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Storer College was founded in 1867 in Harpers Ferry to educate formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. It was started by the Freewill Baptist Church with support from the Freedmen’s Bureau and a donation from John Storer of Maine. It welcomed students of all races and genders and was the only college for African Americans in West Virginia until 1891.
Frederick Douglass was on its board and spoke there in 1881. Over 7,000 students attended, studying religion, trades, teaching, and later college-level subjects. Many graduates became teachers, doctors, ministers, lawyers, newspaper publishers, and many other types of professionals. It became an accredited college in 1946.
The college hosted important civil rights events, including the 1906 Niagara Movement meeting led by W. E. B. Du Bois. Leadership was mostly White until the 1940s, when Richard I. McKinney became the first Black president. Storer closed in 1955 due to low enrollment, money problems, and the effects of desegregation. Its buildings are now part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, and the college was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.