In reconstruction-era Baltimore, the Colored School system was founded to provide public education for African Americans in the City. The historic Peale Museum building, also Baltimore’s first City Hall, housed Male and Female Colored School Number One. In 1882, a two-year secondary school program was added to the curriculum, making Colored School Number One the first public high school for African Americans in the state. The school quickly outgrew the Peale’s premises, and was moved first to a larger building on East Saratoga Street, and eventually to a new site at Calhoun and Baker Streets, where it was renamed the Frederick Douglass High School.

Through storytelling and song, this lunchtime presentation traces the historic roots of education for African Americans in Baltimore. Dr. David Fakunle, master storyteller and drummer, will open the program, and will be followed by Dr. Philip J. Merrill: historian, television personality with PBS Chesapeake Collectibles, appraiser, published author, and founder and CEO of Nanny Jack & Co., an African American heritage consulting firm.