Essence dives into the creation of an HBCU love story at Tuskegee University:
Marilyn Mosby wasn’t always known as the no-nonsense State’s Attorney shaking things up at the top of Baltimore’s criminal justice system. Before she became the youngest chief prosecutor of any American city, she was an ambitious high school student from inner-city Boston with dreams of attending a historically Black college hundreds of miles from home. The bright young woman who took part in one of the country’s longest-running desegregation programs, had no idea then that her insistence to be educated among Black peers would lead her to one of her life’s greatest joys.
“We met in the student union and I actually met him before but didn’t pay any attention to him,” Mosby tells ESSENCE of the day she fell for husband Nick Mosby. “It wasn’t until me and a couple of girlfriends and a couple of his guy friends, linked up in the student union, bored on a Saturday and we just started talking about politics and music. I met this intriguing guy who I didn’t pay attention to before, but for some reason, he was cute that day and it had more to do with his intellect than anything else.”
A star student herself, Mosby, who went by Marilyn James at the time, was attracted to Nick for not only his mind but also the things that seemed to matter to him. “The fact that he loved the city of Baltimore and he wanted to come back and do something for his community,” is what Mosby says sealed the deal. She was 18.
Growing up, the young prosecutor, most readily associated with her role in the Freddie Gray case, was bused an hour away from her Boston home to what she calls “one of the richest towns in Massachusetts.” When she started the program in the second grade she was noticeably the only Black child in the entire school. And early on she determined that she could either be a positive representation for Black people or be bitter about the misconceptions and stereotypical views that some people held about who they thought she was.
From six years old on to high school Mosby says she gladly took on the responsibility that came with choosing the former. “I was in all honors classes, was in SGA, co-editor of the school newspaper, and bringing diversity workshops to the school,” Mosby recalls. But when it came time for college, the high-achiever wanted something entirely different.
“I only applied to three schools, which was Tuskegee, Spelman and Hampton. I knew that I wanted to go down to the South. I knew I wanted to attend an HBCU and I wanted the Black experience.”
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