In response to your report "Morgan State University designated a National Treasure" (May 3), I would like to add some historical information about the institution's connection to one of its early leaders, John Franklin Goucher -- an association that few people know about.
Goucher, a Methodist minister, believed everyone should have an education, regardless of gender, race, class or religion.
In the late nineteenth century, he put this belief into action in Baltimore by helping establish my alma mater, Goucher College (originally the Woman's College of Baltimore), and advancing education for African-Americans at the Centenary Biblical Institute, which would become Morgan College (now Morgan State University).
By the late 1870s, the bible institute had outgrown its space in downtown Baltimore. Goucher and his wife, Mary, provided for its future growth by donating a plot of land in West Baltimore and seed money for the construction of a building that opened in 1881 at Edmondson and Fulton Avenues.
Two years later, Goucher became president of the school's board of trustees, a position he held until his death in 1922.
Among his accomplishments as board president: In 1890, he led trustees in changing the institute's name to Morgan College, which granted Maryland's first bachelor's degrees to African-American students.
In 1902, he recruited John O. Spencer, who would serve as Morgan's president for 35 years; and in 1917, as the school prepared to celebrate its 50th anniversary, he worked with Spencer and the board to purchase the land on which today's Morgan State University still stands.
This last endeavor, done at a time of strict housing segregation in Baltimore, made Goucher, as board president, the focus of much vitriol from white neighbors and neighborhoods surrounding the proposed campus.
Morgan College finally was able to move from its original, 1881 Goucher-sponsored building in Baltimore City (not from Virginia, as noted in The Sun's article) to its new home in eastern Baltimore County. Carnegie Hall, built through the Carnegie grant that Spencer had acquired, remains a historic part of the campus.
The Baltimore area is fortunate to have two excellent educational institutions that John Goucher championed during his life. His legacy is also international in scope: He founded and/or supported schools and universities in India, China, Japan and Korea, many of which continue to educate students today. The importance of educational opportunity and access that he promoted more than a century ago remains an issue in the U.S. and many parts of the world.
Marilyn Southard Warshawsky
The writer is author of the biography "John Franklin Goucher: Citizen of the World."