A big ol’ “spite wall” that was yanked up just to separate a historically Black college from a nearby White ‘hood in Baltimore has finally been given its marching orders. This wall – who Morgan State Uni’s head honcho, David K. Wilson, described as a booming “symbol of hate in our community” – had been schooling Jim Crow lessons since way back when. Come Tuesday, though, hate got the heave-ho, and Wilson was psyched, saying: “It feels great to get rid of hatred.”

This Morgan State’s yarn began in 1867; it moved to its new digs in 1917. Soon after, the 1917 White ‘hood didn’t take kindly to the college’s arrival; a whopping 275 peeps got togethuh just to keep the “pure white community” free from any “invasion” by a “negro institution,” as the Baltimore Sun told it. Man, one guy preferred to bunk up next to “ignorant and tractable negroes” instead of “educated” ones!

Serious legal obstacles tried to hold up the school’s construction, saying it was gonna slash property values; these were slayed in 1918. Two decades after, a head-smacking “spite wall” separated the White hood and the Black students’ school. For reals!

As the school got bigger and people became chummy with the ‘hood, folks started clocking the wall just had to go. After a bit, Morgan State managed to nab private land the wall stood on, then found the dough to get it torn down.

Fast-forward to Tuesday, Bridgette Neal, president of the Hillen Road Improvement Association, whipped out her phone to snap the wall’s big moment. She talked about a “visual block” and how something “lifted” inside her when the wall came down. She probably deserved it – things are pretty diverse these days.

Kim McCalla, a Morgan State Uni bigwig, said that there will be a new border later this year that buddies up with the community rather than pushing it away. Sounds like a plan to us! Though, the walls will stick around just a wee bit longer to remind people about history’s past.

After all, as Wilson said, there ain’t gonna be any “cave into … the efforts of some to erase Black history, African American history” at Morgan State.