University of Maryland Eastern Shore

History

The institution that became UMES opened on September 13, 1886, under the auspices of the Delaware Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as the Delaware Conference Academy. Benjamin Bird and his wife Portia welcomed nine students that first day to a converted farmhouse on sixteen acres in rural Somerset County, Maryland. The Methodist Episcopal Church's role in founding the school placed UMES within the denominational missionary tradition that established Morgan State (also Methodist), Bennett, Claflin, Clark, Dillard, Philander Smith, and Wiley, among other HBCUs.

With the passage of the second Morrill Act of 1890, the institution became Maryland's designated 1890 land-grant college for Black citizens — operated initially as the "Industrial Branch" of Morgan College in Baltimore and later renamed Princess Anne Academy. The land-grant designation brought federal funding under the parallel system Congress created because Maryland, like other southern and border states, refused to admit Black students to its 1862 land-grant institution at College Park.

The institution was transferred to state control in 1919 and renamed Maryland State College in 1948. In 1970, in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education and federal desegregation pressure on Maryland's higher education system, the college was incorporated into the University of Maryland System and renamed the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. The 1970 reorganization left UMES with land-grant status, a continuing HBCU designation, and — crucially — substantial autonomy from the main College Park campus.

UMES is the principal institution at issue in Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education v. Maryland Higher Education Commission — a long-running federal desegregation lawsuit alleging that Maryland had systematically underfunded its HBCUs and duplicated their distinctive programs at majority-white institutions. The case was settled in 2021 with a $577 million commitment to the four Maryland HBCUs over ten years.

Significance

UMES occupies a distinctive niche among HBCUs: a research university with land-grant status, Carnegie classification as a doctoral institution, and a 745-acre main campus plus a 385-acre research farm and the Paul S. Sarbanes Coastal Ecology Center on the lower Eastern Shore. The university's programs in physical therapy, pharmacy, hospitality and tourism management, marine and environmental science, and agriculture leverage the institution's distinctive geography — the lower Chesapeake Bay watershed, with its coastal ecology, agricultural economy, and historic Black tidewater communities.

UMES is one of four Maryland HBCUs (alongside Morgan State, Bowie State, and Coppin State) and the only HBCU located on the Eastern Shore. Its role as the principal site of Black professional education in the lower Eastern Shore region — historically among the most isolated and economically constrained parts of the state — is irreplaceable.

Recent Developments

In September 2026, as part of its 140th-anniversary Founders' Week, UMES formally renamed its School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences the Simon A. Haley School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences. The dedication, held September 8, honors Simon Alexander Haley — a Cornell-trained agriculturalist, father of Roots author Alex Haley, and a career educator at HBCUs during the Jim Crow era — and recognizes the school as a research-grant leader that houses the NOAA Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center and the 1890 Universities Center of Excellence for Global Food Security and Defense.

UMES continues under the leadership of President Heidi M. Anderson, the institution's first woman to hold the office. The university maintains accreditation through the Middle States Commission on Higher Education; in its most recent review cycle, the Commission requested a supplemental information report, due April 1, 2026, documenting processes designed to strengthen student achievement and degree completion.

The Eastern Shore's only doctoral research institution, UMES offers instruction across 37 undergraduate fields, 15 master's programs, and 8 doctoral programs, sustaining its land-grant mission in agriculture, the health professions, and applied sciences.

Notable Alumni

A representative selection drawn from athletics, music, and the professions.

Source notes: This entry draws from UMES institutional records (wwwcp.umes.edu/about); the Maryland State Archives Manual; BlackPast.org; the African American Registry; and UMES's 125th anniversary archive. Settlement figures from Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education v. MHEC drawn from the 2021 consent decree. Notable alumni details sourced from Pro Football Hall of Fame records and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee records. Discrepancies noted in the corrections log.