Existing comment:
Freedmen Find Opportunity:
Following the Civil War, African Americans in Harpers Ferry as elsewhere struggled against persistent prejudice and scarce jobs and food. In 1865, Nathan Brackett, a Freewill Baptist missionary from Maine, set up a mission and later a freedmen's school in Harpers Ferry. His efforts inspired John Storer to give $10,000 to help establish a school open to all regardless of race, sex, or religion. Storer College acquired buildings (originally armory supervisors' dwellings) from the federal government, and graduated its first class of eight students in 1872. The college trained teachers and also educated black children.
For many years, Storer College was a vital part of Harpers Ferry community life and drew prominent visitors to its campus, among them Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois. Desegregation, loss of state funding, and dwindling enrollment, however, led to the school's closing in 1955. |