The history of Baltimore City College began in 1839, when the city council of Baltimore, Maryland, United States, passed a resolution mandating the creation of a male high school with a focus on the study of English and classical literature. The Baltimore City College was opened in the same year with 46 pupils under the direction of Nathan C. Brooks, a local educator and poet. It is the third oldest high school in the nation. In 1850, the council granted the school the authority to present its graduates with certificates of completion. An effort to expand that power and allow City College to confer Bachelor of Arts degrees began in 1865, but ended unsuccessfully in 1869.
As the importance of higher education increased in the early 20th century, the school's priorities shifted to preparing students for college. In 1927, the academic program was further changed, when City College divided its curriculum into two tracks: the standard college preparatory "B" course, and a more rigorous "A" course of study.
The school underwent demographic changes following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case that called for an end to racial segregation. African Americans joined City College for the first time in September 1954 and became a significant proportion of the student population by the 1960s. The school saw further changes in the student population with the admission of women in 1978.
Academic standards and enrollment at Baltimore City College (BCC) went through a period of decline in the 1980s and the early 1990s. The "A" and "B" courses were discontinued and a single academic track was offered.
In the mid-1990s, with an increase in funding from the school system, BCC began to experience a turnaround. Administrators re-strengthened academic standards and, in 1998, the school began offering the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program. By the beginning of the 2000s decade, City College was experiencing an academic resurgence. During this period the school was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a National Blue Ribbon School, was listed as one of the top high schools in the United States by Newsweek.
Read more about History Of Baltimore City College: Early Years, Baltimore City College, Relocation, Reconstruction, "Castle On The Hill", Integration, Recent History, Principals
Famous quotes containing the words history, baltimore, city and/or college:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The treatment of the incident of the assault upon the sailors of the Baltimore is so conciliatory and friendly that I am of the opinion that there is a good prospect that the differences growing out of that serious affair can now be adjusted upon terms satisfactory to this Government by the usual methods and without special powers from Congress.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman:
If it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole
world.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“I never feel so conscious of my race as I do when I stand before a class of twenty-five young men and women eager to learn about what it is to be black in America.”
—Claire Oberon Garcia, African American college professor. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B3 (July 27, 1994)