Since the summer of 2019 a team of students faculty members and staff have devoted themselves to uncovering, understanding, and explaining the history and experience of diversity at Towson University.
Founded as the Maryland Normal School in 1866, Towson University was a product of Maryland’s segregated school system and remained racially segregated until after the United States Supreme Court struck down racial segregation of public schools in 1954.
Inspired by efforts at other American colleges and universities to come to terms with a legacy of racial inequality in American high education, a team of Towson researchers has begun a multi-year project to investigate and publicize this institution’s exclusionist past and its efforts to diversify.
The project is a collaboration between the Albert S. Cook Library Special Collections and University Archives, the Department of History, and the Office of Institutional Equity and inclusion with the support of the President’s Office and the Provost.
