In a move that brings recognition to a civil rights movement pioneer, the University of Maryland, College Park will rename one of its academic buildings for the late Parren J. Mitchell, the state’s first African-American congressman. Mitchell, who passed away in 2007, was also the first African-American to earn a graduate degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, according to the university.
University officials say that, next month, the Art-Sociology Building will be renamed for Mitchell, who successfully sued in 1950 to be admitted into the university’s graduate sociology program. Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who was then lead counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), led legal efforts that won Mitchell admission into the university.
“Parren Mitchell stands as an exemplar of the values this campus holds most highly — academic achievement, personal courage, diversity and the opportunity to rise on one’s merits,” University of Maryland, College Park President Wallace D. Loh said in a statement.
“His legacy reminds us where we came from and how far we can go,” he noted.
