After the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, newly freed people struggled to adjust to the new world. In West Virginia, the efforts of a local reverend led to the establishment of Storer College, which aimed to train adequate African-American educators to supply the needs of freedmen.
Rev. Nathan Cook Brackett opened a Freewill Baptist primary school in the Camp Hill region of Harper’s Ferry, West Va. The school was part of Rev. Brackett’s grander plan to open a series of schools for freedmen and give them the opportunity to integrate properly into society.
Brackett’s actions attracted the attention of Maine philanthropist John Storer, who donated $10,000 for Brackett to open a school in the Deep South. Storer’s main stipulation for the school was that it would be open to all races and genders.
On October 2, 1867, the “Storer Normal School” was born at the Lockwood House. What began as a one-room school for freedmen blossomed into a four-year college where anyone who could attend would be able to earn a degree. When the federal government granted Storer seven acres of land in 1869, the school’s class numbers grew.
Frederick Douglass was on Storer’s board of trustees, and delivered a memorable speech on white abolitionist John Brown’s attempt to lead an armed slave revolt in Harper’s Ferry. The school ultimately became a hotbed for early civil rights leaders and was the site of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Niagara Movement second annual conference in 1906.
Storer College has educated a number of prominent students, including West Virginia’s first Black attorney, J.R. Clifford. Don Redman, an important jazz figure and great-uncle of saxophonist Joshua Redman, also attended Storer. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s first president, attended the school in the ’20’s.
Under the leadership of school president Henry T. McDonald, Storer officially became a college in 1938. But the school’s degrees were never accredited, and there were financial hurdles due to low enrollment. In 1954 after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision that legally ended segregation, the state withdrew its federal funding of the school and Storer shuttered its doors in 1956.
The school’s records are maintained today by Howard University and Virginia Union University. The site of the school is a federally maintained area within Harper’ Ferry National Park.
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