101-year-old African American man finally graduate from high school after abandoning studies since 1938

Merrill Pittman Cooper, 101, who had given up on his studies in 1938 due to the civil war and the financial crises he experienced, has now earned his high school diploma.

Merrill Pittman Cooper, who attended school from 1934 to 1938 but had to quit out due to family obligations, had long dreamed of receiving his high school diploma.

In accordance with his account, he attended Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a post-Civil War boarding school that initially educated former slave children, from 1934 to 1938.

The final tuition payment for his senior year was due, but he soon realized that his mother, who worked as a live-in housekeeper, couldn’t afford to cover it. She was forced to drop out of school and had family in Philadelphia, so he urged her to relocate there.

“She worked so hard, and it all became so difficult that I just decided it would be best to give up continuing at the school,” Cooper told Washington Post.

After leaving school in 1938, Cooper worked in a Philadelphia women’s clothing store to help pay the expenses before being hired as a city trolley car operator in 1945.

Despite having a successful job in the transportation sector, he still regrets not receiving a diploma. He told his family about his want, and they decided to help him realize it.

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