<commit_before>---
title: "1968–1976: After the Unrest"
excerpt: "The changes of this period highlight the contradictions of a Civil Rights movement that had seen tremendous progress in securing legal rights and freedoms for African Americans in a region that still denied many the opportunity for equitable education or employment opportunities."
permalink: /overview/1968-1976/
categories:
  - overview
tags:
  - draft
  - review
sidebar:
  nav: "overview"
header:
  teaser: /assets/images/1976-08-07-afram-charles-plaza.jpg
  overlay_image: /assets/images/1976-08-07-afram-charles-plaza.jpg
  overlay_filter: .5
  caption: "Charles Plaza during the first Afro-American (AFRAM) Exposition, August 7-8, 1976. Special Collections, Langsdale Library, University of Baltimore, [rbcae76n0705](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ubarchives/4724290249/) (CC BY-NC-ND)."
---

## Introduction

A week of unrest on the streets of Baltimore followed the assassination of Rev. Dr. <NAME>, Jr. in April 1968. Some local residents and elected officials saw the unrest as a wake up call sounding an urgent demand for aggressive action on Civil Rights. However, others used the unrest as the pretext to pursue a reactionary agenda opposing expanded opportunities for black Baltimoreans. While decades of activism succeeded in overturning many of the city, state, and federal policies that required racial segregation and protected discrimination, the legacy of these policies continued to have major consequences for black Baltimoreans and for historically segregated black neighborhoods. With a clear understanding of these challenges, African American activists sought to shift the debate over Civil Rights to focus on community development. However, they struggled against the apathy of white elected officials at the local level and antipathy of federal officials, such as President <NAME> who, in 1972, radically cut funding for President <NAME>'s "War on Poverty" programs. Moreover, the celebrated "peaceful" desegregation of Baltimore's public schools proved completely inadequate to sustain integration given a region where housing policies in the city and suburbs promoted growing residential segregation in the 1960s and 1970s. This introduction continues to describe the immediate consequences of the April 1968 unrest, the political landscape for Civil Rights at the federal and local level in this period, and changes in population across the region.

On Thursday, April 4, 1968, [<NAME>. was assassinated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King_Jr.) in Memphis, Tennessee. The following day, unrest broke out in Detroit and Washington, D.C. Three hundred people gathered in Baltimore for a peaceful memorial service on the morning of Saturday, April 6. That afternoon, however, some residents began to attack properties in East Baltimore and fires soon broke out at multiple locations. The unrest spread quickly and continued through Thursday, April 11.

![State Office Building (1958), 301 W. Preston Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. Photograph by <NAME>, 2017 June 27. Courtesy [Baltimore Heritage](https://www.flickr.com/photos/baltimoreheritage/34771620323/in/dateposted/) ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/))](https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4202/34771620323_69e1f57cb8_b.jpg)

On Tuesday, April 9, 1968, Maryland Governor [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiro_Agnew) invited one hundred of Baltimore's black leaders to meet at the State Center Office Building built in 1958 near the Fifth Regiment Amory as part of an urban renewal project a decade earlier. Agnew used the meeting to deliver a one-sided lecture and charged the participants with responsibility for the unrest.[@_governor_1968; @offer_analysis_1968] Most of the activists in attendance walked out. Some drafted an "angry rebuttal" observing, "Agnew's actions are more in keeping with the slave system of a bygone era." They noted that by separating "good" moderates from "bad" militants (what Agnew perjoratively labeled the "circuit-riding, Hanoi-visiting type of leader"), the governor sought to divide black activists from one another. One minister observed: "He's forcing us all to become militants."[@baum_how_2011, 160] In a vivid example of the political divisions among local residents, however, hundreds of white Baltimoreans sent telegraphs to Agnew's office—most praising his attack on Baltimore's black leaders. One stated:

> "Thankful to hear that the white people still have a strong voice in government."[@baum_how_2011, 161]

By the end of the week, it was clear to everyone that the unrest had left thousands of residents reeling from the damage to their neighborhoods. Police arrested 5,512 people (nearly all of them black; totaling about one in every seventy-five black residents). At the height of the response, 12,000 troops occupied the city (one for every seventy-five city residents). Six hundred people were injured (fifty police officers among them). The city saw 1,208 major fires and 1,049 businesses damaged. Six people were killed—all African American.[@baum_how_2011, 160]<!-- TODO: Double-check that the six people killed in the 1968 unrest are all African American. -->

Historian <NAME> has observed that the 1968 uprisings "revealed poor people's frustration and fear and their desires to attack exploitation and obtain consumer goods." Williams quotes a warning activist <NAME> delivered in February 1968 observing that "white decision makers" must:

> give colored citizens a stake in what America is before ghetto dwellers could see a chance to accomplish their goals without violence.[@williams_politics_2004, 198]

While the factors that shaped the Civil Rights movement over the next decade existed before the 1968 unrest, the events of that April framed the uncertain future of the movement and Baltimore's segregated African American neighborhoods. From 1968 through the mid-1970s, the Civil Rights movement in Baltimore was shaped by both a renewed progressive vision for reinvestment in historically segregated black neighborhoods and a reactionary withdrawal continuing the pattern of "white flight" that followed World War II. These factors are seen in both the politics of the period, the movement of people, and the buildings and spaces they used.

Across the nation, people witnessed an aggressive reaction against the Civil Rights movement. The [1968 Republican National Convention](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Republican_National_Convention) gave a preview of these reversals when Agnew's patronizing lecture of Baltimore's black activists won him the nomination as Vice President to <NAME>. The selection reinforced the Republican party's [Southern strategy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy) which sought to win the support of conservative white voters who participated in the racist reaction to incumbent President <NAME> and the Democratic Party's support for Civil Rights.[@coffey_spiro_2003] Following Nixon's landslide reelection in 1972, his administration made sharp cuts to funding for urban areas and War on Poverty programs.<!-- What else did Nixon do that affected the Civil Rights movement in Baltimore? --> The cuts have had lasting consequences for urban renewal and transportation projects in Baltimore's historically segregated black neighborhoods—a topic addressed in greater depth in this study's look at community development.<!-- NOTE: Citations missing! -->

At the local and state level, political leaders were not always explicitly antagonistic to Civil Rights activists but were often apathetic or indifferent. [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_L._J._D%27Alesandro_III), who had won office in 1967 as a strong supporter of the Civil Rights movement, decided not to run for a second term. Mayor [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Donald_Schaefer) took office in 1971, beginning a sixteen year period as mayor, but took a largely passive role on Civil Rights issues during his term in office. [<NAME>](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Mandel) became Governor in 1969 after Agnew's resignation to serve as Vice President. While praised for his appointment of black judges and relationships with black business leaders (including <NAME>, <NAME> Jr. and <NAME> of the Park Sausage Company), Mandel similarly avoided taking strong positions on Civil Rights issues.[@williams_jr._mandels_2015] In one example, both Mayor Schaefer and Governor Mandel continued to support Baltimore City Police Commissioner [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Pomerleau) even after a Maryland State Senate investigation in 1976 revealed that over the previous decade Pommerlau had created the Inspectional Services Division (ISD) and spied on Civil Rights activists, including Congressional Representative <NAME>.[@olesker_pomerleau_1992]

Baltimore's City Council offered some hope for Civil Rights activists seeking greater political power. A contested redistricting process in early 1971 led to more opportunities for black candidates to win election to the Council.[@price_3rd_bard_1971; @price_3rd_negro_1971; @price_3rd_districting_1971] By October, anticipating the near certain outcome of the election based on the results of the Democratic primary, the *Sun* wrote:

> The Baltimore City Council, an exclusively Democratic province since before World War II, seem likely to be controlled for the first time by a coalition of liberal whites and Negroes no matter what the outcome of the general election.[@_negro-white_1971]

Across the country, between 1964 and 1975, the number of African American elected officials grew from 100 to almost 3,000 (135 of them mayors) but the first black mayor in Baltimore was not elected until Kurt Schmoke in 1987.[@williams_politics_2004, 233] 

Even as African Americans sought greater political power, the city itself experienced a precipitous drop in total population. Between 1970 and 1980, Baltimore City lost over 110,000 residents. At the same time, African American residents became a majority of the city's population.

| Census Year | Total Population  (Baltimore City) | African American population as share of total | Change since prior census |
| ----------- | ---------------------------------: | ---------------------------------------: | ------------------------: |
| 1960        |                            939,024 |                                   34.67% |                    -1.12% |
| 1970        |                            905,759 |                                   46.39% |                    -3.54% |
| 1980        |                            786,775 |                                   54.80% |                   -13.14% |

 *Data courtesy [NHGIS](https://www.nhgis.org/).*

Changes in the city's population were driven by the thousands of white Baltimoreans who moved out to the surrounding suburbs—an option that was largely unavailable for African Americans. As early as 1970, a pattern of racially segregated development in Baltimore County led to hearings by the Maryland Civil Rights Commission at the Social Security Administration headquarters in Woodlawn documenting how county officials had opposed open housing, discouraged affordable housing development, and displaced existing black communities .[@pietila_not_2010, 234; @maryland_state_advisory_committee_to_the_u.s._commission_on_civil_rights_zoning_1971] Unfortunately, the growing awareness of the issue did little to reverse the trends with local elected officials who avoided making any substantial reforms to policies around zoning, public housing, or school desegregation.

| Census Year | Total Population (MSA except Baltimore City) | African American population as share of total | Change since prior census |
| ----------- | ---------------------------------------: | ---------------------------------------: | ------------------------: |
| 1960        |                                  881,290 |                                    7.55% |                    68.81% |
| 1970        |                                  905,759 |                                    6.25% |                    34.27% |
| 1980        |                                1,412,756 |                                    9.11% |                    19.39% |

 *Data courtesy [NHGIS](https://www.nhgis.org). Data for 1960 only shows percent non-white population rather than percent African American.*^[For this analysis, the data includes Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County, Howard County, and Queen Anne's County (the present day MSA) going back to 1960.]

 <!-- NOTE: What happened to poverty and employment in this period? How does the city deal with job loss and revenue loss? -->

The following sections document the significance of these changes and their relationship to places associated with the Civil Rights movement. After reviewing the range of associated places in this period, this study explores several themes in more detail including:

- The changing leadership and organization of the Civil Rights movement in Baltimore. How was the movement shaped by Black Power? How did the movement intersect with social movements for feminism, LGBTQ rights, disability rights, and others?
- The shift by Civil Rights activists to focus on community and economic development. How did approaches to community development address the legacies of segregation and discrimination? How did people reinvest in historically segregated neighborhoods? How did people address the withdrawal of white residents and white-controlled businesses and institutions from those same neighborhoods?
- The failure to end persistent racial segregation in both schools and housing. What did government and community groups do to address segregation? Why did their efforts largely fail? 
- The impact of police surveillance and the role of police violence in shaping Civil Rights activism during this period.
- The intersection of the Civil Rights movement with visual and performing arts and cultural heritage institutions. How are African Americans and African American culture and history represented? How does it appear in public art, monuments, and the preservation of historic places associated with African Americans in Baltimore?

## Associated Places

<!-- NOTE: What places were demolished in this period? How were black communities in Baltimore County affected by the development of I-695 and other suburban projects? -->

The places associated with the Civil Rights movement in this period include private homes adopted by radical activist organizations, unassuming offices and storefronts put to work for community organizing, and new buildings erected to promote economic opportunity for black Baltimoreans. In contrast to earlier in the twentieth century, where buildings such as churches or homes for activists developed long-term associations with the Civil Rights movement, many buildings were only associated with the movement for a brief time. In addition, the expanding scope of urban renewal and demolition led to the loss of a number of significant structures. Fortunately, these losses lent a needed urgency to the task of preserving and interpreting buildings associated with African American history in Baltimore—an effort that emerged concurrently with the modern historic preservation movement. 

Examples of buildings associated with Civil Rights activist groups include the numerous structures used by the Baltimore Branch of the Black Panther Party between the earliest organization of the chapter in 1968 and group's end in 1972. Over those four years, the group organized classes, community support activities, and protests at dozens of different buildings. The group initially grew out of the Soul School located at 522 North Fremont Street near the George P. Murphy Homes. The first formal chapter headquarters was a house at 1209 North Eden Street and the members began organizing free breakfast and lunch programs at St. Martin de Porres Recreation Hall (located in the former St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church; a building occupied in 2017 by Sweet Prospect Baptist Church). By 1970, the headquarters (also referenced as a "Black Community Information Center") had moved to a rented house at 1248 N. Gay Street.[@holter_vanguard_2017, 42, 59, 128; @mccutchen_black_2004] 

Other buildings are associated with public agencies, such as the Community Action Agency (CAA) directed by <NAME>. The CAA (and the succeeding Model Cities Agency and the Baltimore Urban Services Agency both directed by Ivey), worked to meet the needs of Baltimore residents by bringing services out into city neighborhoods.[@faust_neighborhood_2015, 55] Baltimore historian and archivist Aiden Faust describes the network of twenty-three neighborhood centers writing:

> These centers were distributed across the city, with higher concentrations in East and West Baltimore, where the poorest neighborhoods were (and still are) concentrated. The centers occupied repurposed churches, storefronts, libraries, public baths, or (in the case of Dunbar) associated with an existing public high school. These diverse settings served as multipurpose centers for many programs and classes for children, teens, senior citizens, young mothers, the homeless, and families in crisis. Food pantries, yoga classes, poetry readings, dance performances, legal assistance, home heating assistance, library services, and many more programmatic offerings coexisted in these spaces.[@faust_neighborhood_2015, 55-56]

In addition to these neighborhood centers, Model Cities established six "Community Councils" which became seen as "centers of black political activity" and were "eyed with concern by City Councilmen and the local media." Consequently, in 1976, Lenwood Ivey shut down the Community Councils, a controversial decision that was "decidedly unpopular with residents and Council staff."[@faust_neighborhood_2015, 58]

Public buildings were common sites for protest, as well as organizing. For example, in August 1968, the Upton Planning Committee threatened a boycott of Lafayette Market (now known as the Avenue Market) on Pennsylvania Avenue in a successful effort to force improvements in the conditions of the market.[@_boycott_1968]

![11 E. Mount Royal Avenue (built as the Zell Motor Car Company showroom) served as the headquarters for the Baltimore Urban Services Agency from 1974 to 1980. Photograph by <NAME>, 2015 December 27. Courtesy [Baltimore Heritage](https://www.flickr.com/photos/baltimoreheritage/24356744702/) ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)).](https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1657/24356744702_68def93e10_b.jpg)

The shifting expectations of how Civil Rights activism took shape also affected some of the places with long-established associations with the Civil Rights movement, such as in June 1968, when Rev. <NAME>, the new pastor at Bethel AME Church, affirmed the church's plans to make the church "of utmost service to the poor, the hopeless and the oppressed."[@oliver_new_1968]

Civil Rights organizing also took place in buildings associated with the peace movement and other radical political and social movements. One example is the Peace Action Center at 2525 Maryland Avenue described by <NAME> as the "locus for the city's antiwar movement". The Center provided office and meeting space, a mimeograph machine, and a paid full-time staff person, <NAME>, for the Baltimore Defense Committee and *Peace and Freedom News*, "Baltimore's first underground newspaper". Whitman's salary was funded by a "progressive peace tax paid by the BDC's members".[@zanoni_working_2013, 34, 69] Other examples are found through the Catholic workers movement including Viva House located at 26 S. Mount Street in southwest Baltimore since 1970.

Businesses and institutions also responded to the currents of Civil Rights activism. One notable example is Super Pride—a local grocery store chain established by <NAME> (1915-1991) in 1970 when he took over the bankrupt “Super Jet Market” located on East Chase Street. Burns restored the business to profitability within three years—despite encountering food companies that refused to work with a black-owned store. Burns had started in the grocery business around 1921 delivering groceries for the small store his grandfather owned on Dolphin Street. He sold vegetables, produce and fish out of the back of a cart during high school and college then later became the co-owner of Hilton Court Chain of Ethical Pharmacies – a business that according to Burns' obituary, “catered to the needs of black consumers at a time when white-owned businesses ignored them.”[@robinson_charles_1991] Between 1970 and 1990, Super Pride grew to seven locations, employing more than 400 people, and making over $43 million in annual sales. Under Burns' leadership, Super Pride sponsored Black History Month activities and supported the Arena Players. By the late 1990s, however, the business struggled to compete against national chains and the city's shrinking population. In the fall of 2000, Super Pride closed all eight of its locations and, in November, held an auction to liquidate the stores and their remaining equipment to satisfy creditors.[@sentementes_super_2000]

Other black-owned businesses found success in marketing traditional southern cooking as "soul food". Popular options for local diners included Sampson's located at 944 W. Fayette Street, the Red Rooster Restaurant and Lounge at 1801 McKean Avenue, and the Yellow Bowl on Greenmount Avenue. According to one 1973 article, soul food was also a regular offering at many of the approximately two hundred storefront churches active in the early 1970s.[@pietila_storefront_1973] 

Another example is found in a March 1971 *Sun* profile of pharmacist <NAME>, owner of the forty-year-old Penn-Dol Pharmacy, and his investment in a new building at Pennsylvania Avenue and Dolphin Street.^[As of 2017, the building at 1133 Pennsylvania Avenue is occupied by Best Care Pharmacy]. The report noted Schumer's sale of the store's "sundries section to several black employees who had been with him for a number of years" and observed, "The interior of the pharmacy resembles the orderly kind of drug store one expects to find in the affluent white suburbs."[@_white_1971]

In this same period, a large number of buildings associated with African American history in Baltimore were demolished to make way for transportation and "urban renewal projects". Between 1973 and 1977, nine hundred and seventy-one rowhouses and sixty-two businesses came down in West Baltimore to make way for the partial construction of the East-West Expressway.[@dilts_3-road_1973] Hundreds of more houses at the edges of downtown fell for the construction of <NAME> King Boulevard beginning in 1976.[@dilts_residents_1975] In 1971, the city tore down the much-beloved Royal Theatre at 1329 Pennsylvania Avenue. One 1986 account, recalled the Royal as "the brightest gem along the cultural and business strip that made Pennsylvania Avenue the nucleus of Baltimore's black community from the 1920s through the 1960s". The author attributed the theater's decline to both the integration of other theaters in Baltimore in the 1960s and the competition from the opening of the Civic Centre (now the Baltimore Arena) in 1962.[@giuliano_royal_1986]

African American communities in Baltimore County also saw a significant amount of demolition in this period. In the African American community of East Towson, for example, numerous homes and public buildings (such as the East Towson Child Development Center at 102 E. Pennsylvania Avenue) were demolished but several others survived, including the St. James African United Methodist Protestant Church (built 1881, enlarged in 1906, and renovated in 1968) at 415 Jefferson Avenue the Carver High School/East Towson Carver Community Center (built in 1939) at 300 Lennox Avenue.[@eht_traceries_carver_2001]

This push to build new roads through largely African American neighborhoods met with strong resistance by anti-highway activists and from black Baltimoreans seeking to preserve historic places associated with African American history in Baltimore. In some cases, they found allies with Baltimore Heritage established in 1960, the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) established in 1964, the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) established in 1966, and the Commission on Negro History and Culture (later renamed the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture (MCAAHC)) established in 1969.

The most prominent of these early efforts was the Committee for the Preservation of Orchard Street Church, organized in the fall of 1972 and led by Mrs. <NAME>.[@_historic_1972; @_old_1973; @pietila_black_1974; @arnett_church_1976]<!-- Add more detail on the Orchard Street Church preservation efforts. --> The National Register of Historic Places provided an important tool for recognizing and protecting African American landmarks including Orchard Street United Methodist Church (designated November 12, 1975), Public School No. 111 at N. Carrollton Avenue and Riggs Road (designated September 25, 1979), Cummins Memorial Church at 1210 W. Lanvale Street (designated October 31, 1979), and the Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church and Community House (designated July 21, 1982). In the 1970s, CHAP designated several local landmarks associated with African American history in Baltimore including Bethel A.M.E. Church (1300 Druid Hill Avenue) and Ebenezer A.M.E. Church (18 W. Montgomery Street) in 1971 and Sharon Baptist Church (1373 N. Stricker Street) and First Baptist Church (525 N. Caroline Street) in 1977. CHAP designated Madison Park as the city's first historic district occupied largely by African American residents also in 1977.

![CHAP designed First Baptist Church (1880) at 525 N. Caroline Street as a local landmark in 1977. Photograph by <NAME>, 2017 June 1. Courtesy Baltimore Heritage ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)).](https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4249/34649587930_aa889fb313_b.jpg)<commit_msg>Fix typo: Fremont Street -> Fremont Avenue<commit_after>---
title: "1968–1976: After the Unrest"
excerpt: "The changes of this period highlight the contradictions of a Civil Rights movement that had seen tremendous progress in securing legal rights and freedoms for African Americans in a region that still denied many the opportunity for equitable education or employment opportunities."
permalink: /overview/1968-1976/
categories:
  - overview
tags:
  - draft
  - review
sidebar:
  nav: "overview"
header:
  teaser: /assets/images/1976-08-07-afram-charles-plaza.jpg
  overlay_image: /assets/images/1976-08-07-afram-charles-plaza.jpg
  overlay_filter: .5
  caption: "Charles Plaza during the first Afro-American (AFRAM) Exposition, August 7-8, 1976. Special Collections, Langsdale Library, University of Baltimore, [rbcae76n0705](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ubarchives/4724290249/) (CC BY-NC-ND)."
---

## Introduction

A week of unrest on the streets of Baltimore followed the assassination of Rev. Dr. <NAME>, Jr. in April 1968. Some local residents and elected officials saw the unrest as a wake up call sounding an urgent demand for aggressive action on Civil Rights. However, others used the unrest as the pretext to pursue a reactionary agenda opposing expanded opportunities for black Baltimoreans. While decades of activism succeeded in overturning many of the city, state, and federal policies that required racial segregation and protected discrimination, the legacy of these policies continued to have major consequences for black Baltimoreans and for historically segregated black neighborhoods. With a clear understanding of these challenges, African American activists sought to shift the debate over Civil Rights to focus on community development. However, they struggled against the apathy of white elected officials at the local level and antipathy of federal officials, such as President <NAME> who, in 1972, radically cut funding for President <NAME>'s "War on Poverty" programs. Moreover, the celebrated "peaceful" desegregation of Baltimore's public schools proved completely inadequate to sustain integration given a region where housing policies in the city and suburbs promoted growing residential segregation in the 1960s and 1970s. This introduction continues to describe the immediate consequences of the April 1968 unrest, the political landscape for Civil Rights at the federal and local level in this period, and changes in population across the region.

On Thursday, April 4, 1968, [<NAME>, Jr. was assassinated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King_Jr.) in Memphis, Tennessee. The following day, unrest broke out in Detroit and Washington, D.C. Three hundred people gathered in Baltimore for a peaceful memorial service on the morning of Saturday, April 6. That afternoon, however, some residents began to attack properties in East Baltimore and fires soon broke out at multiple locations. The unrest spread quickly and continued through Thursday, April 11.

![State Office Building (1958), 301 W. Preston Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. Photograph by <NAME>, 2017 June 27. Courtesy [Baltimore Heritage](https://www.flickr.com/photos/baltimoreheritage/34771620323/in/dateposted/) ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/))](https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4202/34771620323_69e1f57cb8_b.jpg)

On Tuesday, April 9, 1968, Maryland Governor [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiro_Agnew) invited one hundred of Baltimore's black leaders to meet at the State Center Office Building built in 1958 near the Fifth Regiment Amory as part of an urban renewal project a decade earlier. Agnew used the meeting to deliver a one-sided lecture and charged the participants with responsibility for the unrest.[@_governor_1968; @offer_analysis_1968] Most of the activists in attendance walked out. Some drafted an "angry rebuttal" observing, "Agnew's actions are more in keeping with the slave system of a bygone era." They noted that by separating "good" moderates from "bad" militants (what Agnew perjoratively labeled the "circuit-riding, Hanoi-visiting type of leader"), the governor sought to divide black activists from one another. One minister observed: "He's forcing us all to become militants."[@baum_how_2011, 160] In a vivid example of the political divisions among local residents, however, hundreds of white Baltimoreans sent telegraphs to Agnew's office—most praising his attack on Baltimore's black leaders. One stated:

> "Thankful to hear that the white people still have a strong voice in government."[@baum_how_2011, 161]

By the end of the week, it was clear to everyone that the unrest had left thousands of residents reeling from the damage to their neighborhoods. Police arrested 5,512 people (nearly all of them black; totaling about one in every seventy-five black residents). At the height of the response, 12,000 troops occupied the city (one for every seventy-five city residents). Six hundred people were injured (fifty police officers among them). The city saw 1,208 major fires and 1,049 businesses damaged. Six people were killed—all African American.[@baum_how_2011, 160]<!-- TODO: Double-check that the six people killed in the 1968 unrest are all African American. -->

Historian <NAME> has observed that the 1968 uprisings "revealed poor people's frustration and fear and their desires to attack exploitation and obtain consumer goods." Williams quotes a warning activist <NAME> delivered in February 1968 observing that "white decision makers" must:

> give colored citizens a stake in what America is before ghetto dwellers could see a chance to accomplish their goals without violence.[@williams_politics_2004, 198]

While the factors that shaped the Civil Rights movement over the next decade existed before the 1968 unrest, the events of that April framed the uncertain future of the movement and Baltimore's segregated African American neighborhoods. From 1968 through the mid-1970s, the Civil Rights movement in Baltimore was shaped by both a renewed progressive vision for reinvestment in historically segregated black neighborhoods and a reactionary withdrawal continuing the pattern of "white flight" that followed World War II. These factors are seen in both the politics of the period, the movement of people, and the buildings and spaces they used.

Across the nation, people witnessed an aggressive reaction against the Civil Rights movement. The [1968 Republican National Convention](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Republican_National_Convention) gave a preview of these reversals when Agnew's patronizing lecture of Baltimore's black activists won him the nomination as Vice President to <NAME>. The selection reinforced the Republican party's [Southern strategy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy) which sought to win the support of conservative white voters who participated in the racist reaction to incumbent President <NAME> and the Democratic Party's support for Civil Rights.[@coffey_spiro_2003] Following Nixon's landslide reelection in 1972, his administration made sharp cuts to funding for urban areas and War on Poverty programs.<!-- What else did Nixon do that affected the Civil Rights movement in Baltimore? --> The cuts have had lasting consequences for urban renewal and transportation projects in Baltimore's historically segregated black neighborhoods—a topic addressed in greater depth in this study's look at community development.<!-- NOTE: Citations missing! -->

At the local and state level, political leaders were not always explicitly antagonistic to Civil Rights activists but were often apathetic or indifferent. [<NAME> III](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_L._J._D%27Alesandro_III), who had won office in 1967 as a strong supporter of the Civil Rights movement, decided not to run for a second term. Mayor [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Donald_Schaefer) took office in 1971, beginning a sixteen year period as mayor, but took a largely passive role on Civil Rights issues during his term in office. [<NAME>](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Mandel) became Governor in 1969 after Agnew's resignation to serve as Vice President. While praised for his appointment of black judges and relationships with black business leaders (including <NAME>, <NAME>r. and <NAME> of the Park Sausage Company), Mandel similarly avoided taking strong positions on Civil Rights issues.[@williams_jr._mandels_2015] In one example, both Mayor Schaefer and Governor Mandel continued to support Baltimore City Police Commissioner [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Pomerleau) even after a Maryland State Senate investigation in 1976 revealed that over the previous decade Pommerlau had created the Inspectional Services Division (ISD) and spied on Civil Rights activists, including Congressional Representative <NAME>.[@olesker_pomerleau_1992]

Baltimore's City Council offered some hope for Civil Rights activists seeking greater political power. A contested redistricting process in early 1971 led to more opportunities for black candidates to win election to the Council.[@price_3rd_bard_1971; @price_3rd_negro_1971; @price_3rd_districting_1971] By October, anticipating the near certain outcome of the election based on the results of the Democratic primary, the *Sun* wrote:

> The Baltimore City Council, an exclusively Democratic province since before World War II, seem likely to be controlled for the first time by a coalition of liberal whites and Negroes no matter what the outcome of the general election.[@_negro-white_1971]

Across the country, between 1964 and 1975, the number of African American elected officials grew from 100 to almost 3,000 (135 of them mayors) but the first black mayor in Baltimore was not elected until Kurt Schmoke in 1987.[@williams_politics_2004, 233] 

Even as African Americans sought greater political power, the city itself experienced a precipitous drop in total population. Between 1970 and 1980, Baltimore City lost over 110,000 residents. At the same time, African American residents became a majority of the city's population.

| Census Year | Total Population  (Baltimore City) | African American population as share of total | Change since prior census |
| ----------- | ---------------------------------: | ---------------------------------------: | ------------------------: |
| 1960        |                            939,024 |                                   34.67% |                    -1.12% |
| 1970        |                            905,759 |                                   46.39% |                    -3.54% |
| 1980        |                            786,775 |                                   54.80% |                   -13.14% |

 *Data courtesy [NHGIS](https://www.nhgis.org/).*

Changes in the city's population were driven by the thousands of white Baltimoreans who moved out to the surrounding suburbs—an option that was largely unavailable for African Americans. As early as 1970, a pattern of racially segregated development in Baltimore County led to hearings by the Maryland Civil Rights Commission at the Social Security Administration headquarters in Woodlawn documenting how county officials had opposed open housing, discouraged affordable housing development, and displaced existing black communities .[@pietila_not_2010, 234; @maryland_state_advisory_committee_to_the_u.s._commission_on_civil_rights_zoning_1971] Unfortunately, the growing awareness of the issue did little to reverse the trends with local elected officials who avoided making any substantial reforms to policies around zoning, public housing, or school desegregation.

| Census Year | Total Population (MSA except Baltimore City) | African American population as share of total | Change since prior census |
| ----------- | ---------------------------------------: | ---------------------------------------: | ------------------------: |
| 1960        |                                  881,290 |                                    7.55% |                    68.81% |
| 1970        |                                  905,759 |                                    6.25% |                    34.27% |
| 1980        |                                1,412,756 |                                    9.11% |                    19.39% |

 *Data courtesy [NHGIS](https://www.nhgis.org). Data for 1960 only shows percent non-white population rather than percent African American.*^[For this analysis, the data includes Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County, Howard County, and Queen Anne's County (the present day MSA) going back to 1960.]

 <!-- NOTE: What happened to poverty and employment in this period? How does the city deal with job loss and revenue loss? -->

The following sections document the significance of these changes and their relationship to places associated with the Civil Rights movement. After reviewing the range of associated places in this period, this study explores several themes in more detail including:

- The changing leadership and organization of the Civil Rights movement in Baltimore. How was the movement shaped by Black Power? How did the movement intersect with social movements for feminism, LGBTQ rights, disability rights, and others?
- The shift by Civil Rights activists to focus on community and economic development. How did approaches to community development address the legacies of segregation and discrimination? How did people reinvest in historically segregated neighborhoods? How did people address the withdrawal of white residents and white-controlled businesses and institutions from those same neighborhoods?
- The failure to end persistent racial segregation in both schools and housing. What did government and community groups do to address segregation? Why did their efforts largely fail? 
- The impact of police surveillance and the role of police violence in shaping Civil Rights activism during this period.
- The intersection of the Civil Rights movement with visual and performing arts and cultural heritage institutions. How are African Americans and African American culture and history represented? How does it appear in public art, monuments, and the preservation of historic places associated with African Americans in Baltimore?

## Associated Places

<!-- NOTE: What places were demolished in this period? How were black communities in Baltimore County affected by the development of I-695 and other suburban projects? -->

The places associated with the Civil Rights movement in this period include private homes adopted by radical activist organizations, unassuming offices and storefronts put to work for community organizing, and new buildings erected to promote economic opportunity for black Baltimoreans. In contrast to earlier in the twentieth century, where buildings such as churches or homes for activists developed long-term associations with the Civil Rights movement, many buildings were only associated with the movement for a brief time. In addition, the expanding scope of urban renewal and demolition led to the loss of a number of significant structures. Fortunately, these losses lent a needed urgency to the task of preserving and interpreting buildings associated with African American history in Baltimore—an effort that emerged concurrently with the modern historic preservation movement. 

Examples of buildings associated with Civil Rights activist groups include the numerous structures used by the Baltimore Branch of the Black Panther Party between the earliest organization of the chapter in 1968 and group's end in 1972. Over those four years, the group organized classes, community support activities, and protests at dozens of different buildings. The group initially grew out of the Soul School located at 522 North Fremont Avenue near the George P. Murphy Homes. The first formal chapter headquarters was a house at 1209 North Eden Street and the members began organizing free breakfast and lunch programs at St. Martin de Porres Recreation Hall (located in the former St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church; a building occupied in 2017 by Sweet Prospect Baptist Church). By 1970, the headquarters (also referenced as a "Black Community Information Center") had moved to a rented house at 1248 N. Gay Street.[@holter_vanguard_2017, 42, 59, 128; @mccutchen_black_2004] 

Other buildings are associated with public agencies, such as the Community Action Agency (CAA) directed by <NAME>. The CAA (and the succeeding Model Cities Agency and the Baltimore Urban Services Agency both directed by Ivey), worked to meet the needs of Baltimore residents by bringing services out into city neighborhoods.[@faust_neighborhood_2015, 55] Baltimore historian and archivist Aiden Faust describes the network of twenty-three neighborhood centers writing:

> These centers were distributed across the city, with higher concentrations in East and West Baltimore, where the poorest neighborhoods were (and still are) concentrated. The centers occupied repurposed churches, storefronts, libraries, public baths, or (in the case of Dunbar) associated with an existing public high school. These diverse settings served as multipurpose centers for many programs and classes for children, teens, senior citizens, young mothers, the homeless, and families in crisis. Food pantries, yoga classes, poetry readings, dance performances, legal assistance, home heating assistance, library services, and many more programmatic offerings coexisted in these spaces.[@faust_neighborhood_2015, 55-56]

In addition to these neighborhood centers, Model Cities established six "Community Councils" which became seen as "centers of black political activity" and were "eyed with concern by City Councilmen and the local media." Consequently, in 1976, Lenwood Ivey shut down the Community Councils, a controversial decision that was "decidedly unpopular with residents and Council staff."[@faust_neighborhood_2015, 58]

Public buildings were common sites for protest, as well as organizing. For example, in August 1968, the Upton Planning Committee threatened a boycott of Lafayette Market (now known as the Avenue Market) on Pennsylvania Avenue in a successful effort to force improvements in the conditions of the market.[@_boycott_1968]

![11 E. Mount Royal Avenue (built as the Zell Motor Car Company showroom) served as the headquarters for the Baltimore Urban Services Agency from 1974 to 1980. Photograph by <NAME>, 2015 December 27. Courtesy [Baltimore Heritage](https://www.flickr.com/photos/baltimoreheritage/24356744702/) ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)).](https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1657/24356744702_68def93e10_b.jpg)

The shifting expectations of how Civil Rights activism took shape also affected some of the places with long-established associations with the Civil Rights movement, such as in June 1968, when Rev. <NAME>, the new pastor at Bethel AME Church, affirmed the church's plans to make the church "of utmost service to the poor, the hopeless and the oppressed."[@oliver_new_1968]

Civil Rights organizing also took place in buildings associated with the peace movement and other radical political and social movements. One example is the Peace Action Center at 2525 Maryland Avenue described by <NAME> as the "locus for the city's antiwar movement". The Center provided office and meeting space, a mimeograph machine, and a paid full-time staff person, <NAME>, for the Baltimore Defense Committee and *Peace and Freedom News*, "Baltimore's first underground newspaper". Whitman's salary was funded by a "progressive peace tax paid by the BDC's members".[@zanoni_working_2013, 34, 69] Other examples are found through the Catholic workers movement including Viva House located at 26 S. Mount Street in southwest Baltimore since 1970.

Businesses and institutions also responded to the currents of Civil Rights activism. One notable example is Super Pride—a local grocery store chain established by <NAME> (1915-1991) in 1970 when he took over the bankrupt “Super Jet Market” located on East Chase Street. Burns restored the business to profitability within three years—despite encountering food companies that refused to work with a black-owned store. Burns had started in the grocery business around 1921 delivering groceries for the small store his grandfather owned on Dolphin Street. He sold vegetables, produce and fish out of the back of a cart during high school and college then later became the co-owner of Hilton Court Chain of Ethical Pharmacies – a business that according to Burns' obituary, “catered to the needs of black consumers at a time when white-owned businesses ignored them.”[@robinson_charles_1991] Between 1970 and 1990, Super Pride grew to seven locations, employing more than 400 people, and making over $43 million in annual sales. Under Burns' leadership, Super Pride sponsored Black History Month activities and supported the Arena Players. By the late 1990s, however, the business struggled to compete against national chains and the city's shrinking population. In the fall of 2000, Super Pride closed all eight of its locations and, in November, held an auction to liquidate the stores and their remaining equipment to satisfy creditors.[@sentementes_super_2000]

Other black-owned businesses found success in marketing traditional southern cooking as "soul food". Popular options for local diners included Sampson's located at 944 W. Fayette Street, the Red Rooster Restaurant and Lounge at 1801 McKean Avenue, and the Yellow Bowl on Greenmount Avenue. According to one 1973 article, soul food was also a regular offering at many of the approximately two hundred storefront churches active in the early 1970s.[@pietila_storefront_1973] 

Another example is found in a March 1971 *Sun* profile of pharmacist <NAME>, owner of the forty-year-old Penn-Dol Pharmacy, and his investment in a new building at Pennsylvania Avenue and Dolphin Street.^[As of 2017, the building at 1133 Pennsylvania Avenue is occupied by Best Care Pharmacy]. The report noted Schumer's sale of the store's "sundries section to several black employees who had been with him for a number of years" and observed, "The interior of the pharmacy resembles the orderly kind of drug store one expects to find in the affluent white suburbs."[@_white_1971]

In this same period, a large number of buildings associated with African American history in Baltimore were demolished to make way for transportation and "urban renewal projects". Between 1973 and 1977, nine hundred and seventy-one rowhouses and sixty-two businesses came down in West Baltimore to make way for the partial construction of the East-West Expressway.[@dilts_3-road_1973] Hundreds of more houses at the edges of downtown fell for the construction of <NAME> Boulevard beginning in 1976.[@dilts_residents_1975] In 1971, the city tore down the much-beloved Royal Theatre at 1329 Pennsylvania Avenue. One 1986 account, recalled the Royal as "the brightest gem along the cultural and business strip that made Pennsylvania Avenue the nucleus of Baltimore's black community from the 1920s through the 1960s". The author attributed the theater's decline to both the integration of other theaters in Baltimore in the 1960s and the competition from the opening of the Civic Centre (now the Baltimore Arena) in 1962.[@giuliano_royal_1986]

African American communities in Baltimore County also saw a significant amount of demolition in this period. In the African American community of East Towson, for example, numerous homes and public buildings (such as the East Towson Child Development Center at 102 E. Pennsylvania Avenue) were demolished but several others survived, including the St. James African United Methodist Protestant Church (built 1881, enlarged in 1906, and renovated in 1968) at 415 Jefferson Avenue the Carver High School/East Towson Carver Community Center (built in 1939) at 300 Lennox Avenue.[@eht_traceries_carver_2001]

This push to build new roads through largely African American neighborhoods met with strong resistance by anti-highway activists and from black Baltimoreans seeking to preserve historic places associated with African American history in Baltimore. In some cases, they found allies with Baltimore Heritage established in 1960, the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) established in 1964, the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) established in 1966, and the Commission on Negro History and Culture (later renamed the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture (MCAAHC)) established in 1969.

The most prominent of these early efforts was the Committee for the Preservation of Orchard Street Church, organized in the fall of 1972 and led by Mrs. <NAME>.[@_historic_1972; @_old_1973; @pietila_black_1974; @arnett_church_1976]<!-- Add more detail on the Orchard Street Church preservation efforts. --> The National Register of Historic Places provided an important tool for recognizing and protecting African American landmarks including Orchard Street United Methodist Church (designated November 12, 1975), Public School No. 111 at N. Carrollton Avenue and Riggs Road (designated September 25, 1979), Cummins Memorial Church at 1210 W. Lanvale Street (designated October 31, 1979), and the Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church and Community House (designated July 21, 1982). In the 1970s, CHAP designated several local landmarks associated with African American history in Baltimore including Bethel A.M.E. Church (1300 Druid Hill Avenue) and Ebenezer A.M.E. Church (18 W. Montgomery Street) in 1971 and Sharon Baptist Church (1373 N. Stricker Street) and First Baptist Church (525 N. Caroline Street) in 1977. CHAP designated Madison Park as the city's first historic district occupied largely by African American residents also in 1977.

![CHAP designed First Baptist Church (1880) at 525 N. Caroline Street as a local landmark in 1977. Photograph by <NAME>, 2017 June 1. Courtesy Baltimore Heritage ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)).](https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4249/34649587930_aa889fb313_b.jpg)
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