By Lisa Robinson
Bowie State University, Maryland’s oldest Historically Black College and University, got its start in Baltimore.
The school as it’s known today was founded in 1865 in the basement of a church at Saratoga and Calvert streets.
“That was when slavery was ending. There were many businessman — Quakers and lawyers — who thought it best that the new citizenry be educated, that they be provided with those opportunities,” said Aminta Breaux, the university’s 10th president.
The Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People was organized in 1864 by 46 white men committed to opening schools to educate the state’s newly emancipated citizens.
“We started out here in Baltimore as Baltimore School No. 1 — that was the original name — to prepare educators to go out and educate the rest of the African American community,” Breaux told 11 News.
The school’s first year educated 60 students. In 1867, the Baltimore association, with the aid of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Quakers of England and others, purchased and renovated the old Friends Meeting House downtown.
In 1911, the school moved to Bowie, Prince George’s County, hence the name Bowie State University.
“One-hundred-sixty years later, after all of those struggles, we are educating over 6,300 students and growing,” Breaux told 11 News.
Breaux reflected on what the founders would say about how far the school has come.
“I think they would be in awe of what we are achieving today. They would be very proud of what they were able to accomplish during that very challenging time in the history of our nation, but yet, they laid the foundation for generations to have access to higher education,” Breaux told 11 News.
The school has grown since to offer 29 undergraduate majors, 20 master’s programs, 16 specialty certificates and three doctoral programs.
