History of Morgan State University

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History of Morgan State UniversityWritten By Sterlin Moye Senior Political Science Major at Morgan State University, Political Science association. MSU 2015.. This gives a very detailed description of Morgan state university's rich tradition.

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Sterlin Moye
Monday, August 25, 2014
History of Morgan State University
Morgan State University is an urban state university located in the city of North East Baltimore.
Morgan is Maryland's designated public urban university and the largest HBCU in Maryland. Morgan
has been around since 1867. Morgan’s establishment as a higher learning institution was due to the
second Morrill act. Morgan has been around for over 140 years.
Morgan State University begin in 1867 as the Centenary Biblical Institute. It was a Methodist
Episcopal seminary that was used to train young men in the ministry. Years later the institute would
broaden its mission to educate both men and women as teachers. The school would eventually be
renamed to Morgan College in 1890. The name change was to honor Reverend Lyttleton Morgan. Rev.
Morgan was the first chairman of its board of trustees, who also donated his own personal land to the
college as well.
Morgan awarded its first baccalaureate degree to George F. McMechen in 1895. McMechen
would later earn a law degree from Yale and eventually return to Baltimore. Once he returned to
Baltimore he would become a civic leader. He was also on one of Morgan’s strongest finical supporters
at that time.
In the year of 1915 Andrew Carnegie gave the school a conditional grant of 50,000 for the
central academic building. The terms of the grant included the purchase of the new site for the college.
It also included paying all outstanding obligations, and the construction of a building to be named after
him.
On November 10 1916, The Mighty GAMMA chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity incorporated
was charted. It was because of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity that Morgan would eventual move from its old
location to the one it’s currently at today. The GAMMA chapter had a heavy influence on campus at the
time, and they also provided necessary funding that the college needed when moving to a new campus
a year later.
After two years the college met all the conditions required for the grant and moved from its old
campus too the current one today. Morgan’s current campus address is 1700 East Cold Spring Lane,
Baltimore Maryland 21251. Carnegie hall the oldest original building was erected in 1919. Morgan
would go on to remain a private institution until 1939.
From its beginnings as a public campus, Morgan was open to students of all races. By the time
Morgan became a public institution the college had become a really comprehensive institution. Until the
mid-1960s’ Morgan was one of only two public institutions in Maryland that had comprehensive
missions. Due to Maryland’s teachers colleges being able to broaden their objective, Morgan and other
institutions were placed into a state college system governed by a board of Trustees.
However, in 1975 the Maryland State Legislature designated Morgan as a University. Due to
Morgan being designated as a university, it gave Morgan the authority to offer doctorates and provided
for Morgan once again to have its own governing board. Morgan and St. Mary's College of Maryland
were the only public baccalaureate-granting institutions authorized to have their own governing boards.
In the mid 1980’s Morgan’s enrollment and quality of students started to go down. The Crack
Cocaine era had a really negative effect on Morgan. Due to the heavy influence of crack on Baltimore
city Morgan’s student enrollment was down. Morgan also faced previous security concerns that were
not really a problem before the 80s’. This time period changed the University forever. People starting
seeing Morgan as a dangerous ghetto institution than they previously saw it before.
Morgan State University has undergone numerous renovations. In the 21st century alone, the
school has seen the construction of a new student union, two dedicated parking garages, the Earl S.
Richardson Library, the Dixon Research Center, the Communications Building, and the Center for the
Built Environment and Infrastructure Studies. The latter two buildings, plus one of the two parking
garages, are in the far north of the campus, connected by a new Communications Bridge over Herring
Run.
In recent years Morgan has switched its attention on the urban orientation of the university.
This emphasis has been incorporated into the graduate programs. At the graduate level, the university
offers the Master of Arts degree in African American studies, economics, English, history, international
studies, mathematics, music, museum studies and historical preservation, sociology, and teaching.
Morgan State University currently enrolls over 6,000 students at the undergraduate and
graduate levels and offers more than sixty academic programs leading to a bachelor’s degree as well as
graduate programs leading to Master’s and Doctoral degrees. Today, even after the integration of the
University of Maryland, Morgan State University continues to award the largest number of degrees to
African American students in the State of Maryland.
Morgan State University has had only three presidents since it became a University. Each one of
these presidents have impacted to the University in different ways. All of them have enhanced the
Morgan image and have shaped young minds to be able to succeed in the world.



Morgan State University Presidents
Presidents of Morgan State University
Centenary Biblical Institute
1869-1882 J. Emory Round, D.D.
1882-1888 W. Maslin Frysinger, D.D.
Morgan College
1888-1901 John J. Wagner, D.D.
1901-1902 Charles Edmond Young, D.D. (Acting President)
1902-1937 John O. Spencer, Ph.D., LL.D.
Morgan State College
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 President)
1971-1974 King Vergil Cheek, J.D.
1974-1975 Thomas P. Fraser, Ph.D.
Morgan State University
1975-1984 Andrew Billingsley, Ph.D.
1984 Earl S. Richardson, Ed.D. (Interim President)
1984-2010 Earl S. Richardson, Ed.D.
2010-present David Wilson, Ed.D.



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