Dr. Randolph Wilson Bromery, 1926 - 2013
His parents called him "filibuster", because even as a young child he had the ability to talk.
Lawrence Randolph Bromery, 1900 - 1974
As a young black in Cumberland, L. Randolph Bromery ended his formal educational pursuits at high school age. This was at a time when black students were obliged to obtain their high school education by entering the back door of a school on Greene Street, (most likely the Allegany County High School which was built in 1908 and burned down in 1932) at night and to pay for those classes as well! This experience taught Randolph a lesson no school could provide.
Edith Bracey, 1893 - 1960
Edith Bracey was an elementary school teacher at Carver School, for African-American children, where her husband, Earle L. Bracey, served as principal.
Depicted in this photograph, taken sometime in the mid-1970s most likely, are from left to right, Earle L. Bracey (1904-1983), Mary Reed, and Mary Carter. All three were former teachers at Carver High School, where Earle Bracey also served as Principal. Prior to his retirement from education, the 1965 Sabre, yearbook of Fort Hill High School, depicts Mr. Bracey, a University of Michigan graduate, on staff administering attendance and supervising Visual Education. (additional information on Earl L. Bracey appears elsewhere on this website). Few former Carver teachers remain.
Earle L. Bracey, 1904 - 1983
Earle L. Bracey served as principal of Carver High School from 1931 until its closing in 1959. It was Bracey who desired that the school name be changed from "Frederick Street School" to that of some important black person. In 1941, in an election among the students, the famed black scientist George Washington Carver won out over Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglas.
James H. Ashby, Jr., 1953-2009
Pansye S. Atkinson (1930-2022)
Pansye S. Atkinson was born in Asheville, North Carolina and acquired her undergraduate degree from Fisk University in Tennessee. She began her career as a school teacher in Georgetown, South Carolina and later taught in Baltimore City.
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.'"
Crossing The Bridge...
"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal."—Declaration of Independence.
And now, almost two hundred years after Thomas Jefferson wrote these words, America's dream of brotherhood, equality and tolerance is coming true. Integration bridges the chasm of racial intolerance and convinces us that the aspirations of our Founding Fathers were not wishful dreaming but functional democracy.
Breaking Barriers
February 29, 2004
Area residents recall an era of integration.
Just 50 years ago black patrons weren't allowed to enter the front doors of some theaters in downtown Cumberland. Local restaurants required African-Americans to dine in separate areas from whites, or they banned black customers altogether.
But perhaps worst of all, until the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in a case that became known as Brown vs. the Board of Education, black children could not attend the same schools as white children.