Remembering UMD's Forgotten Civil-Rights Era Hereos

Hiram Whittle. Parren Mitchell. Elaine Johson.

These are names that most students are unfamiliar with, yet made such an important impact on the University of Maryland for so many.

In 1951, Whittle was the first Black undergraduate student to attend the university. He wanted to study engineering, and was going to settle for attending Morgan State University instead, a historically Black college.

Instead, Thurgood Marshall, an NAACP lawyer, fought Whittle's case and won, making history along the way.

Today, about 12 percent of the university's student population is African-American. 

"In my opinion, there is not enough emphasis put on Whittle and the doors he opened for African-American students," said Dr. Ronald Zeigler, Director of the Nyumburu Cultural Center.

Whittle did not graduate from the university, but he opened the doors to a bright new future.

Parren Mitchell became the first Black student to receive his Master's degree from the university in 1952. He also became the first African-American to be elected to congress.

According to Zeigler, students like Whittle and Mitchell would not have gotten where they did without the support of the NAACP.

 "UMD is more likely to listen to an entire organization rather than just one or two students," said Zeigler.

Just three years later, in 1955, Elaine Johnson became the first undergraduate Black female to attend the university. 

"I think it set precedence for both women and Black students," said Zeigler. "However, there was not an appreciable increase in Black women or men for approximately 13 years."

Today, Zeigler believes that there is still a problem with racial discrimination in the university.

 "Universities are institutions within society. Society certainly has issues of race and ethnicity," he said.

Some students agree.

Senior accounting and finance major Kelli-Anne Scharschmidt feels like a true minority in her everyday classes.

"In the business school you can definitely see just from the faces that there aren't a lot of Black people, or minorities in general," she said. "Even in some of my classes I've had it where I've been the only black person, which shouldn't be the case at such a huge university."

Others do not feel as strongly in that regard.

Hafie Yillah, sophomore communications major, says that he feel that discrimination is not that big of an issue on our campus. "We're not yet at a completely post-racial state, but with regards to student-teacher interactions I have not felt discriminated against," he said.

Scharschmidt feels that there is a huge achievement gap that is extremely evident between races, regardless of laws such as Affirmative Action.

"UMD works towards creating a diverse culture, so they can say that their university is diverse," said Scharshmidt. "They make an effort but the lack is both part on effort and part on class."

Later in life Whittle said that he felt the students in College Park were the same as they were at Morgan State. Zeigler said that was likely untrue, and Whittle probably said that so that he would not feel ostracized.

"I think we need to show more appreciation for the bold step that Whittle took," said Zeigler.