The recent past - Segregation/integration

THE RECENT PAST

Pam Harper described what it was like to grow up black in Cumberland. "It wasn't until 1957-1968 that blacks here began to be treated like people. We weren't 'allowed' in movie houses. We had different schools (Harper attended the all-black Carver School which was located on Frederick Street). We weren't 'allowed' to eat with whites and we had different bathrooms and water fountains. We went swimming in the 'black pool.'"

Linda Scott, a 1973 graduate of Frostburg State University, is now a field producer for a national television news service. She recently recalled her student days at FSU.

"In 1969 there was only a handful of black students at FSU," she said. "We were elated to be on our own, but scared about how the community would accept us. We had a lot of problems with the fraternities. They would write 'Nigger Go Home' on our doors. Trash cans would be placed before our doors and set afire.

"A huge banner with KFW (for "Keep Frostburg White") was displayed across the second floor of the dormitory. One fraternity put on minstrel shows with white students wearing blackface, making fun of blacks. I had to take a landlord to court to get him to rent an apartment to me. He said before witnesses, 'No colored allowed.'

"We were scared and huddled, afraid to walk the streets at night. Black students tried to stick together. It was difficult until Bill and Pansye Atkinson and Gregg Rhodes came to the school and gave moral supports.