Our kick-off event for CSJ 2015 just ended and our brains are still buzzing. Dr. Kelber-Kaye, Associate Director of the Honors College, gave us a history lesson about Baltimore to give context to and explain why things are the way they are in Baltimore City. This information is an excellent foundation of knowledge to have when talking about Baltimore and to take with you to all of our other CSJ events.

Missed the event? No worries! Below is a recap of all the important information. It’s a little longer than most of our blog posts, but all of the information is important. We’ve written it in an outline form to make it easier to read.

Books you absolutely need to read about Baltimore:

1. Black Baltimore: A New Theory of Community
2. The Baltimore Book: New Views of Local History
3. Baltimore ‘68

The Kerner Report, published in 1968, was the first report of its kind to blame structural inequalities for issues like crime, poverty, and public health among African American communities. Previously, these issues had been blamed on individual communities and black people themselves. This excerpt from the Kerner Report sets the tone for the information you need to know about Baltimore and Baltimore history:

“What White Americans have never fully understood– but what the Negro can never forget– is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.”

As Dr. K said, when we blame people and not structure, we’ve decided we didn’t cause it and we don’t have to do anything about it. This history lesson shows how structures built on racism led to today’s conditions.

• 1700s
  • Baltimore is very small; it is made up of mostly Fells Point and Harbor East.
  • Grain production increases in northern Baltimore County.
    • Grain producers begin using the port of Baltimore to export grain.
    • This activity inspires the rise of the shipbuilding industry in Baltimore.
    • Industrial jobs draw free Blacks and ethnic whites (Irish, Eastern European, etc) to the city.
    • Whites begin to move to the city in search of entrepreneurial endeavors, many involving the utilization of slave labor.
• 1800s
  • In Baltimore City in 1810, the number of free blacks equals the number of slaves. (Baltimore is the only place in the US where this occurs.)
  • 1830 saw the decline in slavery in Baltimore City.
    • Whites realized paying ethnic whites small wages for jobs was cheaper than keeping slaves.
    • Competition for jobs and housing created a rift between blacks and ethnic whites.
      • Mobs and gangs of ethnic whites begin to form among groups in the manufacturing industry. These mobs use violence and intimidation to keep free Blacks out of the industry and out of the competition for jobs.
      • South Baltimore became predominantly ethnically white because people lived where they worked and the white mobs and gangs had intimidated African Americans out of the industry in that area.
    • Increases in industry increased population
      • Overcrowding and poor living conditions in Baltimore City “slums” lead to disease and poor sanitation.
      • Estates north of the harbor sell their land to developers who build neighborhoods to house the growing population.
      • Using the rhetoric of “Public Health” and blaming individuals for the poor conditions in industrial “slums,” developers are able to keep ethnic whites and blacks out of these new neighborhoods.
• 1900s
  • In 1910, the first residential segregation law in the US was passed in Baltimore City.
    • Blacks could not live on a majority white block; whites could not live on a majority black block.
    • This law was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1917, but racist segregation practices continued. (Some examples are below; this happened in a lot of other ways, too.)
      • Relators would not sell houses to blacks on white blocks or discouraged whites from buying in black areas.
      • Police and home inspectors would seek out and trouble white landlords renting to black people in white areas.
  • 1937: Post-Great Depression Redlining
    • The Federal Home Loan Organization, which later became the Federal Housing Association, worked with local mortgage brokers to outline housing districts.
    • Redlines were drawn around poor, black neighborhoods and divided the city into districts
      • Districts were classified based on crime, sanitation, median income, and “undesirable populations” aka black people.
      • Redlining policy explicitly condoned and encouraged the continuation of the racist and biased housing practices which resulted from the end of Baltimore housing segregation legislation.
      • Mortgage brokers gave different interest rates to different homeowners based on race and district.
      • Neighborhoods within redlines, the poor and/or black neighborhoods, received higher interest rates which made it significantly more difficult for the people in those areas to buy homes.
  • Why is home ownership so important?
    • It’s part of the “American Dream.”
    • Gives people stable housing conditions
    • Allows for wealth accumulation
      • Houses can be passed down through generations. Once it’s paid off, a house is pure asset. Even when someone is cash poor, they will still have housing and a form of wealth.
  • WWII
    • The wartime economy booms.
      • Bethlehem Steel brings more jobs to Baltimore City.
      • People live where they work, integrating some of the neighborhoods around industrial centers.
      • Unionization brings fairer wages to industrial workers.
      • Bethlehem Steel has the first integrated union.
  • Post war economic downturn
    • Population increases
    • Manufacturing jobs decrease
  • Urban renewal plans of the 1940s and ‘50s
    • After the post war economic decline, Baltimore City policymakers create programs for “Urban Renewal.”
      • The city purchases older, more run-down homes at low, unfair prices.
      • City blocks are flattened and new homes are built.
      • The original homeowners who were displaced are not able to afford the newer, more expensive homes.
      • As a result of urban renewal plans across the county, hundreds of thousands of people are displaced. 58% of them are black.
  • 1960s
    • Anger is building as unfair housing conditions worsen in Baltimore City and the Civil Rights Movement grows.
    • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in April of 1968.
      • Anger, exhaustion, and desperation trigger riots in Baltimore city.
    • People leave the city in droves and head for the county.
      • Whites move north, centrally.
      • Everyone else moves outward into the suburbs.
  • 1970s economic downturn
    • Public housing projects are implemented to better the housing conditions.
      • Old public housing is torn down and replaced, but with less units than before.
      • More people are displaced and begin to overcrowd neighborhoods again.
    • Banks use the opportunity to provide subprime mortgages to vulnerable populations desperately looking for housing.
      • People who got mortgages they couldn’t afford lose their homes and even more people are displaced and left with massive debt.
• Today
  • 2010-2013
    • Median household wealth for Black folks in Baltimore is one third of what it used to be.
    • The income gap between whites and blacks is the widest it’s been in 30 years.
    • Life expectancy can vary by as much as 20 years between baltimore city neighborhoods.
      • Life expectancy varies based on factors like living conditions, rates of violent crime, access to water and healthy food, and access to healthcare, among others.
      • The median annual income in the state of Maryland is $73,538 compared to Baltimore City at $41,000. 23% of Baltimore city residents live below the poverty line compared to 9.8% of Maryland overall.

If you want to know more about structural inequality in Baltimore City, check out these links:

1. A large, interactive archive of information and personal testimony surrounding the Baltimore ‘68 riots.
2. Original 1937 Redline Districting Map (click to download)
3. Interactive map of inequality in city neighborhoods
4. Another, more in-depth interactive map of inequalities
5. Map of life expectancy by neighborhood

A guest post from Dr. Kate Drabinski

As someone who doesn’t own a car, I travel my bike and foot, bus and train, the occasional ride thrown in by a generous driver. Truth is, even if I had a car, I’d still travel without one, because that’s how you get a sense of where you live. Walking and biking in Baltimore has helped me understand how neighborhoods are organized, segregated, and cut off from each other by streets, transit systems, and urban planning policies. Cities look like they do not by accident or as the result of a series of individual choices, but because of planning decisions and the choices that follow. Even when we “choose” where to live, work, and play, our choices are circumscribed by stories space tells us about whether or not “we” belong. In a car you don’t have to see that, but walking or on bike, you become intimately familiar with the changes that take place as you get from here to there.

MLK Blvd separates and isolates the west side of Baltimore from downtown.  Read more at the Baltimore Brew by clicking on the image.

The separation of West Baltimore from the downtown area is particularly striking to me, the two sides of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard like two different worlds. UMBC’s downtown shuttle drops students, faculty, and staff on the east side of that divide, but both sides are integral to our lived sense of the city, belonging, and who are our neighbors. This walking tour will take us along MLK and both east and west as we learn about the history of this stripe that has made all the difference for difference.

To learn more about the neighborhoods we’ll be visiting during the walking tour, check out these resources:

• David Harvey’s article A View From Federal Hill
• The Battles of Lexington: City Paper goes deep inside and under Baltimore’s oldest market
• Where a 1997 Lonely Planet Guide Will Take You Today in Baltimore 

To learn more about Baltimore be sure to check out the kick-off to #CSJ365, Baltimore 101: Why Baltimore Matters on Monday, October 19th at 12pm.

Tickets for the #CSJ365 walking tour are going fast! If you want to join us on Friday, October 23rd, pick up your free ticket at the Commons CIC desk asap! 

Get ready for Critical Social Justice: Baltimore 365 with our “What You Need to Know” series. 

Delegate Mary Washington 

State Delegate Mary Washington represents the 43rd district of Maryland, which comprises of most of North Central and Northeast Baltimore (for those familiar with the city, that’s North Ave to the northern border and west from Harford to North Charles).

First elected in 2010 and again in 2014, Del. Washington is not Maryland’s first openly gay lawmaker. She is, however, the first black openly gay member of the Maryland General Assembly and the second openly gay black woman to be elected to US state legislature.

As a Maryland lawmaker, Del. Washington’s stated goals include “urban environmental education, equality for all, and improving quality of life and sustainability of Baltimore neighborhoods.” In 2013, she established the Task Force to Study Housing and Supportive Services for Unaccompanied Homeless Youth which continued into 2014 along with additional efforts focused on youth homelessness.

A dialogue with Maryland State Delegate Mary Washington about LGBTQ youth homelessness will be held on Monday, October 19th at 7pm in the Commons 329. 

For more on Delegate Mary Washington, check out:

• Her bio and campaign website
• Sunday Q&A video about her work on youth homelessness

LGBTQ Homelessness in Baltimore

According to the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, an estimated 20-40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ. A Canadian study found that LGBTQ homeless youth are three times more likely to participate in survival sex.

LGBTQ homeless people are at risk for violence and often face discrimination in shelters, especially those with strong religious affiliations. Being homeless as a trans person is even riskier as many shelters are gender-segregated, putting many trans people at risk for assault and sexual violence. There are no LGBTQ specific shelters in Baltimore, although homeless LGBTQ youth can drop-in at the GLBT Community Center for resources and support during the day.

For more on LGBTQ homelessness, check out:

• The Gay and Lesbian Task Force study on LGBT youth homelessness
• Washington Blade article about LGBT poverty in Baltimore
• Baltimore Sun article about advocacy for homeless youth

As we count down to the Critical Social Justice: Baltimore 365 keynote event “Baltimore in Action: Always Rising” on Tuesday, October 20th, we’ll be profiling all of our keynote speakers in our “What You Need to Know” series. 

Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III

Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III

Rev. Dr. Heber M. Brown, III is the Senior Pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore and a Team Leader of Baltimore United for Change – a coalition of activists and organizations working for social justice. As a clergy-activist, Dr. Brown has demonstrated a deep commitment to social justice. He has traveled throughout the U.S. and world speaking about poverty, racism, white privilege, the prison industrial complex, worker’s rights, environmental justice, sexism, food sovereignty and foreign policy. He is also a critical community organizer in Baltimore who is actively involved in grassroots and legislative advocacy. Between 2009 and 2013, he was a central figure in the campaign to halt the construction of a $100 million dollar youth jail in Baltimore.

“… the state is ready to spend millions of dollars to build a world-class prison, but we don’t have world-class schools and we don’t have world-class recreation centers, we don’t have world-class job opportunities, 21st-century job opportunities for our young people.. †

Dr. Brown is also committed to mentoring the next generation of change makers in Baltimore City. He is the Founding Director of Orita’s Cross Freedom School – a multi-site program which embraces African Heritage and Black History. More recently he also launched the Black Church Food Security Network which links Black Churches and Black Farmers in partnership to create a community-controlled, alternative food system based on self-sufficiency, food justice and food sovereignty.

“…normal prior to Freddie Gray [uprising] was unaccepatale, was inhumane, was cruel, as unjust. So we cannot go back to a normal. We have to recreate a new normal.” †

For more on Heber Brown, check out:

• His about.me page
• Follow him on Twitter and check out his YouTube channel 
• From the Marc Steiner Show –  Sound Bites: The Black Church Food Security Network

As we count down to the Critical Social Justice: Baltimore 365 keynote event “Baltimore in Action: Always Rising” on Tuesday, October 20th, we’ll be profiling all of our keynote speakers in our “What You Need to Know” series. This specific post will focus on a Baltimore neighborhood that plays an important role in the activism work of keynote panelist, Marisela B. Gomez. 

Middle East Baltimore 

Middle East Baltimore

Once a healthy working-class community, Middle East Baltimore has suffered from decades of disinvestment resulting in poverty, drugs, and violence. Just north of Johns Hopkins Hospital, the area occupies 20 square blocks within East Baltimore. It is bordered by Madison on the south end, Broadway on the west, the Amtrak railroads in the north, and Patterson Park on the east end. Most of its community members identify as African-American and low-income.

In 2001, the neighborhood was targeted for rebuilding and the expansion of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institution complex and would use the city’s powers of eminent domain to take over the properties to do so. Residents were not consulted about the proposed project and learned of it only through an article in the Baltimore Sun. Marisela B. Gomez and several others in the community organized together and formed the Save Middle East Action Committee to ensure the voices and experiences of residents being forced to move would be heard and considered by key stakeholders moving the project forward.

Quick Facts about Middle East Baltimore in the early 2000s: †

• Between 1990 and 2000 the population in the Middle East Baltimore community decreased by 45%. This was the greatest decline in population compared to any other area in Baltimore.
• In 2001, the reported rate of abandoned houses in East Baltimore was 13% but in Middle East rates were as high as 80%. Only 3 out of 10 houses were occupied in the area.
• Middle East residents had some of the worst health indicators in the United States.
• The local area public schools enrolled more than 70% of children qualifying for federally assisted free and reduced-price school meals.
• In Baltimore City, 25% of its residents had not graduated from high school. In Middle East, 49% of its residents had not graduated.
• The average household income for a Middle East resident was $29,000 compared to the Baltimore average of $55,000.

Depending on who you are or who you ask, you will receive a different story about Middle East Baltimore and its John Hopkins neighbor. Some will call it an investment, revitalization, and urban renewal. Others see it as destructive and unfair gentrification with deep racist and classist roots. To some it provides hope and to others it provides loss of community and a loss of home. It is a story worth unpacking and one that calls for a critical social justice lens.

“They argued that the law was allowing the city to take private property ‘for the pubic good.’ But exactly who is was the ‘public’ who would benefit if its residents were being forced to relocate with no plan for how they could return to benefit from this good?”†

Middle East Baltimore

For more on Middle East Baltimore, check out:

• Race, Class, Power, and Organizing in East Baltimore by Marisela B. Gomez (which is the source for all stats and information for this post) 
• Rebuilding the Middle East – a November 2008 article
• The Great East Baltimore Raze-and-Rebuild – a July 2013 article
• A Baltimore Brew take on Gomez’s book and the history of Middle East’s dislocation
• To learn more about Marisela B. Gomez, visit her #CSJ365 What You Need to Know post

As we count down to the Critical Social Justice: Baltimore 365 keynote event “Baltimore in Action: Always Rising” on Tuesday, October 20th, we’ll be profiling all of our keynote speakers in our “What You Need to Know” series. 

Jacqueline Robarge  

As a feminist, survivor, and activist, Jacqueline Robarge has spent more than two decades working to end gendered violence and oppression. Her work has included trauma healing and justice projects, white anti-racism organizing, action research, and a range of human rights advocacy.

I love the people here [in Baltimore]. I love the history of resistance here. †

Jacqueline is currently the executive director of Power Inside, a Baltimore harm reduction and human rights organization that she founded in 2001. Power Inside serves women and girls impacted by incarceration, street life, and abuse by providing direct client services, advocacy, leadership development, and public education to work toward systemic change.

I keep going back to that vow that I’ve committed my life to service. I think how lucky I am that I know what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life. †

In her role as an appointed member of the Maryland Statewide Prisoner Reentry Task Force and the Governor’s Commission to Reform Maryland’s Pretrial System, she advocated for reform of policies that give rise to preemptive arrests and mass incarceration of people of color and people with disabilities.

For more on Jacqueline, check out:

• This fantastic activist profile on Unsung Baltimore
• Volunteer opportunities with Power Inside

As we count down to the Critical Social Justice: Baltimore 365 keynote event “Baltimore in Action: Always Rising” on Tuesday, October 20th, we’ll be profiling all of our keynote speakers in our “What You Need to Know” series. 

Kwame Rose 

Kwame Rose is a social activist and hip-hop artist who’s probably best known for his encounter with Geraldo Rivera of Fox News when he called out the mainstream media’s inaccurate representation of the city and the protestors during the Baltimore Uprising. Since then he’s emerged as a leading voice among those demanding justice and an end to racist policing.

There had been almost two weeks of peaceful demonstrations before the mainstream media poured into Baltimore, and it wasn’t until windows started being broken that anybody tuned in and gave a damn. †

Kwame’s passion for social justice advocacy is also evident in his music, particularly his track “State of Emergency,” which talks about the work to be done in Baltimore even after the cameras stop rolling.

As he’s grown into his role as a leader and community organizer at just 21 years old, Kwame has remained outspoken in his commitment to fostering civic engagement among Baltimore youth, and he’s currently developing his own youth-based advocacy group called VOICES (Vocalizing Our Intelligence Creating Effective Solutions).

For more on Kwame, check out:

• His essay “Why I Protest” in City Paper
• His blog and Twitter
• His EP “Active(ist)” on Soundcloud

As we count down to the Critical Social Justice: Baltimore 365 keynote event “Baltimore in Action: Always Rising” on Tuesday, October 20th, we’ll be profiling all of our keynote speakers in our “What You Need to Know” series. 

Marisela B. Gomez, activist, public health professional, and author

Marisela B. Gomez is a community activist, author, public health professional, and physician scientist. She received a BS and MS from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, a PHD, MD, and MPH from the Johns Hopkins University. Of Afro-Latina ancestry, she has spent more than 20 years in Baltimore involved in social justice activism and community building/health research and practice.

Meet Marisela!

Some of her most notable work includes working on and leading the Save Middle East Action Committee which was created by residents living north of the Johns Hopkins Medical Center in an area called Middle East in response to learning the area would become the future site of a $1.8 billion redevelopment project known as the John Hopkins Biotech Park. Marisela was interestingly positioned in this battle as she was a resident of the area and a community member of the Johns Hopkins Medical Center. She would later go on to write a book about the organizing experience, the historical disinvestment of Middle East, and the ongoing consequences of race, economic, and institutional power inequities faced by marginalized communities.

“Supposed you learned about your community like they did, through The Sun [paper]?… You don’t stop big projects initiated by Johns Hopkins University. But you can slow it down, you can seek to change the dollar amount of those whose homes are to be used and you can still struggle for the right of re-entry. You can still fight to make sure the residents who are to be moved out can stay in the neighborhood.” †

Since 2004, she has been studying and practicing mindfulness and other forms of meditation around the world. Most recently, she’s been sharing her meditation practices with activists doing racial justice and social justice work through retreats and workshops with the Baltimore community.

An important read about the confrontation between the fragile and distressed Middle East neighborhood of Baltimore and the city’s most powerful institutions, including the closest neighborhood, Johns Hopkins Medical.

Much of the conversation about Baltimore — especially in the aftermath of the April uprisings — centers around West Baltimore while little attention from national and local media is given to the issues facing East Baltimore. The Critical Social Justice planning committee is excited to have Marisela join our keynote panel and give voice to the experiences of the East Baltimore community. Moreover, we are eager to learn ways in which we can add to our self-care toolkit and learn ways to combat burnout when engaging in important social and racial justice activist work.

For more on Marisela, check out:

• Her website – A Path: Race, Class Power, and Organizing in East Baltimore 
• This segment on the Marc Steiner Show where Marisela discusses her book entitled Race, Class, Power, and Organizing in East Baltimore: Rebuilding Abandoned Communities in America  
• Listen to this podcast interview on the Importance of Listening and Community Involvement in Rebuilding Cities featured on Indypendent Reader
• For more information on the rebuilding of the Middle East and SMEAC. 
• Visit the Baltimore and Beyond: Mindfulness Community to learn more about the mindfulness retreats Marisela facilitates for social justice activists.

 A reflection written by Jess Myers, Women’s Center Director

The last time I passed by this wall was in February 2015. Before the murder of Freddie Gray. Before the Baltimore Uprisings. Before… I don’t remember what was on this wall, if anything. But walking down Greenmount Avenue yesterday afternoon on my way to visit the Monument Quilt‘s studio, I came to a full stop as the mural came to view.

It’s beautiful. And sad. And deeply powerful. It is activism. Baltimore Is Rising.

As we’ve been planning Critical Social Justice and immersing ourselves in its theme of Baltimore 365, I often come into the Women’s Center or to Critical Social Justice planning team meetings with more questions than I have answers. Will we do this right? Will we honor Baltimore in the way it needs to be? Will we respect its people in the way that they — we deserve? Knowing we can never cover all the issues, whose voice, whose experience, whose story will go untold?

I love Baltimore. Baltimore is my home. It is my heart. This city is my roots and the roots of my family.

But since the uprisings, I wonder if Baltimore is mine to claim? Who is Baltimore? Am I Baltimore?

While I only live 2.6 miles away from this location at the cross streets of Greenmount and Oliver, my home in Baltimore feels miles and miles away. My reality from the white gentrified neighborhood of Canton isn’t the reality of the Oliver neighborhood or Sandtown or Cherry Hill. I am only a guest in these neighborhoods. The issues and experiences of Baltimore are vast and segregated. Racial and socioeconomic injustice is real – I see it but it is not my lived experience.

I am Baltimore and I am not Baltimore. I’m seeking how to navigate this complicated reality. How do I use my voice? How do I use my privileged identities in a positive way? How will I demonstrate my love for Baltimore in a way that builds bridges with others in our community and is fundamentally invested in our mutual liberation?

I am eager to engage with the UMBC community as we delve into what Baltimore 365 means for us. I doubt all my questions will be answered but I am ready for the difficult dialogues, the chance to create brave spaces, and be in community together with others.

How will we speak out?