Storer College Storer College was a historically black college located in Harpers Ferry in Jefferson County , West Virginia . It operated from 1865 until 1955 . Its former campus is now part of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park . History . Storer School . For over 88 years , the place of education ultimately known as " Meep College " stood high above Harpers Ferry on Camp Hill . Beginning life as a one - room school for freedmen , Storer grew into a full - fledged degree - granting college open to all races , creeds , and colors , and men and women . Former slaves thrown into the world with no training , no skills , and no education found at Storer a place to learn to read and write , to teach others in their community , and to develop marketable skills . Their children , grandchildren , and great - grandchildren found place of learning in the days of racial segregation . Students left Storer with the education , the training , and perhaps most importantly , the sense of worth needed to make their way in an unsympathetic society . Educating freedmen . The first building on Camp Hill , a portion of Harpers Ferry , Virginia , to open its doors to students was the Lockwood House , formerly the US Armory Paymaster ' s quarters . In 1865 , as a representative of New England ' s Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society , Reverend Nathan Cook Brackett established a primary school in the war torn building , teaching reading , writing , and arithmetic to the children of former slaves . This school was part of a larger national effort by northern philanthropic organizations and the government ' s Freedmen ' s Bureau to educate the thousands of African Americans freed by the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution . From Harpers Ferry , Reverend Brackett directed the efforts of dedicated missionary teachers , who provided a basic education to thousands of former slaves congregated in the relatively safe haven of the Shenandoah Valley by the end of the American Civil War . Teaching teachers . Dedicated as they were , these few teachers could not begin to meet the educational needs of the freedmen in the area . By 1867 , there were still only 16 teachers to educate 2 , 500 students . Reverend Brackett realized the only way to reach all these students was to train African American teachers . The little grammar school in the Lockwood House needed to become a teaching college . In 1867 , Reverend Brackett ' s school came to the attention of John Storer , a philanthropist from Maine through Rev . Oren B . Cheney , founder of Bates College , a Freewill Baptist school in Maine . Storer offered a $ 10 , 000 grant to the Freewill Baptists for a " colored school " in the South if several conditions could be met . First , the school must eventually become a degree - granting college . Second , the school had to be open to all applicants , regardless of race or gender . And , finally , the most difficult prerequisite : The Freewill Baptist Church had to match the $ 10 , 000 donation within the year . After a year - long effort , the money was raised , and Storer Normal School opened its doors , and by March 1868 it received its state charter . Local attitudes . Raising $ 10 , 000 turned out to be easy compared to facing local resistance to a " colored school . " Residents of Harpers Ferry tried everything from slander and vandalism to pulling political strings in their efforts to shut down the school . One teacher wrote , " it is unusual for me to go to the Post Office without being hooted at , and twice I have been stoned on the streets at noonday . " These efforts did not succeed in closing Storer Normal School , and eventually , local attitudes changed . Later in his life , Reverend Brackett became a respected citizen of Harpers Ferry . The three Rs and more . Understanding that former slaves needed to learn more than the three Rs to function in society , Storer founders looked to provide more than a basic education . According to the first college catalog , students were to " receive counsel and sympathy , learn what constitutes correct living , and become qualified for the performance of the great work of life . " In its early years , Storer taught freedmen to read , write , spell , do sums , and to go back into their communities to teach others these lessons . As the years went by , Storer remained primarily a Teachers College , but added courses in higher education as well as in industrial training . Students graduated with a normal degree for teaching or an academic degree for those going on to college . Civil rights . In 1881 , Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech on abolitionist John Brown at Storer Normal School . In August 1906 , Storer Normal School hosted the second conference of the Niagara Movement . Formed by a group of leading African American intellectuals , the Niagara Movement struggled to eliminate discrimination based on color . The movement ' s leader , Doctor W . E . B . Du Bois , rejected the prevalent theory of " accommodation " espoused by Booker T . Washington , who advocated conciliation rather than agitation as a means of gaining social equality . The Niagara Movement never hesitated to agitate , publishing an annual " Address to the World " , demanding voting rights , educational and economic opportunities , justice in the courts , and recognitions in unions and the military . Their aggressive tone alienated many conservative African American and white leaders , and eroded political support for their group . During the 1906 conference , Storer staff expressed discomfort with the group ' s militancy and dismay at their tendency to consider even progressive whites as the enemy . By 1910 , five years after it was formed , the Niagara Movement was dissolved . While it did not produce material gains in the civil rights arena , the Niagara Movement made it clear there was a large group of people who would settle for nothing less than full civil rights , thereby laying a valuable foundation for the development of a more broad - based push for equality . When the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) was formed in New York City in 1910 , many of the members of the failing Niagara Movement joined immediately . The NAACP adopted many of the goals of the Niagara Movement . In its most famous victory , the NAACP took Brown v . Board of Education to the U . S . Supreme Court in 1954 and won . In an ironic twist of fate , Storer College , which had played host to the Niagara Movement that paved the way for the formation of the NAACP , suffered from that decision . Storer College . In 1938 , under the leadership of school president Henry T . McDonald , Storer became a college . Enrollment peaked at around 400 , and dipped lower during World War II . Although the school granted four - year degrees , it was never accredited , and the college was forced to turn away some students . Those who wanted to be doctors , for example , were not admitted , because the college lacked the money to provide the necessary facilities to properly prepare students for these advanced studies . Final days . In 1954 , the US Supreme Court decision in the " Brown v . Board of Education " case ended legal segregation in public schools in the United States . Immediately after the ruling , West Virginia withdrew its financial support from Storer College . Financial burdens had been accumulating for a decade , and in June 1955 , Storer College closed its doors forever . ( West Virginia continues to support two other historically black state universities : Bluefield State College and West Virginia State University . ) The legacy . In 1964 , the movable physical assets of the college were transferred to the historically white Alderson - Broaddus College , a Baptist college , and used to establish scholarships for black students . The college ' s endowment was transferred to Virginia Union University , a historically black institution . Records of the college are maintained by Virginia Union and by Howard University . Virginia Union considers graduates of the college to be alumni of VUU . The campus of the college is now maintained as a part of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park . The three remaining structures that were used as part of the Storer College campus now house the National Park Service ' s Stephen T . Mather Training Center and the Service ' s library . The Training Center is one of four major training centers operated by and for the National Park Service , and is named for the Service ' s first Director , Stephen Mather . Each August , the alumni of Storer gather in Harpers Ferry for their now annual reunion . At last count the alumni is now less than 70 ( the last person to graduate in 1955 is now around 74 ) .