Nine years ago, I first wrote about the 1942 police killing of Pvt. Thomas Broadus and the subsequent uprising in Baltimore some 73 years before the police killing of Freddie Gray in the same neighborhood sparked another uprising over police brutality. www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/hist...

Three weeks ago, 83 years after his father, a US Army private, was shot and killed by a white cop in Baltimore, a retired Pittsburgh bus driver received a note from the Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board that the investigative files were being released. www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/hist...

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This is Lincoln High School, Montgomery County's second high school for black children. An abandoned building transported from Takoma Park, then brick-veneered. It opened in September 1935 with 6 classrooms, principal's office, 2 lavatories, water fountain, 236 students (grades 8-11), and 6 faculty.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, argued December 9, 1952; re-argued December 8, 1953; decided May 17, 1954.

Linda Brown (left) with her parents, Leola and Oliver, and little sister Terry Lynn in front of their house in Topeka, Kansas, in 1954. Photo by Carl Iwasaki in Life, via Getty Images.

For a long time, Google Maps incorrectly labeled the west end of Clopper Rd as White Ground Rd. Now all of Clopper Rd is ... Clopper Rd Apt?

Found books for the school in a little free library. The New City Arithmetics, Seventh Year - First Half, by William A. Boylan, Floyd R. Smith, & Katherine Bauer, Charles E. Merrill Co., 1930. Natural Method Spellers, A Language Series, by Edward Mandel and Lucille Nicol, Laidlaw Brothers, 1929.

In a video recorded early last week, 14th Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden honored the work performed by the Library's staff, the heart of the institution. As the caretakers of our nation’s collective history, the staff will continue to serve Congress, the American public & users across the world.

A really wonderful documentary. It addresses the desegregation protests of Glen Echo Park in the early 60’s. I think it’s important to understand the specifics of individual protests, thousands across the during the Civil Rights movement, and this doc does a great job of that. www.aintnoback.com

was recently told by a scholar of some note that it was out of bounds to compare trump's purge of black people from the federal government to wilson's efforts to resegregate the federal bureaucracy

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲'𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐯. 𝐁𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝. Compare these 2 versions of the homepage of Brown v Board Nat'l Historic Park in Topeka. Left: as of 5/4. Right: as of today. Before: Brown's "one of the most pivotal ... ever rendered." After: "a class photo." www.nps.gov/brvb/index.htm #HistorySky #LawSky

Dr Carla Hayden led the Enoch Pratt Library System in Baltimore before becoming the Librarian of Congress. First Black person to hold the job. Trump fired her.

Maryland’s legislature approved a bill to create a Reparations Commission, aiming to address the legacy of slavery and systemic racism. The panel will study restitution options like financial aid and housing support. Read More at: www.washingtoninformer.com/maryland-reparations-commission-approved

“Tubman’s photograph is now gone. In its place are images of Postal Service stamps that highlight “Black/White cooperation” in the secret network and that feature Tubman among abolitionists of both races.” wapo.st/4jdXL8m

My humblebrag for the day is receiving an NEH letter stating that "The termination of your grant represents an urgent priority for the administration." But was it a higher or lower priority than crushing opportunities for 6th-grade contestants in National History Day?

I used to judge the national competition at the University of Maryland. they were some of the best days ever--so many talented and creative kids really fired up about history. I judged the av projects and they were sometimes providing information on things no one had ever looked at before.

I just got confirmation that National History Day, a program that does more to ignite K-12 students' love of history, learning, and yes, even the United States than anything else I've ever seen, had all its funding cut yesterday by the DOGE-axe at the NEH - including for this year's ongoing contest.

"I don't want a Disney vacation of our history! I don't a whitewashed history, I don't want a homogenized history. Tell me the wretched truth about America, because that speaks to our greatness" -- 20 hours into his speech, Cory Booker is spitting absolute 🔥

The AHA has released a statement in support of the Smithsonian Institution, the target of the recent EO, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” This order “egregiously misrepresents the work of the Smithsonian Institution” and “completely misconstrues the nature of historical work.” 🗃️

NEW: Internal staff email from Smithsonian secretary Lonnie Bunch addressing Trump’s executive order. “As always, our work will be shaped by the best scholarship, free of partisanship, to help the American public better understand our nation’s history, challenges and trumphs.”

Agree. But I’d also put this the other way. You cannot tell the story of this country - and its history of racism - without telling the story of Jackie Robinson as a serviceman, ballplayer, or human.

The Trump administration cut a clause from federal contracting rules that had been on the books since the 1960s: Companies are no longer explicitly prohibited from having segregated facilities.

Rescinding Executive Order 9981 next.

One of our more historic members remarked the other day that the sickest he's been in his whole life is when he had measles as a child.

MCDOT is planning to demolish this building anyway, as part of the Boyds Transit Improvements project. But nature is getting a jump on them.

"Discover the rare opportunity to own 13.42 acres of pristine woodlands" zoned R-200, that won't have public sewer and won't perc.👀

Henry Eugene Plummer (1937-2023) grew up in Blocktown and received his bachelor’s degree from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania. He served for 4 years with the 3947th Bomber Squadron (SAC) at the Zaragoza Air Base, where he met his wife Maria. He worked for Bethlehem Steel until he retired in 1990.

A fun Black History Month footnote to this is that the motif of the anthropomorphic legislative bill—known to most of us from Schoolhouse Rock—has roots in the Black press of the 1930s, as in these two editorial cartoons by Bill Chase & Romare Bearden, both highlighting anti-lynching legislation

Manuel T. Jackson (1909-1995) was a Tec 5 in the US Army during World War II. On his draft card (October 16, 1940), he listed his mother as Mrs. Fronnie Hebron, his employer as WSSC in Hyattsville, and his height and weight as 6', 180 lbs. He is buried at the St Marks Methodist Church cemetery.

Mariah Duffin Wims (1856-1928). Her parents were Joshua Duffin (enslaved by the Gotts? Offutts? Nichollses?) and Mahala Duffin (enslaved by the Offutts). She is buried at the John Wesley Methodist Church cemetery, in the Rocky Hill community in Clarksburg, where there is a grave marker for her.

This afternoon!

UMD graduates: did you know that, where Lake Artemisia is now, there used to be a tight-knit, self-sustaining Black community called Lakeland? It was destroyed by "urban renewal" in the 1960s and 70s. Thanks to Teneille Gibson, Dominique Moody, and @maggiemore.bsky.social for this story.

If you come to our open house tomorrow (Sunday), 2-4 pm, you can also see our literally award-winning reconstructed (non-functional) outhouse, behind the school. Young visitors: An outhouse? I gotta go see. Older visitors: An outhouse? Oh, I've seen my share of outhouses. *go to see the outhouse*

The Maryland National Guard is not allowed to participate in a parade on the Maryland Eastern Shore for Frederick Douglass, because he had the "immutable characteristic" of being born into slavery on the Maryland Eastern Shore.

It's Frederick Douglass Day today!

Douglas Turner (1893-1967) was a private in the US Army in World War I. He was born in Turnertown (Old Bucklodge Lane) and is buried at Saint Marks United Methodist Church Cemetery, with a grave marker.

Decorative carvings in the fascia boards at St. Mark's Methodist Church, in the historic African-American community of White Grounds, south of Boyd's Station. Photo from March 30, 1986, in the Montgomery Planning Department Historic Preservation photo archives.

Local history trivia: in 1940, Beverly Byron's father-in-law William D. Byron beat Montgomery County Commissioner Walter "Big Train" Johnson in the MD-6 race. In 1941, her mother-in-law Katharine Edgar Byron was the first woman elected to Congress from Maryland. marylandmatters.org/2025/02/10/b...

Cpl. Waverly B. Woodson Jr., a medic in the only Black combat unit in D-Day, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 2024 for heroism & determination treating troops under heavy enemy fire. He was the husband of one of our founding members, Joann Snowden Woodson. apnews.com/article/dday...

We will be open today (Sunday, February 9), 2-4 pm! 19510 White Ground Road, Boyds, Montgomery County, Maryland

There is a 48-star U.S. flag inside the school - the flag that defeated fascism. Photo on right: "The first Negro to be commissioned in the Marine Corps has his second lieutenant's bars pinned on by his wife. He is Frederick C. Branch of Charlotte, NC." November 1945. National Archives ID: 535870.

February is #BlackHistoryMonth. The historic Boyds Negro School will be open on two Sundays, February 9 and 16, 2-4 pm, at 19510 White Ground Road, Boyds, Maryland (Montgomery County). We are a tiny, all-volunteer, community historical society. Please help us get the word out!

Some of the students at the historic Boyds Negro School, c. 1920. The one-room school building at 19510 White Ground Road will be open for #BlackHistoryMonth on two Sundays, February 9 and February 16, 2-4 pm. (Teacher Laura Hailstork was a grandmother of the composer Adolphus Hailstork.)

How Black families came “up South,” faced down Jim Crow, and built a groundbreaking Civil Rights movement.

You can visit the Historic Boyds Negro School (1896-1936) during #BlackHistoryMonth 2025: Sunday, February 9, 2-4 pm Sunday, February 16, 2-4 pm The school at 19510 White Ground Road was at the heart of the community and was built by the men of the community.

A family photo - Nannie Hebron Talley, probably in Turnertown on Old Bucklodge Lane, c. 1920. You can see more family photos from this collection at our #BlackHistoryMonth open houses on February 9 and 16, 2-4 pm, at the historic Boyds Negro School at 19510 White Ground Road.

"Olney, Maryland. Showing a Negro how to vote at the polls on election day" Photographer: Marjory Collins (1912-1985), November 1942, for US Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USW3-010308-D [P&P] LOT 253