Founding Storer began in 1865 as a one-room elementary school, sponsored by New England
Free Baptists and the
Freedmen's Bureau. Its first class was 19 formerly enslaved children, described as "poorly clad, ill-kept, and undisciplined", who desperately needed the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic. a philanthropist from Maine, led to the charter of "a school which might eventually become a College, to be in located in one of the Southern States, at which youth could be educated without distinction of race or color". Though called a college from the beginning, it was a
normal school until into the twentieth century, providing high school-level instruction to future primary school teachers. It also is not "
historically black" in the usual sense. The student body was overwhelmingly black, and in the 1910 advertisement reproduced at right it describes itself as "for Colored students", but there were some white students. It was also ahead of its time in that it accepted both male and female students, which then was unusual. The
Free Baptists called Storer their greatest success. One was conducted by him and his family in Lockwood House, which was to become Storer College's first building. They taught reading, writing, and arithmetic to the children of former
slaves and sometimes to their parents. Parents and children sometimes took the same class together, "but the rising generation so far outstripped their ancestors that the old folks became ashamed of themselves, and gave it up." The College was dedicated on December 22, 1869.
"College" of Storer College When founded and for most of its existence, Storer did not offer what in the 21st century would be deemed a college education or college credits. Numerous other colleges, such as
Tougaloo College,
New-York Central College,
West Virginia Wesleyan College, and
Oberlin College, also offered instruction at a pre-college level. They were running in essence
college-preparatory schools; in the 19th century, in many areas there were no schools preparing students for college. Even in the 20th century, most "junior colleges for Negroes" delivered primarily high-school-level instruction. No one else in West Virginia was educating those students until the foundation in 1891 of the West Virginia Colored Institute, today
West Virginia State University, and in 1895 of the Bluefield Colored Institute, today
Bluefield State University. (They are in 2021 the universities in West Virginia with the lowest black enrollment.) They certainly were not welcome at the segregated state normal school,
Shepherd College, founded in 1871 in nearby
Shepherdstown, West Virginia. In 1938 Storer began offering a curriculum that would lead to a four-year college degree. In 1881 the Legislature directed that the state finance the education of 17 prospective "colored" teachers, justifying this number as being equivalent, relative to West Virginia's colored population at the time, to the ratio of white prospective teachers supported by the state compared to its white population.
Finances of the college The school charged only minimal tuition, $3 per quarter, or $20 for five years. Rooms were only $3 per quarter, so the students' main expense was for their board, estimated at $2–$3 per week. Support of the College was the largest single endeavor of the Free Baptists, to which they were "thoroughly committed". The town of Harpers Ferry had already rejected a proposal to use
Lockwood House "for a school for colored children". Residents of Harpers Ferry tried everything from
slander and
vandalism to pulling political strings in their efforts to shut down the school. They petitioned the Legislature to have Storer's charter revoked. At one point lady teachers required a military escort. They were quite unhappy at its return and then move to the Storer campus. In 1944 Storer's first black president, Richard Ishmael McKinney, was welcomed with a
burning cross on his lawn. Students were taught that they should efface themselves. The school had at one point a Modern Minstrel Company, which performed "Plantation Songs and Melodies" and renditions of numbers like "If the Man in the Moon Was a Coon". W.E.B. Du Bois had prepared a new plaque in response to the Hayward Shepherd monument, but McDonald, backed by the trustees, refused to allow the NAACP to place this plaque on a wall of the Fort. The plaque was not erected until 2006. Rather than attaching it to the Fort at its present location, as originally planned, by request from the black community the Park Service located it on the former Storer campus, at the Fort's former location. In the summer, Storer rented dormitory rooms to tourists and summer boarders, and the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran
excursion trains from Baltimore and Washington.
Frederick Douglass's speech, 1881 Storer College was a site of various important events in West Virginia and national African-American history. delivered his famous speech on
abolitionist John Brown at Storer College. His intent was to raise funds for an
endowed John Brown professorship, (It never materialized.) There was a "large gathering of people" from Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and some from as far as New England. They attended a ceremonial laying of the cornerstone for Anthony Hall.
National League of Colored Women visit, 1896 In July 1896, the first national convention of the
National League of Colored Women, meeting in Washington, D.C., visited Harpers Ferry, the John Brown Fort, and the college.
Niagara Movement conference, 1906 (seated), and (left to right)
J. R. Clifford,
L. M. Hershaw, and
F. H. M. Murray at Storer College in 1906. The
Niagara Movement, predecessor of the
NAACP, is closely linked to Storer. Formed by a group of leading
African-American intellectuals, the Niagara Movement planned a campaign to eliminate discrimination based on race. The movement's leader,
W. E. B. Du Bois, a sociologist with a PhD, rejected the prevalent theory of "accommodation", as opposed to social equality, promoted by
Booker T. Washington, President of the
Tuskegee Institute. The program for its first meeting, celebrated in
Fort Erie, Ontario, for fear of disruptions in Buffalo, New York, was typed on the back of Storer letterhead.
Four-year college degrees In 1938, under the leadership of school president
Henry T. McDonald, Storer became a four-year college. The last new building was completed in 1939-1940. Enrollment peaked at around 400, as Storer and other colleges had struggled during the privations of the Great Depression. The number of students dipped lower with the high rate of participation by young men in
World War II. The college had received some financial support from the state of West Virginia, as it helped educate blacks, who were limited to segregated schools and colleges. Although the school granted four-year degrees, it never received
regional accreditation; it never applied. As a result, it was forced to turn away some students. Those who wanted to be doctors, for example, were not admitted. The college was unable to fund the laboratories and other scientific equipment necessary for a
pre-med degree.
Closure of the college It is commonly said that Storer closed because state funding ended after the 1954
Brown v. Board of Education ruling found segregated public schools to be unconstitutional. There is a kernel of truth to it, but it was but the last of a long series of financial problems. In the first place, Storer College charged no tuition. Its main funding came from the
Freewill Baptists. The state of West Virginia helped off and on, but refused to fully fund Storer, or turn it into a state college, because it was religiously affiliated, and because the
Constitution of West Virginia prohibited the joint study of black and white students in publicly supported schools. Storer was a New England project, or a black project, but it was not a West Virginia project. From a West Virginian point of view, Storer's remote location was terrible. The College Trustees chose to retain the religious affiliation and to keep the school open to all. State money then went to fund the new
West Virginia Colored Institute (1891) and
Bluefield Colored Institute (1895), which were more centrally located and served students that might have attended Storer. Providing four-year college educations was much more expensive than training primary school teachers. In fact it was beyond the resources of the Freewill Baptists, whose support for the college depended on such things as children's Sunday School contributions. Storer had been accumulating debt for a decade, and could not survive without the state appropriation. In June 1955, Storer College closed its doors forever. ==Education at Storer==