Maryland Civil Rights Leaders

Justice Thurgood Marshall

Born Thoroughgood Marshall in Baltimore City in 1908, he legally changed his first name to Thurgood at age six in response to the teasing he received from friends. Thurgood Marshall was and is perhaps the best known leader of the Civil Rights Movement from Maryland. In 1967 Marshall was the first African-American to be appointed as an Associate Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. Before ascending to the nation’s highest court, Marshall was a lawyer and civil rights activist, notably leading the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He played a significant role in the fight against racial segregation in American public schools and won 29 out of 32 civil rights cases he argued before the Supreme Court. Though Marshall had many victories, including his first case arguing that the University of Maryland Law School should allow African Americans admission, he is best known for his success in arguing the case of Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), which declared racial segregation in American public schools unconstitutional. In addition to several statues and named buildings, Maryland’s primary airport was renamed on October 1, 2005 to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in his honor.

Verda Mae Freeman Welcome

As a teacher, politician, and community member, Verda Mae Freeman Welcome fought tirelessly for the rights of African Americans and women in Maryland. As a young woman in 1937 Welcome joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1958, she was the first Black woman elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, where she fought for the equal treatment of all Marylanders during the Civil Rights Era and beyond. In 1962, she was elected to the Maryland Senate, as only the body’s second Black woman. 

As a delegate, Welcome was known for her advocacy for the promotion of female police officers to higher ranks in Baltimore City, for the end of welfare recipient harassment, for laws to restrict landlord retaliation, and many other causes. Welcome worked for justice on all levels, from local picketing and petitioning to political organizing on a state level. 
As a senator, Welcome not only worked on social policy but advocated for cultural preservation. In 1969, she introduced state legislation establishing the Maryland Commission on Negro History and Culture (now the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture or MCAAHC) to collect, preserve, and display the history of Maryland’s Black population. Welcome was inspired to create the MCAAHC in the aftermath of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum in Annapolis was developed by the MCAAHC, dedicated on February 24, 1984 and is the state’s official museum of African-American heritage.

Dr.  Lillie May Carroll Jackson

Known to Baltimoreans as the “Mother of Freedom,” Dr. Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson was a teacher, landlord, and community activist who along with her daughter, Juanita (an activist in her own right), sponsored the City-Wide Young Peoples forum in the early 1930s. The forum conducted a campaign to end racial segregation beginning with the grassroots "Buy Where You Can Work" campaign of 1931. The effort encouraged African-American residents of Baltimore to shop only at businesses where they could work. The campaign's success led to similar protests in other cities around the country. Jackson also led the Baltimore NAACP branch in picketing the “whites only” Ford’s Theater in downtown Baltimore for six years before the management ended their segregationist policies.

In 1935, Jackson oversaw the expansion of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP to become one of the largest branches in the country and remained at the helm until 1970. During her tenure,  Jackson helped instigate legal challenges to Jim Crow in Maryland, and under her leadership the NAACP brought a suit that desegregated the University of Maryland School of Law. Jackson’s presidency also saw Baltimore City’s Black policemen given uniforms for the first time. Public pools, parks, and civil service jobs were opened to Black citizens during Jackson’s tenure. Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson was named, “Marylander of the Century” by the Baltimore Sun in 1999. In addition to the Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum in Baltimore, there is an elementary school in Baltimore City named after her.

Walter Percival Carter

In a 2012 documentary film produced by the University of Maryland School of Psychiatry, Walter P. Carter: Champion for Change, Walter P. Carter is referred to as the “Martin Luther King of Maryland.”  A World War II veteran and chairman of the local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Carter was a critical figure in the civil rights struggle in Maryland who organized many large demonstrations against discrimination. He was involved with multiple campaigns, including the 1960 Freedom Rides to the Eastern Shore, protests at Baltimore’s Gwynn Oak Park, and sit-ins at restaurants along Routes One, 40, 150, and 50. He also campaigned against unfair treatment and unequal access to housing, hotels, and other public accommodations. Carter was the Maryland coordinator of the March on Washington in 1963 and the coordinator of the massive Federated Civil Rights Organization march to protest segregation in housing in 1965. A hospital, an elementary school, a recreation center, a college library and a day care center in Baltimore are named for him.

Gloria Richardson Dandridge

Ebony Magazine once called Gloria Richardson Dandridge “the lady general of civil rights.” She was the first woman in the country to lead a grassroots civil rights organization outside the Deep South. Richardson helped lead the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC) during a period of civil unrest  on the Eastern Shore, including the beating and arrest of a group of teens (including her daughter Donna) after protests at a local theater. Richardson was one of the signatories to "The Treaty of Cambridge,"  signed in July 1963 with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and Maryland state and local officials. The treaty called for the local government to commit to school desegregation, for the desegregation of public facilities, the establishment of a human rights commission, and the creation of a provision for public housing. That same year, Richardson took to the stage at the pivotal March on Washington, one of six “Negro Women Fighters for Freedom” on the program, but she was not allowed (by the all male planning committee) to speak. The 1963 Associated Press photograph of Richardson pushing a National Guardsman’s bayonet away with the flat of her hand is one of the most iconic images of the era. 

Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives

Reverend Doctor Pauli Murray

The Reverend Doctor Pauli Murray was a poet, lawyer, writer, teacher, civil rights activist, and Episcopal priest who was born in Baltimore. Murray's work influenced the Civil Rights Movement and expanded legal protection for gender equality. When Murray entered Howard University Law School with the intention of using a law degree to resist Jim Crow she came up against what Murray termed the "Jane Crow regulations.” In 1943, employing one of the earliest uses of non-violent tactics, Murray and a group of students from Howard University successfully organized the first sit-in demonstration resulting in the desegregation of a cafeteria in Washington, D.C. Murray was the first Black woman to receive a doctorate in judicial studies from Yale University Law School and the author of many books and articles. 

Photo Credit: National Park Service 

Eleanora Fagan Gough AKA Billie Holiday

Born in Philadelphia and raised in 1920’s Baltimore, Eleanora adopted the professional name of Billie Holiday and was later nicknamed “Lady Day.” Despite her success and popularity as a jazz, swing and blues musician, Holiday experienced firsthand the active and often violent enforcement of Jim Crow laws. During the 1930’s through the 1950’s, she was frequently required to use segregated entrances at performance venues and not allowed to use public restrooms or other accommodations while on tour. The song that Holiday is best known for, “Strange Fruit,” (written by Abel Meeropol) protests the lynching of Black Americans, with lyrics comparing the victims to the fruit of trees. The song has been called “a declaration of war” and “the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.” Honored with her likeness on a U.S. postal stamp in 1994 and winner of numerous Grammy awards during her decades-long career, Lady Day is remembered for her vocal masterpieces, her creative songwriting skills, and her courageous views on inequality and justice. 

Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives 

Parren James Mitchell

Parren James Mitchell was a World War II Purple Heart recipient, an American politician and civil rights activist who sued the University of Maryland to gain admission, earning a master’s degree in sociology there in 1952. During the 1950s Mitchell fought to integrate public facilities in Maryland. He was the first African-American from Maryland elected to Congress in 1971. Mitchell was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the chair of the Subcommittee on Minority Economic Development and Housing; House at Large Whip; a member of the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs; the Chair of the Committee on Small Business; a member of the Subcommittee on Minority Enterprise and General Oversight; the chair of the Task Force on Minority Enterprise; a member of the Subcommittee on Access to Capital and Business Opportunities; and a member of the Joint Economic Committee.

Clarence Mitchell, Jr.

Clarence Mitchell, Jr., a Baltimore native, was the director at the NAACP Washington Bureau from 1950 to 1978, overseeing the enactment of significant civil rights legislation including the 1957 and 1964 Civil Rights Acts, the 1968 Voting Rights Act, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. Concurrently, he served as the legislative director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a diverse coalition that collaborated with the NAACP to advocate for civil rights legislation. Mitchell earned widespread acclaim in Washington, D.C., earning the moniker "101st senator" owing to his influential stature. Following his retirement, he represented the United States as a delegate to the United Nations. In recognition of his exceptional contributions, Mitchell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the NAACP Spingarn Medal. Posthumously, the Baltimore City Courthouse was renamed in his honor. 

Photo Credit: National Archives

Juanita Jackson Mitchell

Juanita Jackson Mitchell made history as the first Black woman to enroll at the University of Maryland Law School and was the first Black woman to practice law in Maryland. Prior to her legal career, Mitchell contributed significantly to education and civil rights activism. 
She taught in Baltimore high schools, was the special assistant to NAACP leader Walter White and also the National Youth Director for the NAACP. Demonstrating her commitment to youth empowerment, she, along with her mother, Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson, established the Baltimore City-Wide Young People's Forum in 1931 and the NAACP Youth Movement in 1935. Mitchell orchestrated important initiatives like a 1942 march on Maryland's Capital and the inaugural city-wide "Register and Vote" campaign. 

Throughout her career, Mitchell actively litigated against discrimination. She served as legal counsel in cases targeting segregation in municipal recreation facilities, restaurants, and public schools across Baltimore City and other parts of Maryland. Additionally, Mitchell  advocated against unwarranted mass searches of private homes. Notably, her advocacy in school desegregation suits played a pivotal role in making Maryland the first Southern state to integrate its school system following the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education 347 U.S. 483. 

Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives 

Esther Elizabeth McCready

In 1950, with the help of NAACP attorneys Thurgood Marshall, Charles Hamilton Houston and Donald Gaines Murray, Esther Elizabeth McCready successfully challenged her rejection to the University of Maryland Nursing School on the basis of race. McCready’s hard-won victory  resulted in the University of Maryland changing its admission policy of considering race in its decision-making process and paved the way for Black students at the university’s other professional schools and at the undergraduate programs in College Park. McCready, considered one of the university’s most distinguished alumni, also obtained a master’s degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music and toured with an opera ensemble in the United States and Europe. 

Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives 

Irene Morgan Kirkaldy

Eleven years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, Irene Morgan Kirkalady took a stand that would result in one of the first major advancements in the American Civil Rights Movement. On July 16, 1944, Kirkalady was riding a bus from Goucester, Virginia to her home in Baltimore, following a doctor’s visit for a miscarriage. About thirty minutes into the journey, a white couple boarded the already crowded bus. The bus driver, acting under the authority of Jim Crow laws and segregation norms, insisted that Kirkalady vacate her seat: she refused to yield. In response, the bus driver diverted to a local jail, where a sheriff's deputy presented Kirkalady with an arrest warrant. She tore it up and resisted the arrest.

The ensuing legal battle reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which resulted in the groundbreaking decision that segregation violated the Constitution's protection of interstate commerce. The South initially resisted enforcing this decision. In 1947, responding to the South’s defiance, a group of civil rights activists embarked on the Journey of Reconciliation, traveling on buses and trains through southern states. Immortalizing Kirkalady in their song, "You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow," they sang, "Get on the bus, sit anyplace, 'Cause Irene Morgan won her case." (Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives | Alt Text: Irene Morgan Kirkaldy)

Elijah Eugene Cummings

When 11-years old, Elijah Cummings participated in protests against segregation at Riverside Pool in Baltimore City. The demonstrations eventually led to the desegregation of the city’s pools. Cummings was left with a facial scar from being hit with a milk bottle during the protests, but he also carried with him a determination to continue to fight for equal rights.

Cummings graduated Howard University in Washington DC with a degree in Political Science in 1973 and from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1976, passing the Maryland bar later that year. Cummings was elected to Maryland’s House of Delegates in 1983 where he served as Chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland and later became Maryland’s first Black Speaker Pro Tempore. He served in the United States House of Representatives for Maryland's 7th Congressional District from 1996 until his death in 2019. The district he represented included more than half of the city of Baltimore City and included most of the majority-Black precincts of Baltimore County, and most of Howard County. Cummings is the first African-American lawmaker to achieve the honor of lying in state at the nation's Capitol. 

Photo Credit: Library of Congress 

Carl J. Murphy

Carl Murphy was a giant in the fight for racial justice in Maryland, including ending the illegality of interracial marriages.  While Murphy is largely known as an award-winning publisher of The Afro-American Newspaper (later the AFRO) , he was also an influential activist who served as an advisor to pivotal civil rights leaders, including Thurgood Marshall.

With Murphy at the helm, the AFRO was a powerful tool to highlight racial injustice and draw attention to the important civic action being taken to resist Jim Crow segregation. Murphy’s influence through the AFRO made his activism heard and respected, deftly using the power of the press to raise awareness and to effect important change. Today, the AFRO’s archives  represent one of the most important repositories of the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Maryland. 

Photo Credit: Paul S. Henderson c/o Maryland Center for History and Culture 

Paul Henderson

Paul Henderson was The AFRO’s best known photojournalist and an award-winning photographer who chronicled the Civil Rights Movement in Maryland through his powerful images. Henderson captured some of the most critical moments in Maryland civil rights history including the protests at Ford’s Theatre in downtown Baltimore and demonstrations against segregation at Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore. Henderson, who also worked as a freelance photographer, was active in his local community as a vestryman at St. James Episcopal Church, a charter member of the Druid Hill Avenue Neighborhood Club, the assistant treasurer of a local Frontiers International Club, a member of the NAACP, and a supporter of the Salvation Army. Henderson’s photographs represent some of the most important photographic documentation of the Civil Rights Movement in Maryland. 

Photo Credit: Maryland Historical Society

The Rev. Marion Curtis Bascom, Sr.

Marion Curtis Bascom Sr. was a pastor at Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore and the founder of the Associated Black Charities. Bascom sat on the Board of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture and served as the city's first Black fire commissioner. He marched with Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma and helped restore calm in Baltimore City following Dr. King’s assassination. Bascom participated in protests at Baltimore's then all-white Northwood Theatre and was part of a large protest at Gwynn Oak Park, which resulted in the desegregation of  Baltimore City’s parks. Bascom was admired for his tireless work with local charities and community organizations, including his establishment of a local “Meals on Wheels” program and a summer camp for disadvantaged children

Augusta Theodosia Lewis Chissell

Augusta “Gussie” Theodosia Lewis Chissell was active in the Civil Rights Movement through her leadership in several organizations. She was one of 14 founding members of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, serving as its first vice president in 1912. Chissell was president of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Baltimore Urban League. She was also a longtime member of Baltimore’s Dubois Circle, a group of prominent Black women who gathered once a month to discuss music and literature. The group also advocated for women's suffrage and engaged in philanthropic community pursuits, especially those supporting community youth. Chissell was an ardent advocate for women’s suffrage and voting rights and also worked as a journalist for the AFRO, writing a column titled “A Primer for Women Voters.”. In 2019, she was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame for her work in promoting women's rights and racial equity.

Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives 

Enolia Pettigen McMillan

Enolia Pettigen McMillan became a schoolteacher in Denton, MD in 1927 and quickly became an advocate for equal pay for Black teachers and better schools for Black students. Her 1933 Columbia University master’s thesis, “Factors Affecting Secondary Education in the Counties in Maryland," had far reaching consequences in terms of highlighting racism within Maryland’s school system. It resulted in McMillan being elected as President of the Maryland State Colored Teachers’ Association, but it also meant that she was denied deserved promotions within the Baltimore City School System. In 1969, one year after retiring from the Baltimore City Public Schools, she became the President of the Baltimore NAACP. In 1984, she became the President of the national NAACP where she was instrumental in raising funds to move the headquarters from New York to Baltimore in 1986 by baking peach pies and selling $1.00 “I Gave and NAACP” pins, netting the organization in excess of $150,000.

Donna Richardson Orange

As a teenager, Donna Richardson Orange started the Cambridge Movement as a reaction to the entrenched segregationist policies and practices on the Eastern Shore in the early 1960s. During this time, Richardson and a group of teens were arrested and beaten by police following protests at a segregated local theater. Richardson’s mother was Gloria Richardson Dandridge, and Orange’s early activism (including her experience of being beaten and arrested at the theater protest) ultimately led to her mother’s involvement in the movement and the eventual formation of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC).

Dr. John E.T. Camper

Dr. John E.T. Camper was a physician who attended Howard University Medical School and  practiced medicine at Provident Hospital in Baltimore. Following the tragic death of Private Thomas Broadus at the hands of a police officer in 1942, Camper emerged as a local civil rights advocate. Camper sought assistance from the local Baltimore branch of the NAACP, which he had helped establish, to investigate Private Broadus's death. He also assumed leadership roles within the Citizens' Committee for Justice (CCJ), organizing transportation for more than 2,000 participants during the CCJ's March on Annapolis in 1942.

In 1943, Camper was appointed to the board of management at Crownsville State Hospital for the Insane, a segregated institution originally called the “Crownsville State Hosptial for the Negro Insane.”  In 1948, he pursued political office as a Progressive Party candidate for Maryland's 4th Congressional district, where he also served as the state co-chair. He also played a pivotal role as one of the founders of MeDoSo, a club comprising black physicians and dentists who utilized their resources and expertise to combat injustices. 

Photo Credit: Baltimore Heritage

Silas E. Craft, Sr.

Silas E. Craft, Sr. was a teacher and a high school principal who advocated for equal educational resources for Black students in Howard County. Craft helped to open the first Black high school in Howard County, Harriet Tubman High School, and was its first principal from 1949 to 1956. Craft also shepherded Carver High School in Montgomery County through desegregation, leaving a lasting impact on the educational landscape of both counties. Notably, he played a critical role in the reorganization and revitalization of the Howard County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Victorine Quille Adams

Victorine Quille Adams was a native Baltimorean who sought to improve political participation, economic opportunity and equity for all. An entrepreneur and businesswoman, Adams not only served as a Baltimore Public School teacher, she was also the owner of the Charm Center clothing store, founder of the Colored Women’s Democratic Campaign Committee, co-founder of Woman Power, Inc., co-founder of the National Council of Negro Women, Baltimore Section, and the first African-American woman elected to the Baltimore City Council. She and her husband, Willie Adams, created a scholarship program in partnership with the NAACP and the United Negro College Fund. 

Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives 

Willie Adams

Adams was a Baltimore entrepreneur and  businessman with a complicated multi-layered history. As a teenager, Adams ran numbers for an illegal lottery and later became a numbers boss. In Adams’ later years he was a venture capitalist known for supporting the growth of many Black-owned businesses and was a critical financial supporter of Maryland’s civil rights movement. Though he never held office himself, Adams was a prominent figure in Baltimore politics and instrumental in the election of Maryland's first Black U.S. Representative, Parren Mitchell. Adams and his wife, Victorine, started a scholarship program, in partnership with the NAACP and the United Negro College Fund, for students seeking to major in business.

The Rev. Marion Curtis Bascom, Sr.

Marion Curtis Bascom Sr. was a pastor at Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore and the founder of the Associated Black Charities. Bascom sat on the Board of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture and served as the city's first Black fire commissioner. He marched with Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma and helped restore calm in Baltimore City following Dr. King’s assassination. Bascom participated in protests at Baltimore's then all-white Northwood Theatre and was part of a large protest at Gwynn Oak Park, which resulted in the desegregation of  Baltimore City’s parks. Bascom was admired for his tireless work with local charities and community organizations, including his establishment of a local “Meals on Wheels” program and a summer camp for disadvantaged children.

Luther Harold Stuckey

Luther Harold Stuckey was a teacher, civil rights activist, and a leader in efforts to desegregate public facilities in Charles County. Stuckey served as the president of the Charles County NAACP and worked alongside the national NAACP to successfully address many issues at the Naval Powder Factory (now called Naval Support Facility Indian Head) where he was a pipefitter and union representative. These issues include addressing deplorable changing room conditions for Black women employees, desegregating the cafeteria, and the removal of  discriminatory “whites only” signs. Stuckey also worked to end school and bus segregation and pay inequality for Black teachers in the county.

Donald Gaines Murray

Donald Gaines Murray made history as the first African-American to break the racial barrier at the University of Maryland School of Law since 1891. His pivotal achievement came after winning the groundbreaking civil rights case Murray v. Pearson in 1935, with Thurgood Marshall serving as his attorney. Following law school, Murray joined the Baltimore City Housing Authority as an investigator. During World War II, he served in Europe with the Army.

Upon his return to Maryland post-war, Murray became a partner at the law firm of Murray, Douglass, and Perkins, where he tackled numerous cases in collaboration with the NAACP. Murray remained deeply involved in civil rights activism throughout his life, actively participating in organizations such as the Baltimore NAACP, the Urban League, the ACLU, the Monumental Bar Association, and the Guardsmen. 

Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives 

Sidney Hollander

Sidney Hollander, a prominent Baltimore businessman, dedicated himself to advocating for civil rights, social welfare, and reform. He served as an officer and board member for various philanthropic organizations, both private and public and was active in the fight for civil rights from the late 1930s until the 1970s. The Sidney Hollander Award was created by Hollander following World War II, and  given by the Sidney Hollander Foundation to organizations that helped spread the word that “African American citizens should be treated as equals to their white counterparts.” With perhaps too much optimism, the foundation ceased giving out the award in 1963, when they determined that sufficient progress in civil rights in Maryland had been made by government, political, and religious institutions. Hollander's steadfast commitment to social activism and reform garnered him recognition both locally and nationally. 

Photo Credit: Maryland Center for History and Culture

Elizabeth Murphy Moss

Elizabeth Murphy Moss was a columnist and editor at The AFRO and the first Black woman to serve on the Baltimore City school board. Moss fought for the appointment of minority administrators and educational programs for Black students during her time on the board. She was active in many civic and community organizations and was a member of the NAACP. Moss was the first African-American female war correspondent during WWII.

Leo W. Burroughs, Jr.

Leo W. Burroughs, Jr., was the founder of Roots of Scouting, Inc., an organization dedicated to combating discrimination within the Boy Scouts, and committed to ensuring that Boy Scouting is accessible, affordable, and relevant to African Americans boys. Burroughs was also active in the civil rights efforts in the 1950s and 60s, through his membership in the Baltimore City chapter of CORE and in the Civic Interest Group (CIG). 

Photo Credit: Leo W. Burroughs, Jr.

The Rev. Douglas Bruce Sands    

Douglas Sands learned activism from his parents and also from Silas E. Craft, his principal at the Black school in Cooksville, Harriet Tubman High School. After Sands was denied admission to Johns Hopkins University because he was Black, he applied and was accepted at Morgan State University (then Morgan State College). During Sands’ time as a student at Morgan he became involved with anti-discrimination protests at local Baltimore businesses like Hecht’s department store, Read’s Drug Store, and the Northwood Theater. He was also a part of larger, nationally significant efforts such as the Route 40 Protests and the 1963 March on Washington. Sands became a Methodist pastor in his 40s and served his Carroll County congregation for 25 years.

John Charles Roemer, III

John Charles Roemer, III was a teacher who attended Princeton University, the former head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, and the Vice President of the Baltimore Chapter of CORE. Roemer was active in many civil rights protests in Baltimore including those at Gwynn Oak Park. He also fought discriminatory ordinances in Ocean City. Notably, Roemer played a vital role in getting the restaurants in Carroll County to desegregate so that the Colts’  Black players and spectators  could eat in local restaurants in Westminster (where the team’s training facility was located), from which they had been banned owing to segregation. He also demonstrated against multiple segregated restaurants in other parts of the state, including some managed by his father.

Judge Robert Bell

During his high school years, Judge Robert Bell and a group of fellow students engaged in a sit-in protest at Hooper's Restaurant in Baltimore. Despite being asked to leave, the students, including sixteen-year-old Bell, refused to comply. They were arrested and convicted of criminal trespassing by Baltimore’s Circuit Court and fined $10 each. The case went to the Maryland Court of Appeals, where the students were represented by Juanita Jackson Mitchell and Thurgood Marshall. The appellants argued that using state trespassing laws to endorse segregation in public establishments violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. However, in 1962, the Court of Appeals upheld the Circuit Court's initial ruling. Bell went on to pursue a long legal career and ultimately ascended to the position of Chief Justice of the Maryland State Supreme Court. 

Photo Credit: Morgan State University

The Rev. Dr. Chester L. Wickwire  

Chester L. Wickwire was a peace activist, civil rights advocate, and University Chaplain at Johns Hopkins who organized the first integrated concert in Baltimore in 1959. Wickwire, one-time chairman of the Maryland Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission,  worked with Baltimore community leaders, including Walter P. Carter and Black ministers in the 1960s to integrate Gwynn Oak Park. As a result of his close work with Baltimore’s Black ministers, Wickwire was elected as the first and only White leader of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. Wickwire’s work extended beyond civil rights to advocacy in labor, and to migrant worker rights on a national and international level.

Harriet Elizabeth Brown

Harriet Elizabeth Brown was a teacher from Calvert County who fought for equal pay for teachers in the county, regardless of race. Brown asked Thurgood Marshall to assist her in bringing a suit against the county, charging that it had separate salary scales for public school teachers based on their race, which violated the 14th Amendment. Brown was earning an annual salary of $600 while her white counterparts (with the same qualifications and experience) received $1100 per year. On December 27, 1937, the Calvert County Board of Education agreed to equalize salaries and Brown’s victory led to the Maryland Teachers Pay Equalization Law and eventually had an effect on teacher salaries across the country. 

Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives 

Harry  A. Cole

In 1953, Harry A. Cole, a lawyer and civil rights activist, was the first African American appointed as Assistant Attorney General of Maryland. Five years later, Cole became the first chairman of the Maryland Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Cole served as an Associate Judge for the Municipal Court of Baltimore City and Associate Judge, Supreme Bench of Baltimore City (now Circuit Court). He was elevated to the Maryland Court of Appeals in 1977, and served in that capacity until 1991. In 1999 Cole was appointed as Chair of the Board of Regents at Morgan State University. 

Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives

Emory Ryan Cole

Emory Cole served in 331st Field Artillery, 1917-1919, graduated from Howard Law School in 1923 and was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates from 1955-59. Along with Harry Cole and Truly Hatchett, Cole was one of the first African-Americans elected to the Maryland General Assembly. He lost his 1958 bid for re-election to Verda Mae Freeman Welcome. 

Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives 

Truly Hatchett

Truly Hatchett was a real estate investor and member of the Maryland House of Delegates, representing Baltimore City. Hatchett was one of the first African-Americans to be elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in the1950s, along with Harry A. Cole and Emory Cole.

 E. Everett Lane

E. Everett Lane was the first African-American judge to sit on a Maryland court of record, and the first below the Mason-Dixon Line since Reconstruction. In his bid for a seat on the People’s Court, Judge Lane was endorsed by the then all-white Bar Association of Baltimore City. Before becoming a judge, Lane was a police magistrate for the Northwestern District and a Traffic Court magistrate. Lane was also a veteran who served in France with the 325th Field Signal Battalion during World War I. 

Howard Young

Howard Young was the first African American licensed as a pharmacist in Maryland. Young was a member of the NAACP and president of the YMCA. He was the only Black member of the Maryland Pharmacists Association. In 1913, Young and his wife, Estelle, attempted an early challenge to Baltimore's housing segregation laws by purchasing a home on a mainly white block in the Upton neighborhood. They lobbied the local Black community for financial support to pay segregation fines levied by the city, but were unsuccessful in garnering support. Eventually, the Youngs rented the home to a white family.

Estelle Hall Young

Estelle Hall Young was a leader of the African-American women's suffrage movement in Baltimore. She founded the Colored Women's Suffrage Club and worked tirelessly to support suffrage for African Americans. Young and her husband Howard tested housing segregation laws in Baltimore in 1913. Young was part of the DuBois Circle in Baltimore and was also actively involved in politics, particularly with attempts to get anti-lynching legislation passed. In the 1930s, Young was given an award from the NAACP's Maryland State Conference of Branches.

Dr. Louise Young

Trained at Howard University Medical School, Dr. Louise Young was  the only African-American physician to receive training in birth control at the Baltimore Birth Control Clinic. Dr. Young opened a Planned Parenthood Clinic at 1523 McCulloh Street, which was one of only three such clinics then staffed entirely by African-Americans in the country. After ten years at the clinic, Young was granted residency (she was initially denied admission) to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology at Provident Hospital, where she later served as chief from 1950 to 1963. She worked at several area hospitals, often as the only Black staff member, until her retirement in 1984.

George W.F. McMechen

In 1895, George W. F. McMechen was among the first graduates of Morgan State University (then Morgan College). After graduating from college, he entered Yale Law School and received his law degree in 1899. McMechen and his wife moved to Baltimore in 1904 and he was admitted to the Maryland bar. The McMechens encountered strong resistance from white citizens when they tried to take up residence at their new home in Baltimore at 2007 McCulloh Street. They took the case before the City Council and the Maryland Court of Appeals, and were eventually victorious. McMechen was a trustee of Morgan College from 1921 to 1939, and a member of the board of the Morgan Corporation following the state's takeover of Morgan in 1939. He also served as a Justice of the Peace in Baltimore City's 4th Legislative District. In 1944, McMechen was appointed to the Board of School Commissioners, becoming its first Black member.

Ike Dixon, Jr.

In his four terms as a member of the House of Delegates representing Baltimore, Ike Dixon, Jr. was known for his efforts on behalf of racial equality and for spearheading the effort to make cross-burning a felony. He was a businessman, veteran, member of the NAACP and sat on many boards and advisory committees. Dixon is also remembered as the son of a musician whose melodies helped to create a hub for jazz in the city. 

Photo Credit: Maryland State Archives