He led a campaign to significantly expand all levels of education, by securing numerous capitol programs from the Maryland state Legislature. This also included a campaign by Raley to expand St. Mary's Seminary Junior College into a four-year liberal arts institution. Raley was also noted for supporting integration of St. Mary's County schools and elimination of racial segregation. Raley then followed this with years of ongoing, relentless, education-related advocacy on behalf of the county. After extensive lobbying by Raley and others, the Maryland State legislature ordered St. Mary's Junior College expanded to a four-year liberal arts college in 1966 (also dropping the high school grades) and renaming it St. Mary's College of Maryland. By the 1967–68 academic year, the first four-year students began college studies. Building projects to expand the campus and to build a new library began in earnest. The first Bachelor of Arts (BA) degrees were awarded. The St. Mary's City Commission was charged with archeological and historical research of St. Mary's City and its rich colonial past, as well as its critical roles in the development of democracy in Maryland and North America as a whole. The commission was also charged with developing historic interpretation programs for the general public. Although a separate institution from he school, over time, St. Mary's College and Historic st. Mary's City became highly interdependent institutions. For 40 years, St. Mary's College of Maryland and Historic St. Mary's City have jointly operated the internationally recognized Historic Archeology Field School, which is considered one of the top archeology field schools in the nation. In addition, the two institutions jointly offer year-round classes in hands-on classes in archeology, museum studies, African-American studies, history, and democracy studies. Denzel Washington Jr. played the earliest role of his professional acting career in St. Mary's City, Maryland when he was 21 years old (he did a two-minute appearance in a prior production, but his role in St. Mary's City was very substantial). During the entire summer season of 1976, he performed in the stage production of "Wings of the Morning" a historical play about the founding of the Maryland colony and the beginnings of democracy there. Washington played the role of a real historical figure from colonial St. Mary's City, Mathias de Sousa, who was possibly of both African and Portuguese heritage and if so, was America's first Black legislator. This was also Denzel Washington's first role playing a real historical character (although the play itself was fictionalized in order to fill gaps in historical information).