8 Jul 2020
Episode 5: The Other Tradition and Maryland Civil Rights
Lex Musta tells the interracial story of how the January 20th 1955 first-in-the-nation student-led sit-in integration of a lunch counter came about (6:00), led by Dr. Helen Hicks in Baltimore from Morgan State University. It was facilitated by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) activity in Baltimore founded by Dr. Herbert Kelman and Robert Watts in 1952, an interracial coalition which laid the ground work for the national student-led sit-in movement six years before Greensboro (7:10). In 1953 CORE integrates (Kresge) KMart lunch counters in Baltimore (8:15). In 1953 CORE integrates Woolworth lunch counters in Baltimore (9:37). In 1954 CORE integrates McCrory's and Grant's lunch counters in Baltimore with sit-ins, one year before 1955 first-in-nation student sit-ins (9:55). 1954 Read's Drug Store integrated by CORE's Robert Watts and his Morgan State Students and their 8 month sit-in, leading up to Dr. Helen Hicks led sit in (10:14). 1946-1952 NAACP integration of Ford's Theater with the participation of a 13 year old Helen Hicks, led by Adah Jenkins Baltimore Interracial Fellowship, Professor of Music at Morgan State and Charter Member of CORE. Leading actors Basil Rathbone and Edward Robinson boycotted Ford as a result. Dr. Lilly Jackson joined this protest leading to Franz Lehar's 'The Merry Widow' being the first desegregated play perform. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. considers every American to be proud of the Jackson family's contributions to Civil Rights (13:40). 1932 Juanita Jackson desegregated her dormitory in Pennsylvania after being denied schooling in Baltimore. Thurgood Marshall also integrated a movie theater in Pennsylvania after being denied schooling in Baltimore. Thurgood Marshall and Juanita Jackson founded and led Baltimore's City Wide Young People's Forum in 1931. The youth started the program: "No employment, No Business." The Forum was based at the Bethel AME Church in Baltimore. The daughter activated her mother Dr. Lilly Jackson to become the President of the NAACP supported financially by her father Keifer Jackson who popularized films with showings of positive portrayals of African Descent Americans (18:50). Juanita Jackson helped Lieutenant Violet Hill Whyte, become the first ever African Descent American Police Officer in Baltimore in 1937, the daughter of the Pastor of Bethel AME Church Daniel Hill (21:14). Juanita Jackson, following the murder of 9 African Americans by Baltimore Policemen from 1937-1942, and Pvt. Broadus being gunned down for hailing a non-licensed cab, she organized 150 Baltimore Organizations into a Citizen's Committee for Justice to form a 2000 person caravan of busses and cars to travel the 25 miles to Annapolis to meet with the Governor Herbert O'Conor and demand change on April 24, 1942 (21:45). The Bethel AME Church leadership in Baltimore Social Change work was established in 1785 with its first official pastor Rev. Daniel Coker penning the first African Descent American written anti-enslavement Tract in 1810, the Dialogue between a Virginian and an African minister (26:54). Mr. Church member Charles Hacket, a conductor on the underground railroad, led three years of indignation meetings (prayer and fasting for 24 hours in the church for change) to defeat 1860 bill to enslave all 100,000 African descent freemen in Maryland. (23:44). In 1863 Hacket recruited two United States Colored Troop regiments in Baltimore, the 4th Regiment in September and the 7th Regiment. December 5-8 1879 Indignation Meetings held to hire first African Descent teacher, Roberta Sheridan, in Baltimore public schools since 1865 when they were all fired. In 1885, Rev. Harvey Johnson founded the Order of the Regulators - a civil rights advocacy organization. My daughter asked for a prayerful interlude, and we sing the Song of the Prophets (25:41). Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall, with the support of Alpha Phi Alpha, integrated UMD law school with the case of Donald Gaines Murray.
