Blue and Gold Blue and Gold Winter Edition 2020 | Page 8

Far from a ‘consolation prize,’ Bluefield State
has graduated generations of young Americans
who have gone on to successful careers and
professions across the country.
of the main line of the Norfolk & Southern
railroad. It was not ideal, but it was what they
could afford.
The main building, Mahood Hall, cost
nearly $6,000 to build. The first administrator,
Hamilton Hatter, was paid $900; his assistant,
Miss Mary Booze, $500. Every penny of that
first $8,000 was spent before the doors even
opened.
But folks persevered and in January 1897, the
first forty students – 20 boys and 20 girls –
began their higher educations at the Institute,
the first such opportunity for African
Americans in southern West Virginia.
First page of the 1895 BILL authorizing
legislation that established the “Bluefield
Colored Institute”
But the path wasn’t easy. Included in Senate
Bill 122 was an appropriation of eight thousand
dollars to buy land and erect a building. This
was a paltry sum even by late nineteenth
century standards.
According to Bluefield State College:
A Centennial History, “Ominously, the bill
contained no assurance of regular annual
appropriations, and six long years passed
before additional funds were allocated from
Charleston.”
Nonetheless, funds were managed carefully
and stretched to fulfill the promise of the
founding legislation.
The first Board of Regents paid $1,800 for
four acres of steep, rocky land just north
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BLUE AND GOLD
Bluefield State College “was
created ... as a result of a
county seat dispute between
Princeton and Bluefield in the
mid-1890’s. The establishment
of a college was a way to
placate the defeated side.”
Princeton Times, April 27, 2012 Edition
Bluefield joined dozens of other schools across
the South offering a superior education to
young African Americans in the face of
“separate, but unequal” laws that dominated
sections of the country for nearly a hundred
years after the Civil War.
West Virginia’s constitution was explicit in
Article 12, Section 8: “White and colored
persons shall not be taught in the same
schools.”
Leadership and hard work helped Bluefield
mature from an institute first to a normal
college offering education degrees.
Bluefield Colored Institute circa. 1895
Bluefield State College, 1943
Then, in 1943, it became Bluefield State
College, a full college offering an array of
degreed programs.
West Virginia’s constitution
was explicit in Article 12,
Section 8: “White and
colored persons shall not be
taught in the same schools”
Decades of building and reinforcing a strong
foundation enabled the college to absorb and
adapt to fundamental changes coming to
American society.
of white students seeking the same affordable,
quality education experienced by their African
American counterparts.
One hundred and twenty-five years later
Bluefield State College stands as a symbol of
excellence achieved by perseverance through
adversity. It was forged by African Americans
determined to realize their part of the
American Dream. And later shared by white
students who, too, were often the first in their
families to experience the liberation of
advanced education.
It is altogether fitting, then, that on February
21, 2020, Governor Jim Justice ceremonially
signed a replica of Senate Bill 122, the original
legislation, and acknowledged formally
Bluefield State College’s rightful place among
West Virginia’s institutions of higher learning.
The Civil Rights Movement helped end
legalized segregation and discrimination.
The G.I. Bill and modernization of the coal
industry contributed to the first generations
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