Morgan State University

History

Morgan State University (MSU) is a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1867 as the Centenary Biblical Institute, a Methodist Episcopal seminary, to train young men in the ministry. At the time of his death, Thomas Kelso, co-founder and president of the board of directors, endowed the Male Free School and Colored Institute through a legacy of his estate.

It later broadened its mission to educate both men and women as teachers. The school was renamed as Morgan College in 1890 in honor of the Reverend Lyttleton Morgan, the first chairman of its board of trustees, who donated land to the college. In 1895, the institution awarded its first baccalaureate degree to George W. F. McMechen, after whom the building of the school of business and management is named today. McMechen later earned a law degree from Yale University and, after establishing his career, became one of Morgan's main financial supporters.

John O. Spencer became the fifth president of Morgan College in 1902, and served in that position until 1937. In 1902, Morgan's assets were a little over $100,000 in grounds, equipment and endowments, including its branch schools at the time; the then Princess Anne Academy and the Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute. During his tenure as president, the university saw major expansions across the campus. By 1937, the school's assets were more than $1,000,000 and its enrollment had grown from 150 to 487. It also saw the first "Era of Progress" as the college transformed from a college supported by the religious community (which focused primarily upon training young men and women for the ministry) to a college gaining support from private foundations, and offering liberal arts academic degree for a variety of professions. In 1915, Andrew Carnegie donated to the school a grant of $50,000 for a central academic building. The terms of the grant included the purchase of a new site for the College, payment of all outstanding obligations, and the construction of a building to be named after him. The College met the conditions and moved to its present site in northeast Baltimore in 1917.

In 1918, the white community of Lauraville tried to have the sale revoked by filing suit in the circuit court in Towson, upset that the Ivy Mill property, the planned location of Morgan State, had been sold to a "negro" college. The circuit court dismissed the suit, which the community appealed to the Maryland Court of Appeals. The appellate court upheld the lower court decision, finding no basis that siting the college at this location would constitute a public nuisance. Despite some ugly threats and several demonstrations against the project, Morgan College was constructed at the new site and later expanded. Carnegie Hall, the oldest original building on the present Morgan campus, was erected a year later.

21st century

In the 21st century, the university has seen the construction of a new student union, two dedicated parking garages, the Earl S. Richardson Library, the Dixon Research Center, the Communications Building, and the Center for the Built Environment and Infrastructure Studies.

The Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center is also the home of the James E. Lewis Museum of Art. In September 2012, Morgan State opened the Center for the Built Environment and Infrastructure Studies (CBEIS) which houses the School of Architecture and Planning, School of Transportation Studies, and the School of Engineering.

In 2020, MacKenzie Scott donated $40 million to Morgan State. The following year, Calvin E. Tyler Jr. donated $20 million to endow scholarships. In 2025, MacKenzie Scott donated an additional $63 million to Morgan State, the largest donation in the history of the institution.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has designated Morgan State University as a National Treasure, the only such honor for a college or university campus in the United States. The neighboring Morgan Park Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.

Academics

Morgan State awards baccalaureate, master's, and doctorate degrees.

Morgan has educated over 100 Fulbright scholars, the most of any HBCU. Morgan is also first among HBCUs in the number of Fulbright-related grants awarded to students, faculty, and administrators. It is one of the 19 schools included on the inaugural Fulbright HBCU Institutional Leaders list. Since instituting the Fulbright program, Morgan State University has trained 144 Fulbright awardees initiating international studies in 43 different countries. Moreover, 51 MSU professors or administrators (none of whom were Morgan graduates) have earned 73 "Senior Fulbright" awards to 42 countries.

Schools and colleges

The university operates twelve colleges, schools, and institutes.

James H. Gilliam, Jr. College of Liberal Arts

School of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences

Clarence M. Mitchell School of Engineering

School of Architecture and Planning

Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management

School of Community Health and Policy

School of Global Journalism and Communication

School of Education & Urban Studies

School of Social Work

College of Interdisciplinary and Continuing Studies

Dr. Clara Adams Honors College

School of Graduate Studies

Patuxent Environmental & Aquatic Research Laboratory (PEARL)

The College of Liberal Arts offers degree programs in the arts, history, humanities, military and social sciences, and hosts two museums: the James E. Lewis Museum of Art and Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum. The James E. Lewis Museum of Art (JELMA) is the cultural extension of Morgan State University's Fine Arts academic program. The Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum illustrates the last recorded lynching in Maryland.

The School of Computer, Mathematical, & Natural Sciences offers undergraduate majors and minors as well as graduate degree programs in the natural and formal sciences. The chemistry program is approved by the American Chemical Society (ACS). The medical laboratory science program is accredited by the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS) and the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP). The actuarial science program is approved by the Society of Actuaries (SOA). It also hosts the university's environmental and aquatic research laboratory - PEARL.

Library

The Earl S. Richardson Library's is the main academic information resource center on the campus. Constructed in 2008, the building covers approximately 222,517 square feet. The library's holding constitutes over 500,000 volumes, and access to over 1 million e-books and 5,000 periodical titles. There are 167 online databases that are subscribed to the Library. Reading and studying spaces are provided with wired and wireless access to databases for research. One such collection in the volumes includes books on Africa, with an emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa. The African-American collection includes papers and memorabilia of such persons as Emmett Jay Scott, secretary to Booker T. Washington. The Forbush Collection is composed of materials associated with the Quakers and slavery. The Martin D. Jenkins Collection was acquired in 1980.

Research

Morgan is a public research university that engages in active research with several national and international organizations and agencies including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and United States Department of Defense.

The research centers & programs are supported by and operated out of the various schools and institutions of the university.

Patuxent Environmental & Aquatic Research Laboratory (PEARL)

The Morgan State University Patuxent Environmental & Aquatic Research Laboratory (PEARL) is located 80 miles south of the main campus on the shoreline of the Patuxent River - a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. PEARL research is designed to increase the understanding of coastal and environmental systems so that they can be properly managed and protected. PEARL is dedicated to solving complex environmental problems, applying interdisciplinary approaches to studying the connections between complex ecological systems, while providing society with knowledge to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st Century.

Enrollment

From 2006 to 2019 the number of African-American students remained constant, but the numbers of other racial groups, including Hispanic/Latine and non-Hispanic white students increased. In 2006 the student count was 6,700, including 60 Hispanic/Latine students, in 2019 it was up to 7,700, including 260 Hispanic/Latine students, and in 2024 it was up to 9,808, including 476 Hispanic/Latine students.

As of the fall of 2025, there were 11,559 students, being 9,554 undergraduates and 2,005 graduate students enrolled at Morgan, and 45% were non-Maryland residents. The largest sources of enrollment outside of Maryland are New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Almost 10% of the student population is international, including many from countries like Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia.

Campus

Morgan has an over 100-acre sprawling campus in the northeast neighborhood of Baltimore city. The campus is surrounded by residential suburbs with Lake Montebello to the south. The university's campus is designated as a national historic site for preservation by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Student life

Residential life

The university offers on and off campus housing options including multiple dining services catering to students of various backgrounds and needs.

University resources and services available for all students include the student center, university gym, food resource center, health center, counseling center, memorial chapel and youth ministry, and career development centers.

Greek life, social clubs, and organizations

Morgan State University has over 20+ fraternity and sorority chapters including the nine National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) organizations, social fellowships, clubs, student government association (SGA), and free purpose recreation spaces.

Athletics

Morgan's athletic teams are known as the Bears, and they compete in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). Between 1926 and 1928, a young Charles Drew served as Athletic Director. During this time he made great improvements in the school's teams' records. From the 1930s through 1960s, led by coach and then athletic director Edward P. Hurt, Morgan's athletic teams were legendary. More than thirty of its football players were drafted by and played in the NFL and many of its track athletes competed internationally and received world-class status. By the late 1960s most white colleges and universities ended their segregation against black high school students and many top black high school students and athletes started matriculating to schools from which they had previously been barred. While achieving a national goal of desegregation, integration depleted the athletic strength of schools like Morgan State and Grambling State University. For example, the annual contest between Morgan State and Grambling played in New York City in the late 1960s drew more than 60,000 fans. Morgan State's rivals are the Howard University Bison (the matchup is often called the Battle of the Beltway) and the Coppin State Eagles.

In 2009, the Morgan State men's basketball team won the MEAC regular season and tournament championship and qualified for the 2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. In their first tournament appearance, the 15th-seeded Bears lost to the 2008–09 Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball team Oklahoma Sooners, 82–54, in the first round of the South Regional.

In 2010 the Morgan State men's basketball team again won the MEAC regular season and tournament championship and qualified for the 2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, again as a 15 seed. Morgan State lost to West Virginia University in the first round by a score of 77–50.

Morgan State began playing football in 1898, 31 years after the school was founded. The Bears have won three MEAC Championships (1976, 1979 and 2014). Their last Division I-AA/FCS playoffs appearance was in 2014. Fifty three former Morgan players have gone on to play professional football. Former Morgan Bears Len Ford, Leroy Kelly, Willie Lanier and Rosey Brown are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

By 1975 Morgan State became noted for its lacrosse team. Morgan State was the first—and, until the turn of the 21st century, the only—historically black university to field a lacrosse team.

Band

The Morgan State University Band Program consists of six ensembles: the marching band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, pep band, jazz ensemble, and jazz combo. Self-titled the Magnificent Marching Machine, the marching band has performed at Morgan State football games, NFL games, Presidential Inaugurations, World Series games and in regional and local television appearances.

On November 28, 2019, the Magnificent Marching Machine performed during Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. They also performed at the 80th Anniversary and Commemoration of D-Day in Normandy, France on June 12, 2024.

Choir

The Morgan State University Choir has performed for audiences throughout the United States and internationally. Robert Shaw has directed them, together with the Orchestra of St. Lukes and Jessye Norman and others in Carnegie Hall's One Hundredth Birthday Tribute to Marian Anderson. In the 1996-1997 season, the "Silver Anniversary" concert was broadcast throughout the state of Maryland. The concert won an Emmy Award for Maryland Public Television.

During 2011-2012 academic years, the choir had several prominent performances. Since 2017, the Morgan State University choir has toured, Cuba, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Slovakia, Germany, England, Scotland, Wales, Peru, Ecuador, and Galapagos Islands. In December 2021, the choir sang a concert in Hawaii, to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Media

The Spokesman

The Spokesman is the university's student-run newspaper.

WMUR Baltimore

WMUR Baltimore is the student operated radio station of the School of Global Journalism and Communication and the university.

WEAA 88.9 FM

WEAA 88.9 is the NPR affiliated public radio station of Morgan State University, and a service of the university's School of Global Journalism and Communication. It began broadcasting on January 10, 1977, with call letters standing for "We Educate African Americans." Broadcasting since 1977, WEAA 88.9 operates independently and attracts support from public donors, underwriters, and grant-makers.

BEAR-TV

BEAR-TV Network is Morgan State University's TV network offering regular programming in local and campus news and sports among other featured productions.

Notable alumni and faculty

Alumni

Alumni of Morgan State University have achieved notability in the fields of athletics, science, government, law, the arts, and the military including four members of the NFL Football Hall of Fame (Willie Lanier, Roosevelt Brown, Leroy Kelly, and Len Ford), Black Enterprise Magazine publisher Earl Graves, the Chief Judge of Maryland's highest court, Clarence Dunnaville, lawyer and civil rights activist, and nearly a dozen U.S. Army Generals including Lieutenant General William "Kip" Ward, the first Commanding Officer of the United States Africa Command. The New York Times sports columnist William C. Rhoden, playwright, TV producer, and entrepreneur David E. Talbert, and American-Israeli Olympic sprinter Donald Sanford are also alumni. Civil rights activist and music critic for the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper Adah Jenkins graduated from Morgan State as did scientist and inventor Valerie Thomas.

Faculty

Former faculty member Ernest Lyon was a United States Ambassador to Liberia and the founder of the Maryland Industrial and Agricultural Institute for Colored Youths. Noted African American historian and pioneering scholar Dr. Benjamin A. Quarles served on its faculty for many decades. Physician-Scientist Charles R. Drew, known for his work on blood transfusion, was Morgan College's First Athletic Director. African-American historian Rosalyn Terborg-Penn wrote on women' suffrage. Flora E. Strout, Morgan College teacher and principal, wrote the school's anthem.

Notable faculty currently teaching at Morgan State University include bestselling author and filmmaker MK Asante, and scholar Raymond Winbush.