University To Honor Maryland's First Black Congressman

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) -- The University of Maryland, College Park, is renaming an academic building in honor of Maryland's first African-American congressman.

The Baltimore Sun reports the Art-Sociology Building will be renamed in honor of the late Parren Mitchell in November. In 1950, Mitchell successfully sued to be admitted into the university's graduate sociology program.

The university currently has an annual memorial lecture that honors Mitchell. University President Wallace Loh says renaming the building will complement the lecture.

The school will also install a statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and is considering renaming its football stadium which currently honors Harry Byrd, a former campus president with segregationist views.

Mitchell earned a Purple Heart during World War II and earned his undergraduate degree from what is now Morgan State University. He died in 2007.

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