When Thurgood Marshall was growing up in Baltimore, his high school principal punished him by sending him to the basement and requiring that he memorize portions of the Constitution.
"Before I left that school," Marshall later recalled, according to biographer Juan Williams, "I knew the whole thing by heart."
The formative years of Marshall, the first African-American justice on the Supreme Court, would be retold in an interpretive center that may be created to breathe life into another public school Marshall attended, P.S. 103 at 1315 Division St. in Upton.
Mayor Martin O'Malley announced this month that the city will provide $16,000 to help identify a new use for the former Henry H. Garnet School, built in 1877 and attended by Marshall from 1914 to 1920 - his first experience with segregated public schools.
The Upton Planning Committee and the Baltimore City Heritage Area, a division of the mayor's office, will use the money to explore the feasibility of converting the now-vacant school to "an educational and interpretive center for Baltimore's civil rights legacy," including residents such as Marshall, who went on to serve on the Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991. (He died in 1993.)
The study will assess the building's physical condition and survey other efforts to tell the story of Baltimore's civil rights legacy. Planners will then recommend a "thematic, interpretive and programatic approach" for recycling the building and outline architectural and financial strategies for carrying it out.
The city-owned building, near Bethel A.M.E. Church, has strong potential as a tourist site, O'Malley said in announcing the grant.
"What the [Martin Luther] King Center is to Atlanta, P.S. 103 could be to Baltimore," he said.
P.S. 103 was the site of Marshall's "first segregated public school experience," said Bill Pencek, director of the Baltimore City Heritage Area, which promotes the city's cultural heritage.
"To tell the story of the architect of desegregation of America's schools, whether to school kids or cultural heritage tourists, it's a powerful resource."
P.S. 103 is one of 12 historic sites or projects that received grants this fall totaling $200,000 from the Baltimore City Heritage Area to help fund capital projects. The money comes from Baltimore's Capital Improvement Program and is considered an investment in the city's efforts to promote cultural heritage tourism.
