First Negro Student accepted at Frostburg State College

First Negro Student Accepted at Frostburg State College

The newspaper article below appeared in the Cumberland Evening Times, Thursday, July 21, 1955, and references the first African-American to be enrolled at Frostburg State Teachers College.

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Cumberland Evening Times,
Thursday, July 21, 1955

CARVER GRAD PLANS STUDY AT FROSTBURG
Frostburg State Teachers College has accepted the application of its first Negro student in the history of the school according to Dr. Thomas G. Pullen, Jr., superintendent of state schools.
Enrolled as a freshman at the Frostburg College is Miss Rae A. Biggs, graduate of Carver High School, Class of 1955. Dr. Pullen said this morning that in accordance with a resolution passed last month by the State Board of Education to ban segregation in the state teachers colleges of Maryland, the application of Miss Biggs was accepted.
Dr. Pullen pointed out this morning that Towson State Teachers College admitted its first Negro a few weeks ago.

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Notes:

A class photo of Rae Biggs is depicted elsewhere on this website, Carver High School. It is noted that she was actually in the Carver High Senior Class of 1954, not 1955.

A history of the school notes that the first black student to graduate was Leon Brumback in 1961. Leon C. Brumback went on to become a teacher and youth activist in Washington County, Maryland. He is also identified as being on the 2010-2011 Hagerstown Community College Board of Directors.

Frostburg State Teachers College became Frostburg State College in 1963, and Frostburg State University in 1987.