Jim Wims, a farmer, took acreage out of production for African-American children to have a ball field, which became known as Wims Meadow. Jim’s son Wilson worked to create the Clarksburg Recreation Center, bettering opportunities for his community.
In 1968, Bowie students demonstrated with other HBCUs, protesting unequal funding, poor school facilities and lack of academic resources. Students led a “study-in” at the Maryland State House and were arrested. Governor Agnew closed the school.
Located on the Pennsylvania Avenue Heritage Trail, this historical marker detail many of Old West Baltimore’s civil rights organizations and African-American political leaders.
This historic marker is located where the tennis courts were. It was erected to commemorate the efforts of 24 tennis players who organized integrated matches to challenge the "whites only" policy at the Druid Hill Park tennis courts in 1948.
On the Pennsylvania Avenue Heritage Trail. The marker describes the "Buy Where You Can Work” campaign, a boycott of Baltimore stores that refused to hire Black workers that inspired African-American demonstrations in cities across the United States.
This marker honors the experiences of citizens who experienced segregation in Baltimore’s parks. It details important local events to protest segregation and describes artist Joyce Scott’s installation at the park’s pool commemorating the struggle.
This tour includes sites connected to the 1961 Route 40 Freedom Ride. Civil Rights protesters sat in a series of segregated restaurants, expecting to be served and refusing to leave. Restaurant owners read them the Trespass Act.
Freetown illustrates principles of self-sufficiency and cooperation. Schools were built here with support from the Rosenwald Fund, land and labor donated by the community, and efforts of the Freetown Community Association.
On August 28, 1963, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, and segregation ended at Gwynn Oak Amusement Park, which once occupied this site, after 10 years of protests and demonstrations.