Blue and Gold Blue and Gold Winter Edition 2020 - Page 6

Senate Bill
News About
the blues
stories from
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Our Blue and
Gold Family
122
b l u e f i e l d s tat e ’ s
f o u n d i n g l e g i s l at i o n
“A BILL to establish a high-grade
school at Bluefield, Mercer County,
for the colored youth of the state.”
With those words, the West Virginia
legislature in 1895 began consideration of
Senate Bill 122. This bill established what
was called initially the “Bluefield Colored
Institute.” Fulfilling a campaign promise, it
was introduced by Senator William B.
Mahood (R-Princeton) and became law
without the signature of Democratic
Governor William A. McCorkle.
This was just six years after Bluefield itself
had been founded and the new coal fields
were booming.
According to an article printed in the April
27, 2012, edition of the Princeton Times
Bluefield State College “was created…as the
result of a county seat dispute…between
Princeton and Bluefield in the mid-1890s.
The establishment of a college was a way to
placate the defeated side.”
A High School for African Americans
Area coal operators also supported a school
so that their black workforce would stay.
What began as a high school for African
Americans is now Bluefield State College.
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BLUE AND GOLD
WINTER 2020
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