This page was created to provide the public with detailed information about the free panel discussion, Seen & Heard: Maryland’s Civil Rights Era in Photographs and Oral Histories, taking place at the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS) on February 23, 2012, 6p-8p. Please feel free to comment if you need more information about certain aspects of the event. Thanks for visiting! For more information: Jenny Ferretti – jferretti@mdhs.org; 410-685-3750 x376
Seen & Heard panel discussion flyer
GENERAL INFORMATION.
Seen & Heard: Maryland’s Civil Rights Era in Photographs and Oral Histories
Panel discussion on civil rights, the Henderson Photograph Collection, and McKeldin-Jackson Oral History Project
Panelists:
Larry Gibson (UM)
Dr. Helena Hicks (activist & CHAP Commissioner)
Dr. Barry Lanman (UMBC)
Dr. Michelle Scott (UMBC)
William F. Zorzi (“The Wire” & Baltimore Sun)
Moderated by John Gartrell, Archivist, Afro-American Newspapers Archives and Research Center
Introduction by Dr. Skipp Sanders, Interim Director of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture
FREE EVENT!
Date and Time: Thursday, February 23, 2012, 6p-8p
Location: Maryland Historical Society, 201 West Monument Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Contact: 410.685.370 x377; events@mdhs.org
Download the event flyer (PDF)
View the press release (PDF)
PAUL SAMUEL HENDERSON PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION, approx. 6,000 4 x 5 inch and 8 x 10 inch negatives, ca. 1940-1960.
Paul Henderson was an African American photographer who worked in Baltimore from the 1930s to 1960s. Much of his career was spent at the Afro-American newspaper. Henderson documented both significant events and every day life in Baltimore’s African American community, leaving behind a collection of over 6,000 photographs never before seen in its entirety.
Henderson captured Paul Robeson, concert singer, protesting the Jim Crow admissions policy at Baltimore’s Ford’s Theatre, a protest that lasted seven years. Henderson was interested in photographing the businesses, business owners and pedestrians along Pennsylvania Avenue, the heart of Baltimore’s growing black district. Among the highlights are images of Charm Centre, a women’s clothing store where customers could actually try garments on before purchasing, an everyday practice denied to black shoppers. He photographed significant leaders such as Juanita Jackson Mitchell, first African American woman to practice law in the state of Maryland, Verda Freeman Welcome, first African American woman to become state senator in the United States, Thurgood Marshall, council to the NAACP before becoming the first African American Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Carl Murphy, publisher of the Afro-American newspaper, and many more. Morgan State College (now University), vocational schools, church and civic organizations are also well represented in the collection. A selection of Henderson’s photographs will be on display outside of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library.
GOVERNOR THEODORE MCKELDIN-DR. LILLIE MAY CARROLL JACKSON ORAL HISTORY PROJECT, 92 recordings, 1974-1977.
The Governor Theodore McKeldin-Dr. Lillie Carroll Jackson Oral History Project is an inquiry into the civil rights activities of these two Maryland leaders. From 1974 through 1977 volunteers conducted eighty-seven interviews with civil rights activists and leaders, as well as those who opposed the movement. Interviewees discuss their involvement with the NAACP, Maryland politics, law, education, and their relationship with Governor McKeldin and Dr. Lillie Carroll Jackson. Lillie May Carroll Jackson (1889-1975) was a pioneering civil rights leader beginning in the 1930s and an organizer of the Baltimore Branch of the NAACP. Theodore R. McKeldin (1900-1974) was Mayor of Baltimore (1943-1947, 1963-1967), Governor of Maryland (1951-1959) and an advocate for civil rights. The project was sponsored by MdHS and supported in part by a grant from the Maryland Committee for the Humanities and Public Policy.
Paired with the Henderson photographs, this oral history collection provides context and feeling for an important part of the American story. Together, these collections recreate an era.
Related Links on the MdHS website:
Event description
Paul Henderson Photograph Collection introduction
Selection of Henderson Photographs (click and scroll down)
Henderson Collection Overview with Inventory Lists
McKeldin-Jackson Oral History Project page (with inventory list)
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ACCOMPANYING EXHIBITION.
Paul Henderson: Baltimore’s Civil Rights Era in Photographs
1991.44.301 Paul Henderson with camera.
A selection of photographs by Paul Samuel Henderson (1899-1966) will be on display outside of the MdHS library (on the second floor). Henderson photographed Baltimore’s African American community, ca. 1940-1960. Morgan State College (now University), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Baltimore Afro-American newspaper, Lillie May Carroll Jackson, Theodore McKeldin, Verda Freeman Welcome, Juanita Jackson Mitchell, Clarence Mitchell, Thurgood Marshall, and many more organizations and people will be included in the exhibition.
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LOCATION & PARKING.
Entrance: MdHS has two entrances: Park Avenue and from the Monument Street parking lot. If you are on foot, the entrance on Park Avenue is between Centre Street and Park Avenue. Enter through the glass building with a garden and reflecting pool. The Monument Street parking lot is located between Park Avenue and Howard Street. (Gates will be open.) Walk down the parking lot and turn left – you will see a large glass building surrounded by a brick building and almost solid gray building. Enter through the glass doors.
MdHS Parking: The MdHS parking lot is located on the MdHS campus, (on Monument Street between Park Avenue and Howard Street). Free parking is limited.
Neighborhood Parking: The AEGON Group maintains a parking garage that the public may use at cost. They are located just across the MdHS campus along Centre Street. Directions to the garage may be obtained through staff overseeing the parking lot the day of the event. Street parking in the neighborhood is limited to metered parking and two hour limit (unless you have the correct parking permit). There are just a few free, non-limited spots on Monument Street just after Howard Street.
Public Transportation: If you’re in the neighborhood, public transportation may be ideal.
Light Rail‘s Centre Street stop is very close to MdHS. It stops on Howard Street just after Monument Street. Simply walk towards Monument Street, turn right, and you may enter through the MdHS parking lot.
The Charm City Circulator’s Purple Route can take you to a stop close to MdHS. If you hop on a bus going south, the Centre Street stop will put you between Centre Street and Mount Vernon Place. You can walk west toward MdHS (along either Centre Street or Monument Street). If you hop on a bus going north (toward Pennsylvania Station, the last stop on the line), you will want to hop off at the Washington Monument and walk west.
There are other buses that stop close by. Take a look at bus routes on the MTA website.
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READING LIST.
In order to prepare exhibition labels and questions for panelists, the Seen & Heard planning team has been busy researching topics and people using a variety of sources. Here is a list of a few of our favorites:
Black Baltimore: A New Theory of Community by Harold A. McDougall
Here Lies Jim Crow: Civil Rights in Maryland by Fraser Smith
Baltimore: A Living Renaissance Edited by Lenora Nast, Laurence Krause, and R.C. Monk
Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore by Michael Olesker
Blockbusting in Baltimore: The Edmondson Village Story by W. Edward Orser
Not In My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City by Antero Pietila
West Baltimore Neighborhoods: Sketches of Their History, 1840-1960 by Roderick N. Ryon
Small Town Baltimore: An Album of Memories by Gilbert Sandler