Financial literacy courses to be offered at former schoolhouse

Thurgood Marshall once was a student there

Financial literacy training will be offered at an amenity center opening this summer in the newly rehabbed West Baltimore schoolhouse where former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once attended classes.

The program will serve as one of the major arrows in the “quiver” of community resources to be offered at the Justice Thurgood Marshall Amenity Center, the Rev. Dr. Alvin C. Hathaway Sr. said Wednesday. The cash management courses will complement the center’s professional programs, such as artificial intelligence and coding lessons provided by STEM City USA, an online learning platform aimed at underrepresented groups, and aviation industry training helmed by BWI Marshall Airport, after the multipurpose facility’s grand opening in July.

“I realized that we had these amazing partners doing programming, but if a person does not understand how to best manage the money they have, then all of those things are for nothing,” Hathaway said.

He announced the financial literacy program in the Upton building that once housed Henry Highland Garnet School, also known as P.S. No. 103, which was rehabbed as part of a $14 million effort spearheaded by the former pastor’s Beloved Community Services Corp. The wealth-building program is a partnership between that committee and SoLo Funds, the peer-to-peer microlending platform started by Baltimore native Rodney Williams.

The school on Division Street, originally built for a population of white immigrants, had become a segregated school for Black students by the time Marshall attended from 1914 to 1921. Years later, Marshall successfully argued the Brown v. Board of Education case that sparked the end of racially segregated education in the U.S. In 1967, he became the first Black justice of the Supreme Court.

Hathaway’s vision for Beloved’s restoration work is to promote Marshall’s legacy by enriching the justice’s childhood community using education and employment opportunities to reduce disparities within West Baltimore.

The Bank Roles program, which will be based at the former school building where Marshall was a student, will have courses focusing on financial literacy for youth, new hires learning to budget and prospective homebuyers who need to save, Hathaway said.

Outreach has been ongoing to build the first cohort of financial literacy trainees — barbers and beauty stylists with businesses in West Baltimore who already interact with the public in the center’s target area.

“We will teach them the skills, to ‘train the trainer’ first,” he said, noting that those reached by the partnership are “already excited about it.”

“They’ll be our eyes and ears in the community,” he said. “Next, they’ll be our surrogates in terms of communicating, but then we’ll actually have the robust training back in the classroom.”

The detailed restoration of Marshall’s former school began in 2022 and wrapped up last December. Hathaway’s voice echoed through the building at 1315 Division Street, which was mostly empty on Wednesday, but the facility constructed in 1877 sparkled with fresh paint and new glass imitating the schoolhouse’s original character.

At the ground level are sections where partners will offer a variety of resources, like legal aid and educational offerings. Upstairs is a more open assembly area, where larger trainings can take place. The center is slated for a grand opening on July 2, which would have been Marshall’s 116th birthday.

“We created a place that, I think, people will be proud of, but we’ve got to get the programming that empowers people,” Hathaway said. “That’s going to be our goal — come here and be empowered.”