The University of Maryland Eastern Shore has been an important institution in the region. Delmarva Public Media's Sydney Rutledge-Smith takes a look at its role in the African American community.
RUSSO: It may be a well-known fact that the University of Maryland Eastern Shore has played a vital role in educating, empowering, and uplifting generations of future leaders since its inception in 1886. I'm Bryan Russo. But what may be lesser known is how the school's story is deeply woven into the broader story of black progress here on the shore. Delmarva Public Media's Sydney Rutledge-Smith is a student journalist at UMES, and in honor of Black History Month, brings us this report.
RUTLEDGE-SMITH: As you walk through the campus of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, you'll see more than students walking to class. You'll see a legacy being fulfilled. The University of Maryland Eastern Shore, better known as UMES, was founded in 1886. Originally as the Delaware Conference Academy. UMES was born during the reconstruction era, a time when newly freed African-Americans were fighting for something powerful: access to education. As we know, February is Black History Month, and during this time, it only feels right to ask: What does this legacy mean today? To dive into the history of UMES, I sat down with Dr. Arlisha Norwood, an assistant professor of history at UMES with a PhD in history from Howard University.
NORWOOD: I think it's important that when we're talking about reconstruction, that we talk about a time when the country is being rebuilt, right? So we are a nation that is grappling with the end of the Civil War and what it means to be a country without the institution of slavery. And so if you can imagine that formerly enslaved African-Americans, they have a lot of goals for themselves, for their families, and one of the biggest goals was literacy and education. And to think that these formerly enslaved people and some free people decided that they wanted to create institutions of education is astounding, given how difficult it is to create anything today.
RUTLEDGE-SMITH: What began in 1886 as the Delaware Conference Academy has grown into a cornerstone institution, whether known as the Princess Anne Academy, or the Eastern Branch of Maryland Agriculture College, this campus has always been a beacon of opportunity. Today, it stands proud as the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, but UMES is more than its founding story. It's what that history represents today.
NORWOOD: UMES is established in the rural portion of Maryland. The origins of our school mean a lot for understanding what founders and today's students have to overcome, whether we're talking about the high amount of racial violence that would've been in Princess Anne and on the Eastern Shore in 1886, or the economy that was driven by the school or the community that the school has built around it. We really should take that with us, right? It's a part of our history and it's something that we should be proud of.
RUTLEDGE-SMITH: Nearly 140 years later, students crossed the same grounds, but the mission remains rooted in empowerment.
NORWOOD: Those years are just place markers for the determination of the people who both attended UMES and alum of UMES, who really believe that this institution should exist for the Eastern Shore, but also for the larger black community. We are the only land grant HBCU, and we are a place where innovation happens as we have an aviation major, we just do it all at UMES.
RUTLEDGE-SMITH: Regardless of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore's name changes throughout the years, the mission always stayed the same. As Dr. Norwood reminds us, institution building is the cornerstone of Black American history, and UMES reflects that in many ways. Founded in a time when education meant survival and progress, UMES stands today as living proof of resilience, leadership, and possibility. As students walk these grounds today, they're walking into the next chapter of a legacy nearly 140 years in the making. Reporting from the heart of campus, I'm Sydney Rutledge-Smith with Delmarva Public Media.
