Douglass and Tubman’ s resilient spirit is also seen in Baltimore’ s 20th-century civil rights champions. In 1931, future NAACP leader Lillie Carroll Jackson and her daughters, Juanita and Virginia, spearheaded Baltimore’ s“ Buy Where You Can Work” campaign, encouraging boycotts of businesses that refused to hire Black people.
Lillie Carroll Jackson also worked with Thurgood Marshall, a Baltimore-born civil rights attorney who represented Linda Brown in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case and later became the first African American Supreme Court Justice. Following the decision, Baltimore became the first Southern city to move forward with desegregation. The Baltimore home in which Jackson organized several of her campaigns for civil rights is now a museum named after her. The Lillie Carroll Jackson Museum features six galleries filled with drawings, paintings, letters, photographs and historic documents.
In 1944, Baltimorean Irene Morgan was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus traveling from Virginia to Maryland— 11 years before Claudette Colvin’ s and Rosa Parks’ better-known refusals. And in 1955, protestors from Morgan State University and the Congress of Racial Equality( CORE) staged successful sit-ins at two Read’ s Drugstores in Baltimore, leading the chain to desegregate all 39 of its Baltimore-area locations and sparking similar protests in Greensboro, NC and Wichita, KS.
Representative Elijah E. Cummings joined the fight for civil rights at just 11 years old when he helped desegregate the Riverside Park Pool in South Baltimore, which has since been renamed in his honor. Previously, Pool No. 2 in Druid Hill Park was the only swimming facility for Black Baltimoreans; it is now home to a public art exhibit by Joyce J. Scott.
Much of what we know about these brave individuals comes from coverage by Baltimore’ s AFRO American newspaper, the longest-running African American family-owned newspaper in the country. Today, the AFRO continues to tell Black stories and preserve Black history through extensive archival work, documenting Baltimore’ s long-held resilience and emphasizing the power of community to enact change.
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5 Ways to Embrace the City’ s Rebellious Spirit
From the soldiers who defended the harbor to the college students who stood up to segregation, Baltimoreans have never been— and still aren’ t— afraid to get in some good trouble. While we don’ t encourage you to go full Mobtown on your next trip to Charm City, there’ s nothing wrong with releasing your inner rebel, whether that’ s a pirate, a paranormal investigator or a speakeasy patron.
FORT MCHENRY NATIONAL MONUMENT AND HISTORIC SHRINE
KEN STANEK