Integration at McDonogh began in 1959 with the admission of the first Black student, John Milton Belcher III, as a first-grader. However, the School was not fully integrated until 1971. Over those 11 years, each year the School opened an additional grade to Black applicants.
Following the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. the Board of Education, McDonogh School felt increased pressure to admit Black students. At the time, Headmaster Bob Lamborn spoke about the pros and cons of integration noting, “We will be acting in accord with the sense of our national conscience and the American concept of social justice.” Adding, “It will cost us some support among our patrons and alumni—but it may well be not as great as we are inclined to think.”
In January 1959, the application of John Milton Belcher III brought the matter of integration before the Board, and the Trustees approved “the acceptance of qualified Negro students in the first grade, beginning with the school year 1959-60.”
The next month, on February 12, 1959, after informing the Patrons Club, Alumni Executive Council, faculty and staff, and finally the student body, Lamborn sent a letter to the rest of the community outlining the School’s gradual integration plan. In it, he noted the five principal considerations that led to the Board’s decision. The first was that the decision was “in accord with [John] McDonogh’s will” and second, that the School was “subject to the impact of the Supreme Court rulings on school integration.” The third point was: “In spite of the concerns which we may have as individuals, the Board feels that integration is in accord with the sense of our national conscience and the American concept of social justice.” Next, based on meetings with the Executive Committee and the Patrons Club and the Executive Council of the Alumni Association, the Board agreed that “integration would come in time, that the school should meet the problem in a dignified and constructive manner, that there were worthwhile educational values to be gained from an experience in a soundly integrated school.” The final consideration was that the gradual integration plan “provides the greatest possible protection for those present patrons and students who may find it difficult to make the adjustment required by the change in policy.”
Lamborn concluded, “The board has made this decision with sympathetic concern for those who will find it difficult to accept but with a firm conviction that the decision is proper and the timing right. It asks the support of patrons, alumni, students, faculty and staff, and friends, as it takes this important step in keeping with the times—a step which many feel will prepare future McDonogh graduates to live more effectively in the world of their generation.”
A few months later, in September of 1959, John Milton Belcher III entered the first grade as the first, and only at that time, Black student. In June of 1971, he graduated and became McDonogh’s first Black alumnus.
