BGuthrie Photos: WV -- Harpers Ferry NHP -- Storer College site

WV -- Harpers Ferry NHP -- Storer College site:

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[1] HARPST_120408_001.JPG	[2] HARPST_120408_005.JPG	[3] HARPST_120408_037.JPG
[4] HARPST_120408_043.JPG	[5] HARPST_120408_047.JPG	[6] HARPST_120408_056.JPG
[7] HARPST_120408_059.JPG	[8] HARPST_120408_064.JPG	[9] HARPST_120408_069.JPG
[10] HARPST_120408_076.JPG	[11] HARPST_120408_081.JPG	[12] HARPST_120408_084.JPG
[13] HARPST_120408_088.JPG	[14] HARPST_120408_095.JPG	[15] HARPST_120408_099.JPG
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[19] HARPST_120408_128.JPG	[20] HARPST_120408_132.JPG	[21] HARPST_120408_137.JPG
[22] HARPST_120408_142.JPG	[23] HARPST_120408_146.JPG	[24] HARPST_120408_150.JPG
[25] HARPST_120408_155.JPG	[26] HARPST_120408_164.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. HARPST_120408_001.JPG: Morrell House This house was built in 1858 as quarters for the US Armory paymaster's clerk and his family. This clerk helped the paymaster manage the armory's complex budget and payroll, and assisted also with the collection of government quarters' rent and the oversight of armory contracts. Soon after the establishment of Storer Normal School (later college) in Harpers Ferry in 1867, Reverend Alexander Morrell of Maine came south into the Shenandoah Valley as a missionary for the Freewill Baptists -- a church dedicated to the education of former slaves. Morrell preached and taught in the area for nearly 20 years, and this house, in which Morrell and his family once resided, was named in honor of his dedicated service. Today the Morrell house is a National Park Service office building.
2. HARPST_120408_043.JPG: Brackett House Built in 1858, this house served as the home for the US Armory superintendent's clerk. As an assistant to the superintendent, the clerk's responsibilities included drafting correspondence, filing reports, arranging schedules, and insuring the smooth operation of the superintendent's office. After Storer College was established for freedmen in 1867, the building was named in honor of Dr. Nathan Brackett -- educator, minister, administrator, and financier -- who helped found the college and served as its first principal. Brackett arranged to have this and three other "fine old mansions" in the upper town, dilapidated and abandoned after the Civil War, turned over to the college by the government. The Brackett House currently is not open.
3. HARPST_120408_064.JPG: Foundations of Freedom: Harpers Ferry, including Anthony Hall (to your left), played host to large and small scenes in the epic human struggle for freedom and equality. In this building, the superintendent of the national armory contemplated how to strengthen the nation's military. On these fields, great armies battled over a divided land. Here, former slaves strove to obtain the education previously denied them by law. During the Civil War, a war over the meaning of freedom, both Union and Confederate soldiers used the fields around you as staging, training, and battlefields. Storer College, founded in 1867, was one of the first schools in the South open to African American students. Chartered as a school for all students, regardless of race or gender, Storer College was never able to achieve the goal of an integrated campus due to racial segregation laws.
4. HARPST_120408_076.JPG: Heads versus Hands: A national controversy regarding the education of African American students played out in the building before you. Throughout its history, Storer College faced great difficulty attracting funding. Most white benefactors favored trade school training for African American students. In order to attract better financial backing, Storer College opened this industrial arts building in 1905. The following year, W.E.B. De Bois spoke out on this campus against training only the hands and not the minds of African American students. "We want our children trained as intelligent human beings should be and we will fight for all time against any proposal to educate black boys and girls simply as servants and underlings, or simply for the use of other people. They have a right to know, to think, to aspire." -- W.E.B. Du Bois, 1906 Address to the Nation delivered on the Storer Campus college
5. HARPST_120408_088.JPG: Here John Brown aimed at human slavery a blow that woke a guilty nation. With him fought seven slaves and sons of slaves. Over his crucified corpse marched 200,000 black soldiers and 4,000,000 freedmen singing "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave but his soul goes marching on!" In gratitude this tablet is erected the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People May 21, 1932
6. HARPST_120408_099.JPG: "That was the happiest time of my life." -- Storer alumni Ruby Reeler Female students arriving here at the Cook Hall dormitory were greeted with a welcoming letter that advised them, "Here you will come as a refuge from the strangeness or perplexities of campus life. Here you will fight your battles of adjustment to new surroundings. Here you will gain new understanding of community living and of friendships." Storer College provided a refuge from the pressures of segregated society. Students flourished within the structure of the Storer community. Football teams played in the field before you, and literary clubs musical groups met in the buildings around you. "You loved the school... this building was you." -- Storer alumnus
7. HARPST_120408_132.JPG: "The battle we wage is not for ourselves alone but for all true Americans." -- W.E.B. Du Bois In 1906, the Niagara Movement held its second annual meeting on the Storer College campus. "The Niagara Movement was the first national organization of Negroes which aggressively and unconditionally demanded the same civil rights for their people which other Americans enjoyed." -- Elliot M. Rudwick, historian, 1957 Symbolically important as the first meeting of the group on American soil, the conference organizers carefully selected the location of the meeting. They chose Harpers Ferry for its rich history, including the John Brown raid to end slavery, and Storer College for its commitment to education for people of all races. "We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil and social..." -- W.E.B. Du Bois speaking at the 1906 Niagara Movement meeting Attendees at the 1906 Niagara Movement conference posed at Anthony Hall, the building in front of you. General Secretary W.E.B. Du Bois is seated fifth from the right.
8. HARPST_120408_137.JPG: A Land Divided: "The struggle of today is not altogether for today -- it is for a vast future also." -- Abraham Lincoln You are standing near what was once an international border. During the Civil War, the peak to your left lay within the Union state of Maryland. Loudoun Heights to the right was claimed by the Confederate state of Virginia. Slavery divided the nation, and here at Harpers Ferry the two sides clashed over the meaning of freedom. The noise of army camp life once disturbed the quiet field before you. Both the Union and Confederate armies used this clearing as a campground and training field at different times throughout the course of the war. Refugees from slavery flocked to the Union encampments in Harpers Ferry. Thousands of formerly enslaved people sought the protection of the Union army. Classified by the army as contraband, they faced an uncertain future.
9. HARPST_120408_142.JPG: Foundations of Freedom: Harpers Ferry, including Anthony Hall (behind you to your right), played host to large and small scenes in the epic human struggle for freedom and equality. In this building, the superintendent of the national armory contemplated how to strengthen the nation's military. On these fields, great armies battled over a divided land. Here, former slaves strove to obtain the education previously denied them by law. During the Civil War, a war over the meaning of freedom, both Union and Confederate soldiers used the fields around you as staging, training, and battlegrounds. Storer College, founded in 1867, was one of the first schools in the South opened to African American students. Chartered as a school for all students, regardless of race or gender. Storer College was never able to achieve the goal of an integrated campus due to racial segregation laws.
10. HARPST_120408_146.JPG: Church and School: "The school and mission work are inseparably interwoven with each other." -- Storer teacher, Kate J. Anthony The Curtis Memorial Freewill Baptist Church served as a spiritual anchor in the lives of both the students and the teachers of Storer College. Life was sometimes difficult at Storer College, one of the first schools for African Americans in the segregated South. Students and teachers alike faced hostility from local white residents, but found solace in religion. In 1894, the Freewill Baptists built this church to accommodate the needs of this growing community.
11. HARPST_120408_155.JPG: The Niagara Movement: Here, on August 15-19, 1906, on the Storer College campus, the Niagara Movement held their first open and public meeting on American soil. Organized by W.E.B. Du Bois and others a year earlier in Erie Beach, Ontario, Canada, the Niagara Movement became the cornerstone of modern civil rights movement and was the forerunner of the NAACP.
Wikipedia Description: Storer College
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Storer College was a historically black college located in Harpers Ferry in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It operated from 1865 until 1955.

History:

Storer School:

For over 88 years, the place of education ultimately known as "Storer College" stood high above Harpers Ferry on Camp Hill. Beginning life as a one-room school for freedmen, Storer grew into a full-fledged degree-granting college open to all races, creeds, and colors. Former slaves thrown into the world with no training, no skills, and no education found at Storer a place to learn to read and write, to teach others in their community, and to develop marketable skills. Their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren found place of learning in the days of racial segregation. Students left Storer with the education, the training, and perhaps most importantly, the sense of worth needed to make their way in an unsympathetic society.

Educating freedmen:

The first building on Camp Hill, a portion of Harpers Ferry, Virginia, to open its doors to students was the Lockwood House, formerly the US Armory Paymaster's quarters. In 1865, as a representative of New England's Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society, Reverend Nathan Cook Brackett established a primary school in the war torn building, teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic to the children of former slaves. This school was part of a larger national effort by northern philanthropic organizations and the government's Freedmen's Bureau to educate the thousands of African Americans freed by the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution. From Harpers Ferry, Reverend Brackett directed the efforts of dedicated missionary teachers, who provided a basic education to thousands of former slaves congregated in the relatively safe haven of the Shenandoah Valley by the end of the American Civil War.

Teaching teachers:

Dedicated as they were, these few teachers could not begin to meet the educational needs of the freedmen in the area. By 1867, there were still only 16 teachers to educate 2,500 students. Reverend Brackett realized the only way to reach all these students was to train African American teachers. The little grammar school in the Lockwood House needed to become a teaching college.

In 1867, Reverend Brackett's school came to the attention of John Storer, a philanthropist from Maine through Rev. Oren B. Cheney, founder of Bates College, a Freewill Baptist school in Maine. Storer offered a $10,000 grant to the Freewill Baptists for a "colored school" in the South if several conditions could be met. First, the school must eventually become a degree-granting college. Second, the school had to be open to all applicants, regardless of race or gender. And, finally, the most difficult prerequisite: The Freewill Baptist Church had to match the $10,000 donation within the year. After a year-long effort, the money was raised, and Storer Normal School opened its doors, and by March 1868 it received its state charter.
Local attitudes

Raising $10,000 turned out to be easy compared to facing local resistance to a "colored school." Residents of Harpers Ferry tried everything from slander and vandalism to pulling political strings in their efforts to shut down the school. One teacher wrote, "it is unusual for me to go to the Post Office without being hooted at, and twice I have been stoned on the streets at noonday."

These efforts did not succeed in closing Storer Normal School, and eventually, local attitudes changed. Later in his life, Reverend Brackett became a respected citizen of Harpers Ferry.

The three Rs and more:

Understanding that former slaves needed to learn more than the three Rs to function in society, Storer founders looked to provide more than a basic education. According to the first college catalog, students were to "receive counsel and sympathy, learn what constitutes correct living, and become qualified for the performance of the great work of life." In its early years, Storer taught freedmen to read, write, spell, do sums, and to go back into their communities to teach others these lessons.

As the years went by, Storer remained primarily a Teachers College, but added courses in higher education as well as in industrial training. Students graduated with a normal degree for teaching or an academic degree for those going on to college.

Civil rights:

In 1881, Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech on abolitionist John Brown at Storer Normal School.

In August 1906, Storer Normal School hosted the second conference of the Niagara Movement. Formed by a group of leading African American intellectuals, the Niagara Movement struggled to eliminate discrimination based on color. The movement's leader, Doctor W. E. B. Du Bois, rejected the prevalent theory of "accommodation" espoused by Booker T. Washington, who advocated conciliation rather than agitation as a means of gaining social equality. The Niagara Movement never hesitated to agitate, publishing an annual "Address to the World", demanding voting rights, educational and economic opportunities, justice in the courts, and recognitions in unions and the military. Their aggressive tone alienated many conservative African American and white leaders, and eroded political support for their group. During the 1906 conference, Storer staff expressed discomfort with the group's militancy and dismay at their tendency to consider even progressive whites as the enemy.

By 1910, five years after it was formed, the Niagara Movement was dissolved. While it did not produce material gains in the civil rights arena, the Niagara Movement made it clear there was a large group of people who would settle for nothing less than full civil rights, thereby laying a valuable foundation for the development of a more broad-based push for equality.

When the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed in New York City in 1910, many of the members of the failing Niagara Movement joined immediately. The NAACP adopted many of the goals of the Niagara Movement. In its most famous victory, the NAACP took Brown v. Board of Education to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 and won. In an ironic twist of fate, Storer College, which had played host to the Niagara Movement that paved the way for the formation of the NAACP, suffered from that decision.

Storer College:

In 1938, under the leadership of school president Henry T. McDonald, Storer became a college. Enrollment peaked at around 400, and dipped lower during World War II.

Although the school granted four-year degrees, it was never accredited, and the college was forced to turn away some students. Those who wanted to be doctors, for example, were not admitted, because the college lacked the money to provide the necessary facilities to properly prepare students for these advanced studies.

Final days:

In 1954, the US Supreme Court decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case ended legal segregation in public schools in the United States. Immediately after the ruling, West Virginia withdrew its financial support from Storer College. Financial burdens had been accumulating for a decade, and in June 1955, Storer College closed its doors forever. (West Virginia continues to support two other historically black state universities: Bluefield State College and West Virginia State University.)

The legacy:

In 1964, the movable physical assets of the college were transferred to the historically white Alderson-Broaddus College, a Baptist college, and used to establish scholarships for black students. The college's endowment was transferred to Virginia Union University, a historically black institution. Records of the college are maintained by Virginia Union and by Howard University.

Virginia Union considers graduates of the college to be alumni of VUU.

The campus of the college is now maintained as a part of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. The three remaining structures that were used as part of the Storer College campus now house the National Park Service's Stephen T. Mather Training Center and the Service's library. The Training Center is one of four major training centers operated by and for the National Park Service, and is named for the Service's first Director, Stephen Mather.

Each August, the alumni of Storer gather in Harpers Ferry for their now annual reunion. At last count the alumni is now less than 70 (the last person to graduate in 1955 is now around 74).
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