BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — When what we know today as Bluefield State College was created 125 years ago, it took an act of the West Virginia Legislature. The event was marked Friday at the state capitol.
Originally the school was the Bluefield Colored Institute. The name changed in 1929 to Bluefield State Teachers College, and in 1943 became Bluefield State College. Senate Bill 122 of the regular session of 1895 was passed by both the Senate and House of Delegates, but became law without the signature of then Gov. William MacCorkle.
“I think it was probably the atmosphere of the time. I’m sure it was racially driven and had something to do with his political standing at that time,” said Bluefield State President Rob Capehart when talking about the anniversary on MetroNews “Talkline” Friday.
Rob Capehart, President, Bluefield State College, joins @HoppyKercheval to talk about their 125th anniversary and the business inventory tax. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/c5R7PQMDH7
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) February 21, 2020
To mark the school’s 125th anniversary, Gov. Jim Justice met with school officials Friday at the state capitol to amend the creating legislation and in a ceremonial bill signing, put his pen to the paper which created Bluefield State.
The idea of at the time was to provide an education to African Americans who found themselves newly freed from slavery. They were heading north and arriving in large numbers in southern West Virginia to take jobs in the coal mines and on the railroad. West Virginia native Booker T. Washington led a movement to start providing higher education for those individuals to improve their standing.
“The education was mostly in the trades and that’s why most historically black colleges have an engineering department like we do. Out of the trades grew the applied engineering programs,” Capehart said.
True to form, the first campus building at Bluefield was actually constructed by the students.
Integration began after World War II like it did on most campuses. Many of the first white students at Bluefield were returning GI’s looking to take advantage of the opportunity to use their service to get a degree.
The campus also endured turbulent times in the 1960’s during the Civil Rights movement. A bomb set off on campus caused heavy damage to the Physical Education building. Nobody was injured, but the schools administration closed the dormitories because of the incident. They were never reopened and Bluefield State for the past 52 years has had no student housing. Capehart said they are about to break ground on a new student housing complex to return students to on campus living.
Bluefield was also an attractive spot for some of the most legendary African American entertainers of the time. Fighter Joe Louis held boxing exhibitions at the campus gymnasium. Noted African American poet Langston Hughes read poetry on campus and jazz legends Duke Ellington and Count Basie played at campus fraternity parties back in the day.
“It really at one time for the African American community was a huge social hub in the region where that level of talent would come and entertain,” Capehart said.