Jul 2, 2014

Fifty years ago this week the Civil Rights Act of 1964 voided all discriminatory laws (de jure segregation) in the public arena. It went a step further than each of its predecessors of 1866, 1871, 1875, 1957 and 1960 by outlawing racial segregation in schools, the workplace and other public spaces. Considered the most important act in its lineage, ponder for a moment the fact that America, land of the free, required at least five more acts of congress to even begin moving toward equality for all.

For those keeping score at home, there was the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Civil Rights bills passed in 1968 (Fair Housing), 1987 (featuring an override of President Reagan’s veto), 1990 (job discrimination), and 1991 (right to trial by jury in discrimination cases).

It’s important to remember and celebrate this important legislation. But equally important is to remember the struggle that led to it, the people behind the scenes, and what came after. To commemorate this anniversary, Joe Tropea, the Curator of Films & Photographs, and Digital Projects Coordinator at the Maryland Historical Society, selected photographs from three MdHS collections (Paul Henderson, Richard Childress, and Theodore McKeldin) that highlight the struggle, high and low points, and remind us of what it means to be human.

: Paul Robeson (second from left) is joined by Dr. John E. T. Camper, Chairman of the Citizens Committee for Justice (fourth from left) and—we believe—a young A. Robert Kauffman of Interracial Fellowship Youth (fifth from left). (Paul S. Henderson, March 1948, Maryland Historical Society)
The protest of Ford’s Theatre, which began in 1946 because it required African-Americans to sit in the balcony, lasted seven years and ultimately succeeded. Many of the popular plays during this time bypassed Baltimore because producers and actors would not abide by the theater’s segregation policy. Others, such as actor/opera singer Paul Robeson (second from left), came to Baltimore specifically to protest. The Ford’s demonstrations were led by the Jackson and Mitchell families, NAACP, and Interracial Fellowship Youth (with A. Robert Kauffman as president, possibly fifth from left) and benefited from celebrity power from the likes of Robeson and Bayard Rustin. In 1953, Governor Theodore McKeldin, who served as Mayor of Baltimore before and after he held the office of governor, received the Hollander Foundation Award for his leadership and particularly for his help in integrating Ford’s Theatre.

: One of the first major battles of the Baltimore Branch NAACP was to champion the cause of black teachers in public schools who received lesser salaries than their white counterparts. The NAACP fought for equal pay, equal facilities for learning, and equal teacher-training programs. The backdrop of this particular protest, Frederick Douglass High School, was established in 1883 as the Colored High and Training School and is the second oldest historically integrated high school in the country. Prior to desegregation, it was one of only two high schools (in Baltimore) open to black students. Parren J. Mitchell, seen here at far left, graduated from Douglass High School in 1940 and in 1970 went on to become Maryland’s first black member of Congress. (Paul S. Henderson, October 1948, Maryland Historical Society)

: Despite being fully qualified academically, Esther McCready (below, third from left) was denied admission to the University of Maryland School of Nursing solely because of the color of her skin. Seen here with NAACP attorneys, Thurgood Marshall (fourth from left) and Donald Gaines Murray (second from right), McCready sued the university for admission based on the argument that she was not provided “equal protection under the law” (McCready v. Byrd, 1949) and was forced to pursue her education out-of-state where blacks were accepted while her white counterparts were being trained in state. (Paul S. Henderson, July 1948, Maryland Historical Society)

: Esther McCready (third from left), Harry A. Cole (behind McCready), Thurgood Marshall (fifth from left), Linwood Koger (sixth from left), Hiram Whittle (sixth from right), Darnall Stewart (fifth from right), James “Biddy” Wood (third from right), Donald Gaines Murray (second from right), and Parren Mitchell (far right). (Paul S. Henderson, September, 1950)
By 1951, Hiram Whittle, who sought to enroll as an undergraduate in the College of Engineering, and future Congressman Parren Mitchell, who sought to enter a graduate sociology program, had won their respective cases.

: Governor Lane meets with the Board of Cheltenham School for Boys. (Paul S. Henderson, February 1951, Maryland Historical Society)
In 1948, Governor William Preston Lane Jr., seated second from right, appointed nine African-Americans to the Board of Trustees for Cheltenham School for Boys after the entire board resigned. The long-troubled correctional institution for young black males was in dire straits and often criticized as a penal work farm rather than training school when the new board took over.

: Baltimore Sun photographer Dick Childress finds members of Baltimore CORE smoking and chatting on a sidewalk, possibly during a demonstration. While we don’t know the exact date and most of the men are not identified in this picture, the two men in the center are Walter Samuel Brooks (left), Baltimore CORE director, and Daniel Gant (right).

: Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer speaks at a Baltimore-area CORE meeting. The date and location were not recorded by the photographer, Richard Childress. (Maryland Historical Society)

: Stokely Carmichael loosens his tie while speaking at a Baltimore CORE Convention. Carmichael made appearances at Metropolitan Methodist Church and Morgan State. (Richard Childress, Maryland Historical Society)

: A CORE member watches infamous white supremacist and failed gubernatorial candidate Charles J. Luthardt protest a CORE event. (Richard Childress, Maryland Historical Society)
Luthardt, a Glen Burnie resident, often visited the neighborhoods surrounding Patterson Park in his truck equipped with loudspeakers that he used to spout hate speech and play racist records, which he also sold. He was the chairman of the Fighting American Nationalists, but at these impromptu rallies his audience often consisted of Baltimore teenagers gathering around his truck. He believed the city was in the midst of a race war and in 1966 ran for governor on a platform of issuing guns to all white citizens at the state’s expense.

: Mayor Theodore McKeldin awards Mrs. Jennie Gaines the first grant from the Baltimore Urban Renewal and Housing Authority. (Nat Lipsitz, January 14, 1966, Maryland Historical Society)
Mrs. Jennie Gaines, homeowner, 515 North Carey Street (Harlem Park neighborhood) was the first person to receive a Federal Rehabilitation grant in the Mid-Atlantic region. Gaines was a 69-year-old widower who inherited her house from her mother and lived on Social Security. She used the grant to improve her home. McKeldin is seen delivering her award and holding a copy of his 1964 MdHS-published book, No Mean City.

: Mayor Theodore McKeldin greets A. Philip Randolph at a White House conference on Civil Rights in 1966. Randolph was a union organizer, radical publisher, and strong believer in collective activism as a means for African-Americans to gain full equality. Together with Bayard Rustin and A. J. Muste, he organized a proposed march on Washington that pressured President Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802 (Fair Employment Act, 1941) which banned racial discrimination in war industries. In 1948 when President Truman needed black support to win reelection, Randolph urged him to issue Executive Order 9981 that desegregated the military. (Nat Lipsitz, June 1-2, 1966, Maryland Historical Society)

: After receiving ”the treatment” from his close friend, President Lyndon Baines Johnson, frequent White House visitor Whitney Young is greeted warmly by Mayor McKeldin, who may have come bearing gifts, according to this photo. Young is best known as the Executive Director of the National Urban League and is credited with transforming it from a relatively moderate organization to one that fought aggressively for economic opportunities for African-Americans. (Nat Lipsitz, January 1-2, 1966, Maryland Historical Society)

Joe Tropea is the Curator of Films & Photographs, and Digital Projects Coordinator at the Maryland Historical Society. You can read more from this post on the historical society blog here.

Baltimoreans reflect on Civil Rights era and their struggles for equality

Capturing the Movement: Before and After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in Photographs

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