and took his studies seriously. He attended the Keystone Academy in Factoryville, seminary in Wyoming, then Illinois Wesleyan and Columbia Universities.

Many of his instructors remarked that he had an insatiable craving for knowledge.

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Ivy Mill photo from “The Molinography of Maryland,”

by John McGrain, Maryland State Archives

Ivy Mill

“The enchantment of the idea would not let him,” wrote Grace S. Parks in the Aug. 29, 1937 edition of the Baltimore Sun. “It drove him to translate into reality his own desire for an education. So, when he read a story about a boy working to pay his way through college, he found the solution to his problem, without any financial backing. His first job paid him 50 cents a day, for which he plowed from 6 o’clock in the morning until dark…. His salary at the first school he taught was $25 a month.”

Spencer traveled to Japan in the 1880s and opened a school. After his return to the U.S. in 1899, he experienced the tragic loss of his wife and one of his three small children. He remarried in 1906.

Spencer saw Morgan as a pioneering educational institution that had surmounted huge hurdles of prejudice and financial limitations.

So he moved to Baltimore seeking to provide a vital service. During his first five years, he experienced many ups and downs in locating funding, reducing the school’s debt and growing the curriculum. He secured $50,000 from the Methodist General Education Board, $110,000 from the Rosenwald Fund and tens of thousands of dollars from the Washington and Delaware Conferences.

Andrew Carnegie, businessman and philanthropist

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Spencer’s keen understanding of finances resulted in a beneficial visit to philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who supported numerous capital campaigns at HBCUs nationwide.

During the meeting, in 1907, President Spencer secured a total of $100,000 and the promise of a new building.

Ivy Mill Acquisition Spencer was also responsible for Morgan’s move to the Ivy Mill property, where the center of the campus is located today. The college acquired the 68 1/4-acre site on June 1, 1917.

The property extended from Hillen Road to Herring Run and was bounded on the north by Grindon Lane, which is now Cold Spring Lane.

The structures on the site included the Ivy Mill Hotel, which was transformed into classrooms and a library, and three other structures in various stages of disrepair. Weeds and shrubbery grew profusely on the grounds, and all hands, including students and teachers, joined the repair and beautification efforts. Acquiring the Ivy Mill property required a full-court press by Spencer and his administration.

Morgan’s Lynchburg campus was destroyed by fire under suspicious circumstance on Dec. 17, 1917, and Goucher and Spencer asked the Lynchburg principal, Lee Marcus McCoy, to relocate his students to Baltimore in January to occupy the Ivy Mill campus. But Goucher asked Spencer to advise McCoy of the hostile attitude of white residents on and near the Ivy Mill campus who were fighting Morgan’s move there. The more severe threats by phone, letters, visits and lawsuits provided McCoy with a clear understanding that retaliation against African-American education was on the rise.

Lynchburg students arrived on Jan. 8, 1918.

Spencer documented the events at Ivy Mill in the Morgan College Bulletin through a series of articles. He noted that the dismissal of previous residents from the property did not go smoothly: some residents left quietly, while others protested their removal. Residents surrounding the property voiced their disapproval of the sale.

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Carnegie Hall The four-story masonry classroom building was constructed at Morgan College (now Morgan State University) in 1919 for a cost of $95,000. Architects for the project were Tilton and Githens. The building’s first renovation was done in 1953. Photograph by Jackson Davis, Nov. 21, 1921. Publication courtesy of the University of Virginia, #330943.

“Individuals and groups visited the College and made protest, in their own behalf and in behalf of their neighbors…. The objectors carried their case to the county court at Towson, because the site was in Baltimore County. The judge very plainly stated that there was no legal obstacle to Morgan College purchasing that property or any property that it might need for its use as a school. Indeed, he rather praised the officials of the College…. The protesting groups had objected to the site on the ground that its beauty made it particularly desirable as a residential area…. They went to the State Court of Appeals and that court upheld the lower court.”

The vitriol expressed by the neighbors surrounding the campus are well-documented elsewhere. The Baltimore Sun published an article on May 2, 1917, “Fights Negro Invasion Lauraville is Up in Arms against Morgan College.”

“Lauraville has blood in its eye for an invasion of its 99 per cent, pure white community by a negro institution, colony or settlement of any kind (and) its determin(ed) to fight any such invasion to the last ditch. (D)elegations from Lauraville, Hamilton, Clifton Park, Montebello Park and Northwest Baltimore will gather at the doors of Morgan, to present a resolution of protest against the college move.”

Despite the effort funded by 275 adults to expel Morgan from the site, the college was successful in staying. Spencer noted that the legal costs were draining, however, he had the weight of Methodist leadership behind him.

Morgan’s physical plant at Ivy Mill grew to include three significant buildings: Carnegie Hall, a gray granite structure composed of three stories and a basement; a boy’s dormitory and Spencer

Hall, the applied science building. More than 14 buildings were constructed on the campus during Spencer’s tenure, and the student body, numbering 150 in 1902, grew to 522 in regular session and 300 in the summer school in 1937. The faculty, which numbered five in 1902, blossomed to 42 degree-holding instructors, blacks and whites, in 1937. Morgan during Spencer’s tenure accounted for 65 percent of all “colored principals” throughout Maryland.

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Early Black Leaders African Americans continued to provide leadership at Morgan throughout Spencer’s tenure.

The president recounted the contributions of two black faculty and a black administrator: Dean William Pickens, Milton L. Calloway and James H. Carter. Pickens served from 1915 to 1920 and is credited with modernizing the liberal arts and science program by balancing theological studies with social/natural sciences and foreign languages. Calloway taught biology, physics, chemistry and psychology from 1916 to 1950. He transformed the science curriculum and provided integrated learning for students by having them survey the campus flora. Carter, a Morgan graduate, served from 1916 to 1959. He worked as Spencer’s secretary to the Board of Trustees and as superintendent of grounds. Carter’s connections were indispensable. His father was a Lutheran minister who held services on Grindon Lane for stone quarry workers.

Other black administrators on campus also made significant contributions..

Spencer retired from Morgan in 1937 and remained connected to the campus through his successor and various trustees. He became the longest-serving president in Morgan’s history.

Spencer’s retirement did not stop his intellectual inquiry: he wrote on racial relations from a domestic and international perspective through the lens of his travels.

Judge Morris A. Soper Chairman of Trustees 1939–1953

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Who Was Soper?

Morris A. Soper, chairman of Morgan’s Board of Trustees from 1939 to 1953, was born in Baltimore, Md., on Jan. 23, 1873. He attended public primary schools; Baltimore City College high school; The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland School of Law. He was

admitted to the Maryland bar in 1895. Soper practiced law and nurtured his desire to teach simultaneously throughout his professional career. He was appointed chief judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City in 1914. He served on the Board of Trustees of Goucher College as well as Morgan, and publicly supported improvements in education for black Marylanders.

Working with President Spencer as a Morgan trustee, beginning in 1919, he lobbied the Maryland legislature to provide equitable and adequate funding for the continued growth and expansion Morgan experienced during his tenure. He was influential because of his position within the legal system of Maryland. Moreover, Soper was a religious man. In an article in the Spring 1998 edition of Washington and Lee Law Review, he said he viewed equality as “not only a matter of law, but a matter of conscience.” His rulings chipped away at Jim Crow within education, contributing to the success of the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1954.

This passage from Soper’s graduation address at Morgan, published by the Baltimore Afro-American on June 3, 1916, exemplifies his advocacy for the college and its students.

“We fondly believe that in these young men and women has been developed a capacity for leadership, and this commencement will fail of its purpose if they do not go forth — not only with pride and confidence in their powers…. My demand is that they shall make it their purpose to disseminate the truth about the colored people wherever they may be…. Education is a great remedial agency, and ought to be placed within the reach of every colored child born to take part in the struggle for existence…. I charge it as a solemn duty upon the graduates of this college, as potential leaders of a people that MORGAN.EDU

Morgan College Dormitory, photo courtesy of the University of Virginia, #330944.

you cause the light to shine upon these dark places, so that we may all come see and know the truth, and the truth may set us free.”

More than a decade later, on Dec. 12, 1932, Spencer wrote Soper about deficient state allocations for Morgan. “(T)he white state aided schools receive a total of $360,000 which the only colored school, Morgan, receives but $26,000. On the basis of population quota we should receive $52,000.

We are asking for an increase of $20,000 thus bringing Morgan up to $46,000 per year.

Even then we will below our proper quota as to population, and way below our quota as to needs…Since the colored people are not admitted to the state schools for technical and professional training, though they pay their share of taxes to support these schools. Morgan sends a larger population of its graduates back into the service of (Maryland) as teachers. A recent survey of state colleges for Negroes in other states where the bi-racial educational plan exists, shows an average of annual maintenance cost $163,000 for this work.”

Wheels of Justice The specter of discriminatory funding became more visible when Maryland’s Commission on Higher Education for Negroes presented indisputable evidence of funding inequity. Soper crusaded through his courtroom as well as the halls of the Maryland legislature to ensure the inequity was known and a remedy put in place. In 1935, he became chairman of the commission, which paved the way for Morgan to become a state college in 1939. Soper also served as chairman of the Morgan Christian Center in 1939.

Soper witnessed the whittling away of “separate but equal” in higher education through court rulings. In Murray v.

Pearson, in 1936, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that African Americans be allowed to attend the University of Maryland, since there was no comparable law school in Maryland for blacks.

Two years later, in Missouri ex rel. Gaines v.

Canada, a similar case arose and was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of Gaines, citing the Murray ruling.

In total, Goucher, Spencer and Soper gave 110 years of service to Morgan, spanning the institution’s growth from infancy to adulthood. Morgan entered the 1930s visible, blossoming and keenly aware of shifting social change.

Goucher died in 1922, Spencer retired in 1937, and Soper departed from the Board of Trustees in 1953. The Board’s preferred qualities in the next president were that he be Methodist, an educator and capable of “winning friends and support” for Morgan. On Nov. 19, 1937, Dwight Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ph.D., was installed as the fifth president of Morgan, the first African American to serve in the position.

Morgan’s Presidents

Twelve men have served as president, acting president or interim president of Morgan State University since its founding as Centenary Biblical Institute in 1867. MSU, an Historically Black Institution, has been led by an African American since the inauguration of President Dwight O.W. Holmes in 1937.

1872–1882 J. Emory Round, D.D. 1882–1888 William Maslin Frysinger, D.D. 1888–1901 Francis J. Wagner, D.D. 1901–1902 Charles Edmond Young, D.D. (Acting) 1902–1937 John Oakley Spencer, Ph.D., LL.D. 1937–1948 Dwight O.W. Holmes, Ph.D., LL.D. 1948–1970 Martin D. Jenkins, Ph.D., LL.D. 1970–1971 Thomas P. Fraser, Ph.D. (Interim) 1971–1974 King Virgil Cheek, J.D. 1974–1975 Thomas P. Fraser, Ph.D. (Interim) 1975–1984 Andrew Billingsley, Ph.D. 1984–2010 Earl S. Richardson, Ed.D. 2010– David Wilson, Ed.D.

—Continued on page 14 MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2017

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1890—1939 Holmes and Spencer with new faculty at Morgan College, 1938

Dwight Oliver Wendell Holmes Fifth President 1937–1948

IV. African-American Presidents Who Was Holmes?

Dwight Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in 1877 in Lewisburg, W.Va., the son of the Rev. John A. Holmes and Sarah B. Holmes. The Rev. Holmes was a Methodist minister who served in the Washington and New York Conferences.

Dwight lived his boyhood in New York, Maryland and Virginia, as his father’s pastorate relocated him. He attended Howard University then moved to Baltimore in 1902 to work at Douglass High School as a science teacher. He attended Johns Hopkins, where he took science classes, and obtained an M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University in teacher training and higher education. During his undergraduate years, Holmes played football and tennis and became president of the Athletic Association at Howard. His doctoral dissertation, “The Evolution of the Negro College,” provided tangible evidence that race-specific schools were innovative, successful places that produced leadership in most every profession.

Holmes’ career in education spanned 35 years and included service in nearly every position within the field, from teacher to registrar to dean and college president.

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He built the College of Education at Howard from a dismal program to a leading institution with nearly 1,000 students. His reward was being named dean of the graduate program in education at Howard, a position where he replicated his earlier success by establishing the graduate school. His achievements piqued interest in those seeking a qualified, African-American administrator.

higher education. Since there is little prospect that the Negro race alone can support such schools directly (like other schools) Negro schools must find larger resources.”

At Morgan, Holmes prepared a 10-year “enrichment project,” which he initiated to expand the college’s intellectual offerings and physical facilities. One project included a new library. Moreover, Holmes discerned the necessity of the age. In his “Digest of Dissertation,” in 1933, he wrote:

‘The Ice of Prejudice’ But in the forward movement, Holmes encountered recrudesce of racial antagonism. On April 10, 1940, he responded to Hooper S. Miles, Maryland treasurer, who referred to aspects of Morgan’s campus as “a rubbish heap of huts and shacks.”

Holmes acknowledged that the campus was a work in progress. He had converted one quarry hole into a neighborhood swimming hole for both races and at times both sexes. After a near drowning accident, he ordered the holes filled and topped with ash for planting shrubbery and grass. The shacks were relics from the farming era and were occupied by a man named David Roas, with whom Morgan shared well water and who remained in a remote area of the campus paying a yearly rent of $100. Holmes

“Because of the pressure of the standardization movement, these schools face three possible courses. They must meet the requirements set for colleges in America; or change their objective; or go out of existence. Some will doubtless follow each course. So long as separate schools are maintained the bulk of trained Negro leadership will probably come from Negro colleges. It will be necessary, therefore, for enough schools of this group to be maintained at the highest level to supply the demands and needs of the race for

The formula to locate larger resources included expanding institutional offerings. The new library was dedicated on May 24, 1939.

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1939—1975

Carl J. Murphy Chairman of Trustees 1953–1967

closed by writing, “I shall be very happy to go over (the campus) with any State official who you may designate and receive any suggestions for the improvement of the situation.”

In November 1941, Holmes wrote Mrs. James R. Downs explaining the training and supply of labor in the defense industries. A forum at Enoch Pratt Library sought to discuss Baltimore’s contribution. Holmes explained that the “weakest point” in the problem was the exclusion of the great reservoir of skilled and unskilled Negroes from participation.

“I need not go into this because every informed person knows that, except for common labor nearly all employers of labor in this area exclude persons of color. It is bad enough for this undemocratic practice to have been maintained. It is unwise, if not actually dangerous, for this practice to be tolerated in preparing for the defense of democracy…. The training program for Negroes has been so delayed that committees have found it necessary to protest…. (Industry responded they) would not use skilled Negroes, it was useless to train them.”

Many HBCU students participated in the war effort, and Morgan students served valiantly. But despite this exemplary patriotism, some white neighbors still harbored resentment of Morgan’s proximity. In 1941, Morris Macht of Welsh Construction Company proposed to build

a brick wall and 20 garages along Hillen Road in front of Morgan. Holmes voiced his opposition, stating that Macht’s location would obscure the main entrance of Morgan, leaving a slender sidewalk.

Howard C. Lampkin, a member of the Baltimore zoning board, defended Macht.

Fiery words volleyed between the two parties, and one Morgan trustee noted that race inspired the unattractive project.

Construction began in May 1942 on what Holmes aptly named the “spite wall,” remnants of which remain today, threaded with weeds on Hillen Road.

Holmes persevered in his enrichment project, growing the student body from 558 in 1939 to 973 in 1948. In the same period, the number of faculty increased from 26 to 85, and the number holding doctorates increased from four to 25.

Holmes served the presidency with strength, vision and courage, and retired in 1947. His legacy is evident in a trail of successors, all African-American men, who augmented academic programming, expanded physical plants and served as a national voice in African-American higher education.

On June 16, 1947, Charles Harris Wesley, Ph.D., D.D., wrote to Board Chairman Soper accepting the offer to serve as Morgan’s president upon Holmes’ retirement, but he later reversed his decision,

opting to serve as president of the newly created Central State College, in Ohio.

Finally, on Dec. 17, 1948, Martin D. Jenkins, Ph.D., LL.D., was installed as Morgan’s seventh president. Holmes spoke at Jenkins’ inauguration: “To the young Negro students, I say again, ‘Contain yourselves in patience a while longer for the ice of prejudice is breaking up; so be poised to launch your barges in the melted water that runs down to the sea.’ For the day of deliverance is at hand. To you, Jenkins, I am happy to pass the torch from my failing grasp into your youthful hands content that you will keep it burning brightly and that you will hold it high.”

The prophetic words of Holmes signaled the shift from old to new. Jenkins took the helm in the year President Harry Truman desegregated the U.S. military. The winds of change blew across the country and college campuses from Louisiana to Alabama to Maryland. Black college students demonstrated, protested and orchestrated sit-in campaigns to demand fair play and equity.

—Continued on page 16 MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2017

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1939—1975 as chairman of Morgan’s Board of Trustees. The Murphy family had deep roots in Baltimore and operated a prominent newspaper, the Afro-American. The synergy of Jenkins and Murphy brought greater visibility of Morgan, nationally and internationally. Through his travels abroad and organizational connections, Jenkins exhibited Morgan’s successes as proof-positive of the aptitude of black people.

Martin David Jenkins, Ph.D., LL.D. Sixth President 1948–1970

Who Was Jenkins?

Martin David Jenkins was born in 1904 in Terre Haute, Ind. He attended Howard, Indiana State and Northwestern Universities. His dedication to education propelled him into the field of education as an instructor and administrator. Jenkins researched extensively on education, learning and intelligence and used his scholarship to refute allegations of black intellectual inferiority.

Morgan’s academic offerings grew as the college attracted doctorate-holding faculty. Jenkins’ vision of Morgan was an institution that produced men and women who thought clearly, read with understanding and conveyed ideas with clear written and oral expression, all with an awareness of their social environment in acknowledgement of American history.

These character traits, he believed, were hallmarks of good citizenship for the common good. Jenkins said a Morgan student needed “(t)o have a passion for the democratic way of life; to have courage of his convictions, the desire and willingness to “stand up and be counted for those things in which he believes.”

Jenkins was aware of the multiple impediments to higher education for African Americans, including the fact that many came from economically and educationally marginal communities.

The community in which Morgan was domiciled would directly benefit from the scholarship. He intended Morgan to be a center for dissemination of knowledge regarding African Americans in every field of study.

Through his dynamic leadership, Jenkins ushered in the second era of great, African-American–directed progress at Morgan. In 1953, Carl J. Murphy, an African American, replaced Morris Soper

“Although the task of improving the general level of the Negro population is not wholly an educational one, it is partly so.

Whatever the college can do in this regard, we propose to do….,” he wrote in

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the Morgan Bulletin in 1949. “We intend to constitute a channel of communication in racial matters and to promote harmonious race relations within the state and nation.”

Civil Rights Struggle College student protests against racial injustice awakened an urgency within the HBCU world during Jenkins’ long tenure.

Morgan students embraced the vocal and direct action campaigns, demanding racial equity. From Annapolis in 1941 to the Northwood Theatre in 1955–1963, in partnership with students from Johns Hopkins and elsewhere, Morgan students responded to unfair treatment.

Jenkins seemed to remain detached from the rising movement, taking the position that Morgan could not participate directly. However, he developed a strategy around the concept of an urban university, through faculty hires, incentives for civic engagement and providing solutions formulated in the classroom to real social ills in the city of Baltimore. He stated that he opposed racial segregation, because it was based on “Negro inferiority,” deprived black people of occupational, educational and civic benefits and undermined humankind. He believed segregation weakened the nation’s position as a world leader and was contrary to Christian ethics and democratic principles. Jenkins said Morgan, “can never be a center for agitation, nor an instrument for direct social action; it can never engage in partisan politics…. The college itself must remain in a sense, aloof, a center

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for calm, objective, dispassionate inquiry.”

The tenuous nature of state funding also required Jenkins to keep a moderate position. He fought social injustice by using his scholarship and by exposing students to applied scholarship through Morgan’s Institute for Political Education, which was founded in 1959, and its Urban Studies Institute, which was established in 1964. The Institutes’ primary objective was to apply theory to real-time problems plaguing Baltimore, to find research-based solutions. This connection between Morgan’s scholarship and the community sensitized the student population to the depth of social ills.

Remaining Independent The fight against being consumed by the University of Maryland (UMD) remained a threat to Morgan during the Jenkins years. In March 1951, Carl Murphy wrote Board Chairman Soper about a bill drawn up by UMD President Harry Clifton “Curley” Byrd, which proposed separation of the races in higher education. Byrd proffered that Morgan become a University of Maryland satellite campus under his control. Morgan would be allowed to offer graduate degrees up to the Ph.D. level. This structure would allow UMD to become “integrated” in theory but not practice. Moreover, Byrd said that the state “wasted money” to improve the physical plant at Morgan and that the state would be better served by crafting a liberal arts college for the people of Baltimore City.

An information tract about the matter was published in 1948 by the Citizens Committee on Higher Education, coordinated by Carl Murphy and Willard W. Allen. The document urged people to organize fraternal, church and community groups to

speak against Byrd’s plan to local and state representatives. “Let no citizen or public official vote wrong for lack of information as to the funds needed to bring Morgan State College and other schools up to the standard provided by the state for other citizens,” it stated.

Jenkins responded on March 5 to Perry O. Wilkinson, chairman of the Education Committee of the Maryland House of Delegates: “…my chief concerns are that young Negro men and women of our state be given a fair chance at the level of higher education fully to develop themselves so that they might be of optimum service to the state and the nation…. It is my sincere hope that the question of higher education of Negroes will be decided in a statesmanlike manner with a view to the welfare of the state and the nation rather than in the light of narrow political considerations.”

Jenkins challenged the separation of the races in the proposed legislation as anachronistic.

“Morgan should continue to occupy its present place in the program of higher education in the state. It should remain under the control of its present (Board) which is universally recognized to have done an excellent job. The college receives less financial support than any comparable institution in the state. In accordance with the recommendations of every commission which has studied the question, the college should receive greatly increased financial support and its physical plant should be built up to standard level.”

Jenkins explained in detail the legal challenges to “separate but equal” in higher education. He inferred to Wilkinson the cost of establishing separate facilities for black students.

Jenkins and Murphy were the first black top leadership team at Morgan. Murphy died in 1967, and Jenkins retired in 1970.

—Continued on page 18

Preserving a Civil Rights Legacy The Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum

By Iris Leigh Barnes, MSU Class of 2012 In an article published on Aug. 21, 1999, the Baltimore Sun lauded the late Lillie May Carroll Jackson’s more than three decades of service as president of the Baltimore Branch of the NAACP: “The successful struggle for civil rights in Maryland was a defining achievement of this century. Lillie Carroll Jackson was a key general in that battle.” Jackson was named by the newspaper as one of its “Marylanders of the Century.” Nearly a half-century earlier, on May 6, 1950, the Baltimore Afro-American had called Jackson a “brilliant organizer” and “tireless public servant for her work in making the Baltimore branch of the NAACP the largest in the country, which has to its credit the largest number of important legal victories.” Under her leadership, from 1935 to 1970, the Baltimore Branch grew to approximately 18,000 members.

Jackson’s daughter, Juanita Jackson Mitchell, a Morgan alumnus, continued the family’s record of civil rights achievement. After graduating from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1950, she became the first black woman to practice law in the state. She championed school desegregation in Baltimore, served as counsel in suits to eliminate segregation throughout Maryland and won several lawsuits in the U.S. Supreme Court. Her husband, Clarence Mitchell Jr., the legendary “101st U.S. senator,” served as director of the Washington Bureau of the NAACP and lobbied successfully for national civil rights legislation while working beside three U.S. presidents.

Lillie Carroll Jackson wanted all people to know the history of the struggle for freedom and equality in the United States. She declared that her home should be a civil rights museum. In 1978, the Jackson-Mitchell family made her dream a reality. Morgan State University, which shared the vision, acquired the museum in 1996. The University transformed the structure into a modern museum and reopened its doors on June 11, 2016. The museum has an adjacent Resource Center for researchers interested in the civil rights movement in Baltimore and nationwide. The Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum also provides hands-on experience for students in MSU’s Museum Studies and History departments.

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1975—Present

V. To the Present

From the 1970s through the mid-1980s, three men served Morgan as president: Thomas P. Fraser, as interim, from 1970 to 1971; King V. Cheek from 1971 to 1974; Fraser again, as interim, from 1974 to 1975; and Andrew Billingsley from 1975 to 1984.

On July 1, 1975, Morgan State College became Morgan State University, thanks due in part to the lobbying effort of Maryland State Sen. Verda F. Welcome, Morgan graduate, Class of 1939, and to the scholarship of Jenkins. As a university, Morgan could confer doctoral degrees. Billingsley served as the first president of Morgan State University. In the same year, Enolia P. McMillan, who later served as national president of the NAACP, became the first woman chair of Morgan’s Board of Regents.

Earl S. Richardson, Ed.D., began his tenure as Morgan’s ninth president in 1984 and served with distinction until 2010, when Morgan welcomed David Wilson, Ed.D., as the University’s 10th president.

The succession of black presidents provided leadership continuing in the tradition of forward movement, expansion, and struggle against indifference, lack of adequate funding and the myriad demands of operating a public urban university.

Purposed Vision Morgan’s contribution was needed “(b)ecause men are inter-dependent and because human welfare is the goal of social organization, education becomes an urgent instrumentality not only of human welfare but of life itself,” President Jenkins once wrote. This is the purposed vision of higher education: human welfare and life. Morgan’s founders, funders and administrators anticipated a future that required principled thinkers and innovators demonstrating a better way of living in a world of equity and democracy: cherished principles that remain an integral part of Morgan.

The history of Morgan is a kaleidoscopic view of the African-American experience. The Black Church, well-intentioned white men and visionary African-American administrators built a remarkable institution of higher learning from dreams to reality, from institute to college to university. The academic offerings, physical plants and faculty grew from one building to a campus of 50 buildings on 143 acres of land, with more than 100 degree programs and a full-time faculty of 385. In 2016, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Morgan State University a national treasure, the first and only HBCU campus so named. Innovating in the 21st century, Morgan continues to be a beacon of light and leadership in Maryland and the nation.

In celebration of its sesquicentennial, all of Morgan — current, past and future — can appreciate the University’s humble beginnings. We acknowledge our need for faith, friends and forward thinking, as exemplified by those foundational elements upon which 150 years rest, allowing contemporary generations to reach higher with purpose, progress and promise.

Thus, the words ring with deeper truth:

Fair Morgan, as onward the years quickly fly, And thou livest in memory sweet.

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We bring thee our laurels whatever they be, And lay them with joy at thy feet. n

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Four Living Presidents (left to right) Dr. Earl S. Richardson, Dr. David Wilson, King Virgil Cheek, J.D., and Dr. Andrew Billingsley

Find a successful university, and with that success you will find a leader with the vision and the drive to make a difference.

Throughout its history, Morgan has been fortunate to be led by presidents who have placed the University on a path to a positive future. Morgan’s four living presidents, King Virgil Cheek, J.D., who served from 1971 to 1974, Andrew Billingsley, Ph.D. (1975–1984), Earl Richardson, Ed.D. (1984–2010) and David Wilson, Ed.D. (2010–present), who appeared together for the first time at the University’s Spring 2017 Undergraduate Commencement exercises, in May, personify the growth and accomplishments of MSU after the Martin D. Jenkins era.

King Virgil Cheek earned his law degree at the University of Chicago and served as president of Shaw University in North Carolina for three years before succeeding Dr. Jenkins as Morgan’s seventh president at age 33, becoming the youngest person to hold the office.

During his tenure, the former civil rights activist reorganized Morgan’s administration, implemented progressive policies to increase educational opportunities, strengthened the University’s relationship with the broader community and oversaw a significant campus expansion, including the addition of McMechen Hall, a new Soper Library, the Jenkins Building, Hill Field House and McKeldin Center.

Andrew Billingsley, Ph.D., came to Morgan in 1975 as an experienced administrator, having served as vice president for Academic Affairs at Howard Univer-

sity, and as a renowned sociological researcher, considered the nation’s top authority on the African-American family.

Dr. Billingsley joined Morgan State College at the end of its supporters’ successful, years-long effort to obtain university status for the institution, and he spent much of the next nine years applying his talent and energy to reorganizing Morgan State University to reflect its new status. The University also expanded its degree program inventory greatly during his presidency, adding seven master’s degree programs and the institution’s first doctoral program.

Dr. Billingsley’s resignation in 1984 brought a leader to Morgan who would guide the University to phenomenal growth through the first decade of the 21st century. Earl S. Richardson, Ed.D., assistant to the chancellor of the University of Maryland System, served as interim president of Morgan for six months before being appointed the University’s ninth president in October 1984.

During his 26-year tenure, the campus was transformed, with 17 living and learning facilities renovated and 12 new facilities and facility replacements. Institutional enrollment increased by 75 percent, and SAT scores of entering students increased dramatically. New academic programs totaled 38, including 14 doctoral degree, 14 master’s degree and 10 bachelor’s degree programs. External grants and research funding increased by 1,000 percent, and Morgan’s capital campaign exceeded its $25-million goal in record time. Other unprecedented

achievements of the “Morgan Renaissance” under Dr. Richardson are too numerous to mention here.

Morgan’s progress has continued unabated since Dr. Richardson’s retirement in 2010. The University’s current and 10th president, David Wilson, Ed.D., has built upon the work of his predecessors to take the institution to new heights.

Among the many highlights of Dr. Wilson’s tenure to date are: a current second-year retention rate above 70 percent for the seventh consecutive year; an increase in enrollment to nearly 8,000 students; procurement of the University’s largest-ever research contract; a 183.0 percent increase in the alumni participation- in-giving rate since 2010; expansion to a new West Campus, and new campus construction valued at more than $271 million; the founding of a new School of Global Journalism and Communication; establishment of Morgan’s first online degree program; the designation of MSU as a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the official designation of Morgan as the State of Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University.

Morgan State University, in its sesquicentennial year, is a success story in leadership, with countless beneficiaries, from the University’s alumni to the millions of others they have touched during their academic and professional careers, on campus, in the local community, across the state and nation, and around the world. n MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2017

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Prominent Morgan Women

Susie Carr Love (1878)

Zora Neale Hurston

Ida Cummings (’22)

From scholarly professors in the classroom to politicians in the state senate, Grammy-nominated artists and talented Olympic athletes, Morgan State University has groomed, produced and cultivated women who are erudite, classy, accomplished and acclaimed throughout the world. The legacy of female thought leaders, civic activists and staunch student advocates began in 1878, when

Susie Carr Love became the first woman to graduate from Centenary Biblical Institute, the school that became Morgan.

She was described as headstrong and determined, which are also characteristics of famed poet and author Zora Neale Hurston, who graduated in 1918 from Morgan Academy, the high school affiliated with the University.

While the State of Maryland was busy enforcing the notion of “separate but equal,” Morgan shaped a number of black female scholars who ranked among the most respected educators of their time. These women include Ida Cummings (’22), the first black kindergarten teacher appointed in Maryland; Irma Roy (’32), the first African-American principal of Western High School, which

Verda Welcome (’35) 20

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By Toya Corbett, Ph.D., MSU Classes of 2005 and 2014

Rochelle Stevens (’88)

Ruthe T. Sheffey, Ph.D. (’47)

Victorine Q. Adams (’40)

is the oldest all-girls public high school in the nation; and Ruthe T. Sheffey, Ph.D. (’47), one of the nation’s foremost authorities on African-American literature, who served on the Morgan faculty for 62 years.

seat, and Victorine Q. Adams (’40), the first black woman elected to the Baltimore City Council. Carrying the political torch forward is Catherine Pugh (’73 and ’77), elected mayor of Baltimore in 2016.

Radio Networks and political analyst for CNN; and Grammy-nominated artist Maysa Leak (’91).

On the front lines of the fight for justice and equality were Verda Welcome (’35), the first black woman in the United States to be elected to a state senate

In the national spotlight are Rochelle Stevens (’88), two-time Olympic medal winner; April Ryan (’89), White House correspondent for American Urban

April Ryan (’89)

Catherine Pugh (’73 and ‘77)

Although this is not meant to be an exhaustive list of prominent Morgan alumnae, it is certainly a snapshot of notable women who have left an indelible imprint on the 150-year legacy of Morgan State University. n

Maysa Leak (’91) MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2017

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AlumniProfile

Tennis, Anyone?

Morgan Graduate Ann Koger, Sports Trailblazer and Champion

By Toya Corbett, Ph.D.

Swatting at the glass ceiling before her, Koger became the second female on the men’s tennis team, where she ranked second in singles and first in doubles from 1969 to 1972.

Before Venus and Serena Williams, there was Ann Koger. Emerging as a confident and uncompromising tennis trailblazer in the late 1960s, Koger braved and conquered racism and sexism in a sport historically dominated by affluent, white male athletes. People of color, particularly black women, were rarely seen playing the game, much less serving as the head coach of a collegiate tennis team. Ann Koger’s career over the last 35 years reveals the intersecting role that race, gender and class play when one treads in unchartered territory in the United States. Koger began coaching tennis as an 18-year-old on the courts of

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Druid Hill Park, where she first played the sport. Societal norms during the 1970s precluded an African-American woman from the west side of Baltimore from excelling at the game of tennis and forging a successful professional career.

Yet with the help and encouragement of family and many others who saw her potential, Koger’s skill on the hard and clay courts made her a mainstay and eventually a living legend.

tennis player, Ann and her two sisters, Patricia and Carol, became members of the American Tennis Association (ATA) — the oldest African-American sport association in the U.S. — and the United States Lawn Tennis Association (now the United States Tennis Association, USTA). A victorious trio, they earned close to 100 trophies. Koger continued to play tennis and six other sports when she entered college at Morgan.

During her youth, Koger practiced and played for countless hours on the courts in historic Druid Hill Park in Baltimore City. Influenced by their mother, Myrtle Koger, who also was an accomplished

Although Morgan did not have a women’s tennis team when Koger arrived on campus, she did not allow that omission to keep her from playing. Swatting at the glass ceiling before her, Koger became MORGAN.EDU

> As head women’s tennis coach at Haverford College from 1981 through 2016, Koger amassed an overall record of 359-241. the second female to join the Men’s Tennis Team, where she ranked second in singles and first in doubles from 1969 to 1972. Fellow Morganite Bonnie Logan preceded her on the Men’s Tennis Team at Morgan State College from 1968–1972.

At the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association’s (CIAA’s) Flight I Men’s Doubles in 1971, Koger and Logan finished in second place. She and Logan made sports history when they became the first women to represent an historically black college or university at a major national collegiate tennis tournament.

Opponents feared the Morgan Bears, who dominated the men’s division. As a result, Koger’s and Logan’s male teammates ridiculed opposing teams for their reluctance to compete against women, which would ultimately coax them into playing a game. After Morgan advanced to the CIAA finals during one season, league officials voted to prohibit Koger and Logan from participating in the league.

Achievements and Honors Upon graduating from Morgan State College with a degree in physical education, in 1972, Koger had a difficult time finding employment in her field. But she eventually landed a position as a reporter at the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper and later worked as teacher in the Baltimore City Public Schools. In 1973, Koger returned to her first love, the game of tennis, for four years, becoming one of the first African-American women to com-

pete in the all-female Virginia Slims Tennis Circuit. During her years as a tennis pro, in 1975, she received a Master of Science degree in recreation administration from Morgan.

Koger was hired as the head women’s tennis coach at Haverford College in Pennsylvania in 1981. During her 35season career at the school, Koger coached three conference singles champions, two conference doubles champions, two NCAA Division III All-Americans and numerous All-Conference First and Second Team Singles and Doubles players, and she amassed an overall record of 359-241. The team consistently ranked in the ITA Atlantic South Region each year and advanced to the Centennial Conference Tournament seven years in a row, making it to the finals during the spring of 2014. Koger retired from Haverford in August 2016.

Tennis may be the sport for which Koger is most well-known, but she also officiated basketball for 25 years. Refereeing a match between Delaware State University and Campbell College in 1987, she became the first woman in history to referee an NCAA Division I men’s basketball game. Koger was also Haverford’s first volleyball coach, leading the team for 12 consecutive seasons.

Koger’s accomplishments have earned her numerous awards and accolades. In 1982, she was inducted into Morgan State University’s Athletic Hall of Fame. In 1998, she was recognized as Player of the

Year by PTR/Philadelphia and was named PTR International Player of the Year in 1999. She was named the Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) College Tennis Coach of the Year, an international award, in February 2016. In March 2017, Koger was honored as College Coach of the Year by the USTA/Middle States Philadelphia.

Because of Koger’s continuous devotion to the game of tennis, she was selected as a 2010 inductee into the United States Tennis Association Middle States Hall of Fame and Black Tennis Hall of Fame. Two years later, she was a participant in the Schomburg Center’s Sports Research Salon titled “The Importance of Sports in Black Women’s Lives and What’s Not Being Said About the Title IX Anniversary,” hosted by a fellow Morgan State alumnus, William Rhoden, a sports columnist for The New York Times who also retired in 2016. During halftime at the 2013 homecoming football game at Morgan, Koger was honored by the Black Sports Legends Foundation.

Undeniably a sports pioneer and champion, Ann Koger has created a legacy that will live on for future generations of black female tennis players who dream of swinging a racket and posing the question, “Tennis, anyone?” n Toya Corbett, Ph.D., is dean of students at North Carolina Central University. She was coordinator of Morgan State University’s Office of Student Activities from 2007 to 2015.

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Morgan Graduate Catherine E. Pugh Mayor, City of Baltimore

By Eric Addison

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“Morgan did a great job of preparing us for our future.”

— Mayor Catherine E. Pugh

Growing up in and near Philadelphia, Pa., in the 1950s and ’60s, Catherine Pugh was always eager to learn. And her father, who worked in a factory, and mother, who worked at home raising the couple’s seven children until the last was in school, were happy to support her educational interests and leadership tendencies. Her mother took her to the public library on most Saturdays beginning when Catherine was a toddler, and Catherine was reading and writing at age 3.

“My dad would say I should become something that would allow me to have some form of control over my life, because I was always so opinionated about everything,” Pugh says. “…I realized at an early age that if you’re going to participate in this world in any meaningful way, your key is education.”

Pugh has more than met her parents’ expectations. The Morgan graduate, Classes of 1973 and 1977, was elected the 50th mayor of Baltimore City on Nov. 8, 2016. On Dec. 6, 2016, she assumed office during a crowded, celebratory inauguration ceremony at the city’s War Memorial Building, near City Hall.

“Morgan did a great job of preparing us for our future,” says Pugh, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at what was then named Morgan State College, and went on to earn an M.B.A. at Morgan State University.

“Morgan prepared me to make life choices, and I ended up staying here (in Baltimore). I’ll never forget that the director of placement set up job interview appointments for us, and when I graduated, I had eight job offers out of the 11 I had applied for. I started my career in the banking industry. I felt very prepared to be a part of a community, a city, with which I had been totally unfamiliar.”

After leaving Morgan, Pugh worked as a banker, as a business developer, as a dean and director at Strayer Business

College, as special editor for the Baltimore Sun and as a television and radio news reporter and talk show host. She also had success as founder and president of a marketing and public relations firm, C.E. Pugh and Company.

In 1999, she officially became a public servant, as a member of the Baltimore City Council. Six years later, she was appointed to Maryland’s House of Delegates representing the 40th District, in the city. After serving there for a year, she was elected to the Maryland Senate in 2006, the first of her three terms. She distinguished herself in the Senate for her ability to pass legislation and was elected majority leader in 2015.

administration have set: improving the public educational system and increasing job creation and economic development.

“Technology and healthcare are the future, and we have one of the strongest healthcare economies,” Pugh says. “…

What we have to do is make sure we’re preparing our young people to participate in those (sectors).”

Asked how it felt to become Baltimore’s 50th mayor as Morgan approached its 150th anniversary, Pugh replied, “Awesome. I’m the first MSU graduate to lead our city. I am grateful to Morgan and the citizens of Baltimore for making that choice.… Everything I have done to this point has prepared me for this moment.” n

‘One Job’ Pugh says she loved life as a student at Morgan, where she was a stalwart on the cheerleading team; an on-air personality at the University’s radio station, WEAA, after its launch in 1977; and participated in other campus activities outside of the classroom. She lists a number of friends she made at Morgan with whom she is still close today, and she adds that many of them have also had successful professional careers.

But what she remembers most from her Morgan experience, Pugh says, is work. In addition to her studies, “I worked for Hecht Company as a salesgirl. I worked for the basketball coach. I worked for student government.” For several years, she made a long daily commute by bus and on foot to a job as an assistant at a nursing home, working the night shift.

“I was always working,” Pugh says. “I used to tell people, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever had one job.’ Now, as mayor, I’m getting to hold one job.”

Today, Pugh is applying her strong work ethic, broad experience and cheerleading skills to the task of moving Baltimore toward several main goals she and her

Catherine Pugh at her inauguration as mayor, December 2016 MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2017

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Spring Commencement Honored History, Featured Firsts

1867–2017

By Eric Addison

Morgan’s 141st Spring Commencement had a wealth of history, as the University continued its yearlong Sesquicentennial Celebration.

Former U.S. Vice President Joseph R. Biden delivered the keynote address to a large audience of bachelor’s degree candidates, recent master’s degree and doctoral graduates, faculty, administrators and guests gathered for the Undergraduate Commencement Exercises at Morgan’s Hughes Stadium on Saturday, May 20. Biden, philanthropist and educator C. Sylvia Brown and Sheldon Goldseker, founding board chair of the Goldseker Foundation, received honorary Doctor of Public Service degrees during the ceremony, and veteran broadcast journalist and Morgan graduate April Ryan received an honorary Doctor of Laws. Prominent businessman, political activist and community advocate Michael E. Cryor, of Morgan’s Class of 1968, was recognized as Alumnus of the Year. Morgan’s three living former presidents attended the event, joining current President David Wilson, Ed.D. on the platform, in another historic moment for Maryland’s designated public urban research university.

Two days earlier, on Thursday, May 18, Morgan’s advanced degree candidates received their diplomas in separate Commencement Exercises for the School of Graduate Studies, at the Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center — yet another first for the University.

The 50th anniversary of the Class of 1967 — which was also Morgan’s Centennial Class — coincided with the 150th anniversary of their alma mater, which gave added significance to the presence of the class members at the Undergraduate Exercises. The “Soulful Centennials” of ’67 entered the stadium near the front

Brittany Webb

of the processional, standing out in their goldcolored regalia. The members of the Class of 2017 who followed included Morgan’s largest class of ROTC commissioned officers in two decades. They also included countless stories of success.

‘One of the Best’ Brittany Webb, an accounting major from Baltimore, was among the undergraduates gathered on the academic quad just before Commencement. An intern with Northrop Grumman Corporation, she was headed to a full-time job in the company’s Professional Development Program. Aaron Edmond, from Pasadena, Md., was looking forward to receiving his degree in electrical engineering and starting his professional career with Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems in Orlando, Fla. John Williams, of Baltimore, was also excited to be taking his degree to the work world, where he’d landed a job in construction management at The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company. He called Morgan’s Construction Management program “tough” and “really dynamic.” Karé Collins, of Sicklerville, N.J., and Shayla Woods, from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, were soon-to-be graduates in industrial engineering. Collins planned to continue her education as a graduate student, and Woods had plans to work in product management at an Eastern Shore firm. Mofareh Alsharmah was also headed home after graduation. An international student, he was excited about benefiting his home country of Saudi Arabia with his new skills in civil engineering.

Aaron Edmond

John Williams

Karé Collins & Shayla Woods

Morgan, he said, “was an amazing experience with a great school. I’ve been to many schools, and (Morgan is) one of the best.”

Mofareh Alsharmah

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Former Vice President Joe Biden Energized the Undergraduate Exercises ‘Break Down the Barriers’ Biden spoke candidly to his audience about the personal and professional challenges he has faced and about social progress during his two terms as vice president under President Barack Obama.

And he acknowledged the big challenges facing the Class of 2017 in the current political climate in the U.S. In the past election cycle, “we saw just how much of a grip racism and sexism still has on America,” Biden said. “And of course no one has to tell you about the daily indignities of discrimination…. I

think even you are surprised not that racism still exists but by the way racism was embraced as a political tool.”

Senior Class President Alexis Holmes continued the theme of hope in her farewell salute to the graduates.

But Biden urged the audience to avoid the temptation “to withdraw, to write off the system as irredeemably flawed…. I assure you it is temporary, and it is transitory.”

“It took courage, motivation and fire to get to this point,” Holmes said. “We all have goals. Pursue them, and conquer them.”

“…So much progress has been made since your parents’ (time),” Biden said.

“You’re in a better position than anyone who was here before you to break down the barriers…. So go after your dreams.”

Morgan conferred nearly 700 bachelor’s degrees, 202 master’s degrees and 31 doctorates after the Spring 2017 semester. n

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DonorProfile

Refilling the Source Businessman James Waddy Gives Back to MSU

By Donna M. Owens

As a youngster, James Waddy Jr., saw his father and mother put in long hours at their dry cleaning operation in East Baltimore. He was expected to help out in the family business, too.

“I did all sorts of things: delivering clothes and interacting with customers,” recalls Waddy. “I learned a lot.”

That model of hard work and entrepreneurship made an impression, and the lessons didn’t end there for him and his two siblings. Waddy says his parents encouraged higher education, and they had other relatives who’d attended college. So he entered what was then Morgan State College, in the early 1960s.

It was the beginning of what the 74-yearold fondly remembers as an “excellent experience.”

“I enjoyed parties, and I had several majors,” Waddy reminisces with a chuckle. Still, he kept his eye on the prize, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in history and a minor in business, in 1966.

“One of the things I appreciated was the mentoring process. The instructors were dedicated to teaching, and you could see their concern,” Waddy recalls. “They showed us how to be proud Morgan men and women.”

Today, the military veteran, businessman and certified public accountant (He also holds an accounting degree from the University of Baltimore.) credits his beloved alma mater with playing a role in his success. He heads a family-owned brokerage, Active Realty Company, that dates back nearly five decades.

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“Our (Morgan) presidents have spoken about the needs that students have. Many who attend college can’t afford the tuition. We don’t want them to have to drop out.”

— James Waddy Jr., Morgan Class of 1966

ACTIVE REALTY COMPANY activerealtycompany.com

James Waddy (left) with his son Stephen

“Two of my sons are licensed real estate agents,” says the father of three, who has been married for 49 years to Patricia Waddy, a fellow Morgan graduate, Class of 1971. “Our children didn’t attend Morgan, but they’re all HBCU graduates,” he adds.

Over the years, the Waddy clan has been blessed with a lifestyle that has included multiple homes, global travels and a yacht. Yet the patriarch makes it clear that the material possessions aren’t the source of his joy. He praises his late parents and speaks contentedly of a life filled with family, including grandchildren, as well as with faith, and dedication to Morgan.

“I’m an active member of my class, and I contribute something every year,” he

reports, also noting various fundraising activities. “We do a brunch every year, and I’ve served on the Morgan Gala committee that helps raise money for scholarships.”

Waddy is a life member of the Morgan State University Alumni Association, and in 2014 he made a significant gift to the Class of 1966 Endowment Scholarship Fund. With this gift came membership in Morgan’s prestigious Legacy Society, established to honor and pay tribute to alumni and friends who have provided for Morgan in their estate plans. Significant gifts like Waddy’s go a long way to ensure that future generations have access to higher education, regardless of their financial circumstances, notes Cheryl Y. Hitchcock, Morgan’s vice president for Institutional Advancement.

“Our (Morgan) presidents have spoken about the needs that students have,” Waddy says. “Many who attend college can’t afford the tuition. We don’t want them to have to drop out.”

Waddy’s class celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016: “At least 100 people came back. We wore our gold gowns at graduation and really had a great time.”

The celebration gave him a chance to reflect on what the school has meant to him over the years.

“I’m thankful,” he says, “that I attended Morgan.” n

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Nontraditional Students NETWORKING • RESOURCES • SCHOLARSHIPS Center for Continuing and Professional Studies at Morgan State University Thanks to the Bernard Osher and Crankstart Foundations, the Reentry Programs at Morgan’s Center for Continuing and Professional Studies are available for adult students who want to complete undergraduate degree programs.

The Reentry Programs target Maryland residents aged 25–50 who have experienced a gap of five years or more in their educational career and are pursuing a bachelor’s degree at the University. If you’re looking for an opportunity to earn a degree, advance your career or enter a new, “indemand” industry, please visit www.morgan.edu/continuingstudies, or call (443) 885-3155 to learn more about scholarships, resources and educational opportunities at the Center for Continuing and Professional Studies.

The mission of the Center for Continuing and Professional Studies is to serve the lifelong educational needs of traditional and nontraditional students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, professional and personal growth aspirations.

CENTER FOR CONTINUING AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

Connect with us online!

@ 443.885.3155

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