of the NAACP itself.

The richness and diversity of racial relations in a border state are justification enough for the
focus of this book; the more personal reason is that I have lived in Maryland for more than twenty
years. The University of Maryland Law School excluded Thurgood Marshall because of his race;
and that institution, where I now teach, was the defendant when Charles Houston, assisted by
Marshall, had his first victory in integrating a segregated school. Maryland provides both the
personal and academic environment in which I exist, and it is far easier and more convenient to study
Maryland in Maryland than to attempt to write a history of another state.

IV