Another Black History Month is in the books. What started nearly a century ago as a week-long event, coinciding with the mid-February birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, was expanded to the entire month of February in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. “In celebrating Black History Month,” Ford said, according to Time, “we can seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Indeed. And, as always, we were glad to see the various local events and celebrations, such as those done through Carroll County Public Schools, at Silver Oak Academy and McDaniel College, by the HIstorical Society of Carroll County, and by Taneytown, honoring African American Civil War soldiers.
The danger, though, is that once Black History Month is over, black history is largely forgotten during the other 11 months of the year. That’s why we are very much in favor of establishing a local museum to provide the opportunity to learn and benefit year-round.
The Former Students and Friends of Robert Moton High School, an organization composed of alumni of the Westminster school, has been meeting with Carroll County officials, seeking “adequate space” to honor black history in this area and the school that made them who they are today.
Robert Moton opened in the early 1930s on Union Street and later moved into a two-story prefabricated building on Church Street.
“It was an inferior housing building and I think it started with just a few high school students, students who were above the seventh grade, because here in this county, they only had one high school for blacks," Sally Dotson-Greene, an alumna of Robert Moton High School and scholarship chairperson to Former Students and Friends of Robert Moton High School, told us. "Once you finished the seventh grade, you came to Westminster to Robert Moton.”
Alumni speak highly of the school.
“I know it prepared me for my adult life,” Dotson-Greene told us.
William Hudson, president of Former Students and Friends of Robert Moton High School, concurred.
“The Robert Moton school was equipped with African American teachers who could understand where we were coming from, help me resolve whatever issues I may have had as a black person," Hudson said. "It made me who I am today that I don’t think the white school would have done.”
What was the final incarnation of Robert Morton High School is now the Robert Moton Center, a community center with a gymnasium on Center Street. The organization has been meeting there for more than a decade and was offered that classroom space for their museum idea but found that to be inadequate for what they are trying to do.
Hudson told us their goal was to "turn part of the school into Carroll County Museum of African American history.” The group and the county haven’t been able to make it happen yet. The classroom the organization was offered wasn’t feasible, they were told to raise matching funds, which they say is “not an option” and they were told to come up with a plan.
According to Commissioner Stephen Wantz, the problem has been finding spots elsewhere for those who currently work out of the Moton Center.
"We’re experiencing a lack of suitable office locations in order to make sure the departments have the right areas.” Wantz told us, noting that he is in favor of the museum project. “We ... recognize that it’s extremely important to try to get this done.”
The organization is trying to raise awareness of its efforts and the importance of the school to Carroll County’s history, and is hosting an open house at the Robert Moton Center on March 28 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
We are hopeful the Former Students and Friends of Robert Moton High School get a nice turnout for that event and will, at some point, secure space and funding for a museum so future generations of Carroll County can learn about local black history and the importance of the Moton school all year long.