Howard police investigating vandalism at Harriet Tubman Building, the county's former Black high school

Jul. 29—The Howard County Police Department is investigating after it said the Harriet Tubman Building in Columbia was broken into and vandalized Monday or Tuesday.

The building, which opened in 1949, formerly served as Harriet Tubman High School, the only school in the county for Black students for nearly two decades until its doors closed in 1965.

Currently under renovation, the building is being transformed into the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center, a community center celebrating African American culture and history.

Several doors that were stored in a recreated classroom and historical windows in the doors that lead to the cafeteria, classrooms, principal's office and other rooms were destroyed, according to Becky McKirahan, a member of the Harriet Tubman Foundation. However, she said, items in the building like a computer, construction equipment and a microwave were not destroyed or stolen.

"It appears that they were determined to only destroy some of our Black historical items and memories," McKirahan wrote in an email. "Shame on the person(s) that did this. Some of these items can be replaced; however, some cannot."

Bessie Bordenave, president of the Harriet Tubman Foundation, said she thinks the incident may have been targeted.

"My thoughts about what happened is, because of what was damaged and destroyed, that it leans more toward a crime against the Black school," said Bordenave, who graduated from Harriet Tubman High in 1962 and has worked to preserve its history through the community center. "Because nothing else was destroyed; the only thing historic were the doors and the memorabilia. There were microwaves and all kind of construction stuff that was in there that someone could have taken that had some monetary value to it, but they destroyed this history."

This incident follows a string of vandalism reports that have occurred in the county so far this year, including vandalism outside of Glenwood Middle School in March and a break-in at the Howard County Board of Education building on Jan. 6, the same day supporters of defeated President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol.

"The one thing all these incidents have in common is there doesn't seem to be any effort to successfully investigate or mitigate these types of breaks and acts of vandalism," Willie Flowers, president of the Howard County branch of the NAACP, wrote in a statement. "Nor is there a central working group to respond to or track these attacks that I fear will escalate to physical assaults if schools are not secured at the same level as other government buildings."

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The Harriet Tubman Building incident is currently being investigated with significant resources, the police department said, including a patrol team, criminal investigations detectives and crime lab outreach officers who monitor hate-bias incidents.

"The Harriet Tubman School is important to the history of Howard County, and news of recent vandalism as we work to renovate and create the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center is frustrating and upsetting," Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said in a statement.

"This site is where many Black Howard County residents received their education and is foundational to our strong legacy of public education here in Howard County. This incident is troubling to our community and the many who have advocated for this cultural center for decades. I have confidence in our Howard County Police Department as it conducts its investigation."

Anyone with information about the vandalism should contact Howard County police at 410-313-2200.