By Charlotte Sutton
For The Diamondback
About 15 University of Maryland community members gathered on Friday outside the Rossborough Inn, standing on grounds once occupied by a slave plantation.
The inn served as the starting point for the Black History Month: African American History Landmarks Walking Tour hosted by this university’s Multicultural Involvement & Community Advocacy office. During the tour, the group explored buildings and monuments across campus that mark the legacy of African Americans at the university.
Behavioral and social sciences college assistant dean Kim Nickerson, who led the tour, said the idea began as a presentation in 2015 before becoming a walking tour two years later. His encounters with students who felt disconnected from the university, he said, eventually led him to create the tour as a tangible way for students to deepen their knowledge of Black history at the university.
“This tour was developed to fill in the gaps of things that were missing that had already been written about our university,” Nickerson said. “It’s filling an important historical, educational and intellectual niche for everyone. Not just for Black students, for everyone.”
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The tour group stopped at Thurgood Marshall Hall, where they learned how Marshall, who went on to become the first Black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, played an integral role in expanding educational opportunities for African Americans at this university.
Marshall was denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School in 1930 due to his race. When the same happened to African American student Donald Gaines Murray five years later, Marshall stood in his defense in the 1935 Maryland Court of Appeals case of Murray v. Pearson. Marshall successfully argued that the school’s segregation practices violated the 14th Amendment, leading to Murray becoming the first Black person to attend the law school.
“We were the first ones here, but the last ones to get access to education,” Nickerson said to the group, referring to the history of enslaved African Americans laying the bricks and working on the construction of the first buildings on campus.
The tour also highlighted the Parren J. Mitchell Art Sociology Building, named after the first Black graduate student at this university. Nickerson discussed how Mitchell’s accomplishment dismantled barriers for future African American students to attend the university, including Hiram Whittle, the first admitted Black undergraduate student, and Elaine Johnson Coates, the first Black woman to earn an undergraduate degree.
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Some attendees said that this year’s tour, which coincided with the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, made them particularly proud to learn about and connect with the university’s history.
Senior criminal justice major Marshae Capers said she attended the event because she didn’t know much about the campus’ African American history. Capers highlighted how meaningful it was for her to participate in the tour during Black History Month’s milestone anniversary.
“I feel like Black history is so important and it gets overlooked a lot. A lot of things started with us,” Capers said. “It just means a lot to me, us being recognized.”
The graduate school’s assistant dean and chief of operations Evelyn Cooper said the tour has forged a newfound bond between her and the campus, which she has been involved with for about 30 years. Cooper said that learning about the placard dedicated to the contributions of African American ancestors at the Rossborough Inn’s memorial garden left a profound impact on her.
“To contemplate on the contributions filled me with a sense of pride and connection to the campus that, frankly, I really hadn’t experienced before,” Cooper said.
