Laurel-based Institute for Colored Youths was Predecessor to Bowie State University

“Any effort to educate our fellow-man should invite favor and support. Nothing is lost to him who helps to better the condition of the unfortunate and helpless.” — The Afro-American Ledger (October 12, 1901)

Praise and the promise of support from notable local and national public figures filled the full-page appeal for public financial support for the establishment of the Maryland Industrial and Agricultural Institute for Colored Youths in the Afro-American Ledger. However, following a decade of financial insecurity, the Institute was quietly closed and its mission moved to Bowie.

The institute was the vision of prominent pastor Rev. Dr. Ernest Lyon (pictured), who “starting without a dollar, except his own money,” had purchased 87 acres of property in North Laurel, Howard County, for the school. The institute was founded to provide Black youth not only the literary education but to “emphasize especially their industrial and agricultural training under competent instructors.” It was modeled on Booker T. Washington’s successful Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

The location of the institute was considered ideal for reaching Black youth, who were part of “three large and populous cities, viz., Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, and Annapolis, Md.,” which made up a “black belt” of the country with more than a quarter of a million Blacks living in the state of Maryland, according to the Ledger.

Despite the fanfare and hopeful beginning, funding for the institute was an issue from its inception. The institute was about two weeks from its opening date, October 30, when the full-page appeal was published. It included an extensive list of supporters of the project, well-known citizens, both White and Black, and sketch drawings of the existing building and ones yet to be built. There were several quotes from prominent local leaders endorsing the institute and from the John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church Pastor, Rev. Dr. Ernest Lyon, the institute’s founder and president.

“The professions are crowded. It is just as honorable to work with the hand as with the head. You shall have my influence as well as my signature.” — Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe, Former Mayor of Baltimore and member of the Maryland House of Delegates

Located in Laurel, the institute would open in an area where existing overall efforts to educate Black youths were not sufficient to meet the needs of those students. Lyon was quoted in the Ledger saying, “there is no opportunity for industrial and agricultural education, except that offered by Cheltenham, a penal institution. It is this pressing necessity which caused us to organize this Institution almost single handed.”

Then-Mayor Edward Phelps of Laurel was quoted as saying, “My life thus far, as a public man, has been devoted to education. We have just succeeded in erecting a magnificent building for a High School for the town. It took us ten years to reach the point. Your school is a necessity, and the best people of the town, as far as I know and can hear, are commending your movement. We will watch with interest your success.”

The amount raised by the pre-opening appeal was not disclosed. The appeal notice indicated that in addition to their education, students would benefit from a “wholesome Christian influence [and] they shall experience no barrier in reaching the highest and loftiest development possible to every American youth under the aspiration of the Stars and Stripes.”

Room rent, board, and tuition cost $9.00 per month. However, of the 18 rooms in the main mansion, furniture was needed for about six rooms. Teachers’ salaries would cost $2,000, and $2,500 was needed for repairs, fuel, interest on mortgage notes, incidental expenses, insurance, and taxes. There were 11 pupils in the first class of students, 6 from Baltimore. Professor R. J. Pollard, a graduate of Hampton Institute, was hired as an assistant to Dr. Lyon.

In its inaugural year, the farm had three horses, carriages, carts, wagons, and some farming implements, but not enough to prosecute the work, the appeal noted. “We give this statement hoping that it might appeal to the sympathy of those who are in condition to help us.” The appeal also listed over 100 names of prominent Black and White “well-known” citizens, who had endorsed the effort, and included quotes from “prominent Marylanders and others.”

Unfortunately, state and federal funding was sporadic and far below the needs of the school. In 1902, the Baltimore Sun wrote that U.S. Representative Frank C. Wachter and the chairman of the Baltimore delegation at Annapolis, William J. Broening, had called on U.S. Commissioner of Education William T. Harris to include the Laurel-based Maryland Industrial and Agricultural Institute for Colored Youths in the annual appropriations under the Morrill Act of 1890, which mandated that states using federal land-grants and funds for teaching agriculture, engineering, and mechanical arts must either admit African American students or create a separate land-grant institution for them from the $25,000 designated for agricultural colleges in the state.

Harris, however, believed that “the Laurel college had not been designated as a prospective recipient of any of the money appropriated.” Although Harris was informed that the State Legislature had recognized the Institute by appropriating $1,000 for its use, and therefore was an officially recognized institution, he refused the request and the Maryland Agricultural College, a “whites only” college that became the University of Maryland College Park, received the entire $25,000 appropriation that year.

The next year, while the institute was praised for having excellent results, it continued to struggle financially. The 1903 edition of the Maryland Manual stated that the Institute received $1,000 in both 1902 and 1903 from the State of Maryland.

The Baltimore American reported that a large portion of the 87-acre farm had been under cultivation with gratifying results, showing pronounced improvements in the crops from the previous year.

The Institute’s founders and supporters again made an appeal to the public for an annual subscription to guarantee the pay of three teachers, money to erect a trades building, and a dormitory for girls. That same year, school president, Rev. Dr. Lyon, was appointed Minister Resident and Consul General of the United States at Monrovia, Liberia, by President Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1904, the Baltimore American reported that enhanced school course offerings of cookery, carpentry, sewing, and other industrial lines, as well as a positive financial report, indicated a prosperous coming year for the school.

Likewise, in 1905, the Baltimore American reported that the acting president of the Institute, Rev. M.J. Naylor, addressed the formal opening exercises along with other notable people. The school’s enrollment had doubled from the previous year, and it had employed five teachers. The prospects were bright for a good year.

At the May commencement, the Baltimore American reported that visitors were met with samples of work completed by students, and that over the four years of earnest labor on the school farm, 55 acres were under cultivation. Rev. Naylor opened his commencement address observing that [the Institute had] 8 horses, 8 cows, a dozen hogs, and 40 persons to feed through the year; not a head of cabbage or a potato, or an ear of corn had been purchased.” He noted that all of these staple foods had been raised on the farm.

In the subsequent years, as financial issues continued to plague the Institute, a different kind of fundraiser was attempted. The Afro American reported that in 1909 colored farmers of Howard and adjoining counties met at the Laurel Institute for a fair and tournament to raise money for the school. In 1910, the State of Maryland had approved only $500 for the Institute.

The inauspicious closure of the Institute happened sometime in the 1910 timeframe.

Apparently, the Institute merged with the Bowie Normal School, which then became the Bowie Normal and Industrial School. When the agricultural program was transferred from Laurel to Bowie, there was little fanfare or reporting. Similarly, the sale of the 87-acre property by Dr. Lyon to Fulton R. Gordon, a prominent real estate developer based in Washington, D.C. in 1911, was also not widely reported at the time.

Absorbed by the State of Maryland over the next several years, the combined schools in Bowie eventually became Bowie State University, according to the Maryland State Archives.

Kevin Leonard contributed to this article.

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Angie Latham Kozlowski is a staff writer and member of the Board of Directors for the Laurel History Boys. In addition to her investigative reporting, her articles frequently spotlight Howard County.