Negro Higher and Professional Education in Maryland

Abstract

In 1940 Maryland had a poulation of 1,821,244 according to the United State Census; of this number 78.9 per cent were native-born white, 4.5 per cent were foreign-born white, and 16.6 per cent were Negro. The Negro population is distributed very unequally over the state. The larger number of Negroes is concentrated in the Baltimore area, more than fifty per cent of the total being in Baltimore city. Almost seventy-five per cent of the Negroes in the State are in Baltimore City, and in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Montgomery, and Prince George counties. The ratio of whites to Negroes, however, is highest in Southern Maryland and on the Eastern Shore. All the counties that have more than 30 per cent Negro population are in Southern 'Maryland or on the Eastern Shore. Legal Basis.-The Statute Law of Maryland does not expressly forbid the instruction of whites and Negroes in the public schools. In spite of this, separate schools and colleges are maintained for whites and Negroes. This is not only not necessary constitionally but is restricted by the U. S. Constitution. Negroes are admitted to the law school of the University of Maryland. This was the outcome of the decision of the Maryland Court of Appeals in the now famous University of Maryland v. Donald Murray case.'