Morgan State University is no longer home to a “spite wall” meant to deter Black students from entering a once predominantly white Baltimore neighborhood.
According to NBC News, white residents of the city reportedly formed a coalition in the late 1930s to build the massive red brick wall — which many people called a “symbol of hate” — in response to the increasing number of students attending the historically Black institution.
While the wall’s past became obscured over time, with only a few people aware of its original purpose, on Tuesday, an excavator removed the barricade as neighbors, school officials and university president David Wilson looked on.
“We had no choice but to tear it down,” said Wilson, according to NBC. “We couldn’t have this symbol of hate staring down every single day. This was an easy decision for us. It was time” for the demolition.
Wilson recalled how area residents and neighborhood associations in the predominantly white city had already expressed their concerns when the school moved to its current location in 1917.
The state’s decision in 1939 to turn what was then Morgan College from a private university into a public institution to aid Black people reportedly only amplified the racial tension. The transition came as Baltimore became one of the first cities to enact racial covenants in property deeds that restricted where Black people could reside.
Members of the college trustee board called the wall designs “discriminatory to Morgan College.” Morris Macht, from one of Maryland’s biggest home construction firms, claimed racial discrimination was a not factor. The Baltimore Afro-American newspaper ran articles tracing the controversy from its outset, eventually reporting when a zoning board approved the wall, and when the work on it started in 1942.
The barrier, on Mullen Road near the school’s entrance and continuing past Northwood Shopping Center, remained as Morgan State students campaigned for civil rights in the 1960s, organizing one of the country’s first anti-segregation sit-ins at a nearby shopping center.
Cheryl Stewart, a spokeswoman for Morgan State, said the wall’s demolition — a component of the university’s extensive “Morgan Momentum” renovation and expansion plan — comes at a great time as they “continue to build and move forward.”
According to Wilson, the university wants to respect history despite the wall’s demolition. He said the school plans to leave a small portion of the barrier to be used as a marker where students can learn about that piece of Morgan State and city history.
“For the white community, this spite wall was to send a signal and to physically create a divider that would symbolize the segregation that they stood for,” said Morgan State professor and architectural historian Dale Green, NBC reported. “They were not supportive of the integration of African Americans into the greater society. The wall was to fortify the whites from the Blacks.”
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