The Maryland Historical Society and the Doris M. Johnson High School
Research the Civil Rights Movement in Baltimore
The information collected on this site is part of a three year collaboration between Doris M. Johnson High School and the Maryland Historical Society. This page is a collection of student work on African-American history and civil rights in Maryland. Please browse our pages to learn more about the topics listed above, listen to oral history interviews with civil rights activists from Baltimore collected from 2006-2007, visit our timeline of civil rights history, and learn more about us!
This project was made possible with a grant provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and distributed by Associated Black Charities.
Please view our other website, the Vietnam Era in Maryland, to view our most recent project.
Introduction
By Mike Douglas, Teacher, Doris M. Johnson High School
Our partnership began with a Save Our History grant we won in 2004 to document the neighborhoods of northeast Baltimore. In this project, the students, under my guidance and with the help of Maryland Historical Society staff member Jennifer Yaremczak, researched the history of their neighborhoods and conducted oral history interviews with neighborhood residents. It was a fascinating lesson in the history and struggles of everyday citizens in Baltimore.
With the success of this first project, we were able to win a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation to continue our research and oral histories, focusing on the civil rights movement in Baltimore and Cambridge. As my students did research, I learned along with them about the Route 40 Freedom rides, the integration of movie theaters conducted by high school and college students in coordination with community and civil rights groups, of the influence of the Afro-American newspaper, and of the struggles of African Americans outside of Baltimore to gain equality.
In addition, we have been fortunate to interview people who participated in these struggles who have shared their victories and struggles with us. For instance, a student of mine last year was doing research on the Cambridge riots and she read Gloria Richardson’s words, “all we want is freedom.” These words led to finding out how this mother went from a spectator to the movement, to being listed as number two on the Ku Klux Klan’s hit list behind Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It led to her to interview Mrs. Richardson and her daughter when Richardson visited family in Columbia, MD. Experiences like these, I think, help my students to understand, for maybe the first time, what it was like to be an African American during the time of the Movement.
We have continued our focus on the civil rights movement this year, but have expanded the scope of our research to incorporate studies of World War II era protests, lynchings in the 1930s, and the rise of the Black Panther Party in Baltimore. As part of this project, we were able to talk with former members of the Baltimore chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, Morgan State University alumni, and a former member of the Black Panther Party. My students have continued to benefit from the opportunity to meet individuals involved in important events in their city.
In order to preserve my students’ work and to make it accessible to researchers, we decided this year to make this Web site in addition to creating a book as a final project. This site includes the students’ essays from this year, with photographs, as well as all of the oral histories we have collected over the past two years and a timeline of civil rights-related events in Baltimore and beyond. We hope this site will be valuable for anyone interested in the history of civil rights in our area.
My hope is to continue to learn, along with my students, about the events in the “Free” state that make us question phrases like equal justice under the law. And I hope that you come across a story that makes you read and research a topic in this book or on our Web site. My students and I would like to thank the staff at the MdHS for everything they have done for us, especially Naomi Coquillon for her excellence and guidance in this year’s project.
In addition to the work described above, two students, Taivon Murphey and Mandela Brown, were inspired to create a song based on Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" as a result of their research during this project:
"Strange Fruit 2007" by Billie Holiday, Taivon Murphey, Nolan Jones, and Mandela Brown. The beat was remixed by Taivon Murphey from the original Strange Fruit song. Abel Meeropol wrote the music and the lyrics that Bille Holiday sang. The Lyrics were originally written by Taivon Murphey, Nolan Jones, and Mandela Brown. "Strange Fruit" was the most controversal song of the 1930s. The idea was to recreate the song for 2007 that would make people open their minds and listen to what we came from, Lynchings, Racism, and Segregation, to killing one another. The song was placed in a hip hop style only to reach listeners of All Ages & Race. We Hope that it makes a Change!!