O n April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany. President Woodrow Wilson, former student and lecturer at Johns Hopkins, had gone before Congress four days earlier and asked for the vote to "make the world safe for democracy." He plunged America into the conflict which he knew "would overturn the world we had known." He told Frank Cobb, editor of the New York World, that the end of our neutrality would mean: "that we should lose our heads with the rest and stop weighing right and wrong. . that a majority of people in this hemisphere would go war-mad, quit thinking and devote their energies to destruction."

He predicted that later we would "attempt to reconstruct a peacetime civilization with war standards." In all his predictions, he was sadly correct. Our entry came at the crucial moment, however, for Great Britain had less than a two-month's supply of grain on hand and the German blockade at sea was succeeding in preventing new foodstuffs from reaching that island nation. American ships made the difference.

When war first broke out in Europe in 1914, most Americans believed that it would not affect their lives. But as time passed, more and more Americans, Baltimoreans among them, grew less and less neutral. Involvement came for a wide variety of reasons. All groups strongly asserted their American patriotism. Many individuals, like President Wilson, felt an affinity for the country whose language and culture formed the bases of our own. These people, many of whom traced one or another of their ancestors to England, believed that British civilization must be preserved.

Other people took sides with the Entente nations against the Central Powers for different reasons. American Jews observed anti-Semitism growing in Germany and Austria during the war and therefore opposed the governments guilty of it. Furthermore, if the British drove the Ottoman Turks out of the Holy Lands, there was the possibility of the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Palestine, a hope the British government promised to support in the Balfour Declaration. Italian Americans supported Italy, which was allied with the British and French, and they knew that a German-Austrian victory might lead to their subjugation of Italy. And, finally, Americans with roots in central Europe, like Polish Americans and Bohemian Americans, sided with the British in the hope that their homelands would gain independence from imperial domination if Germany and Austria were defeated.

Other people in Baltimore and throughout the nation favored Germany or at least wanted to maintain neutrality during the early part of the war. German Americans, of course, did not want to wage war against the nation where many of their relatives and friends still lived and whose language many continued to speak. Many Irish Americans opposed helping England which was then engaged in trying to prevent Irish independence. And, of course, some people opposed war out of principle. Pacifists, especially Quakers, believed that all war was wrong. A significant number of progressives and some socialists believed that the war would take the national attention, energy, and resources away from reforms that were needed to better living conditions in American cities and asserted that the Europeans should be left to solve their problems without our intervention.

Intervene we did, however, and the effects of war were felt rapidly in Baltimore and throughout the nation. Baltimore's sixty-one thousand eligible men hastened to register for the draft. Many German Americans enlisted quickly to prove their loyalty before it could be questioned. City Councilman Harry Cummings

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wrote to Governor Emerson C. Harrington on behalf of the states' Negroes: " . . . we are willing and ready to defend our State and Nation. We know but one country and one flag." Before the fighting ended, over sixteen thousand Baltimoreans served in the American armed forces. The 313th Infantry "Baltimore's Own" and the 115th Infantry commanded by Colonel Milton A. Reckord fought with General John j. Pershing's Expeditionary Force in France.

The war effort involved the community. Along with soldiers, the government needed money. Liberty Bonds were sold and Baltimore's quota was set at $25 million. Everyone bought them. School children collected pennies until they had enough. The Sun reported that by April 16, Baltimore's German American community had purchased bonds worth $500,000. Promotion gimmicks included a Liberty Bond Balloon in which rides were given to any purchaser of a $1000 bond.

Baltimoreans also feared sabotage and took various precautions. Guards were posted around munitions plants and by railroad bridges. Loch Raven Dam and the Montebello filtration plant were patrolled to prevent the enemy from poisoning the city's water supply.

Shortages occurred quickly. Sugar and cheese became scarce early, and a near panic developed when Baltimore ran out of potatoes. The cessation of trade with Germany cut off equipment for medical and scientific laborato ries. Before long, most foodstuffs and consumer goods were in short supply and what was available rose in price. Wages increased, too, but prices went up faster. The disparity created hardship throughout much of Baltimore, particularly as coal and food prices accelerated abruptly. Children began to gather coal along the railroad tracks where it had fallen from trains. A child was killed while doing this.

Despite the hardships, Baltimoreans rallied

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to support the cause. Rallying was almost mandatory because those who did not were viewed with disdain or hatred by their neighbors who believed that nonconformity and treason were the same thing. The federal government's Committee on Public Information made visible patriotism seem obligatory. Most people, however, did their part with enthusiasm. Baltimoreans planted liberty gardens in window boxes, school playgrounds, city parks, and vacant lots as well as in their own backyards. Dr. John Goucher plowed up the front lawn of his estate, Altodale, and the college students helped plant and harvest 256 bushels of potatoes.

Women made bandages for the Red Cross as the wartime economy accelerated social change. Baltimore's industry boomed, supplying the necessities of war. While local industries expanded their output, some of their employees were leaving to join the army. Suddenly women were welcomed in jobs previously closed to them. They worked on assembly lines and drove streetcars. Women's working became an act of patriotism rather than one of economic necessity. Blacks, too, found jobs from which they had been excluded suddenly opening up to them. Industrial positions and wartime wages drew both blacks and whites from rural areas into the city. During the decade from 1910 to 1920, Baltimore's population increased by over 175,000. Public facilities were strained and housing was hard to find. All resources were directed towards the war effort, not civilian comfort.

The war touched everyone, but, as a group, Baltimore's German Americans were probably affected the most. In 1914 many German Americans throughout the country had sided with the Central Powers and had spoken out against Britain's propaganda here. They wanted the United States to remain neutral. German- language newspapers openly supported

Far Left.

The Baltimore American promoted sogarless Tuesdays to help preserve the scarce commodity

Left.

Goucher students joined the war effort by farming a large liberty garden on the front lawn of Altodale, home of Dr. John Goucher

After Baltimore's women said goodbye to the soldiers, a variety of jobs were left vacant and many women joined the work force
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neutrality. German Americans sent aid to German civilians. Then the situation changed. When the war at sea, especially the attacks by German submarines, led to the breaking of diplomatic relations, the Deutsch Corre spondent warned Baltimore's German Amer icans in rebruary 1917 that: "It is not yet a crime to defend Germany's position, but it is unpatriotic and, above all, unwise." Several days later the newspaper cautioned readers: "Be calm! Keep your tongue! Keep wisely silent! Remember your oath of allegiance! Keep in mind that while Germany is the land of your fathers, this is the land of our children and children's children."

After war was declared, German Americans in Baltimore joined the war effort, enlisting for service in the army and buying war bonds as soon as they were sold. Many applied quickly for naturalization so they would not be classified as enemy aliens. Others went to court to have their names Americanized. Despite the clear pro-American stance of the vast majority of the German community, suspicions and hostile feelings grew. Although Mayor James Preston forestalled any massive detentions, a few people defended the United States by attacking individual Germans. Accusations and humilia tions abounded. H. L. Mencken, whose anti-war writings led to suspicions that he was a spy, responded with verbal scorn and sent to the authorities long, elaborate, anonymous accusa tions against him.

The year 1918 marked the end of many German-American institutions, including the Deutsch CorrespondenL Although groups like the singing clubs and the Turnverein reappeared in the mid-1920s, the strength of the community was never as great as it had been before the war. A new bi-weekly newspaper, the Baltimore Correspondent, came into circulation after peace returned, but the German-language

84

schools were closed forever. In an early symbolic gesture, the City Council changed the name of German Street, where many German shop keepers' businesses had once been located, to Redwood Street, in honor of George Buchanan Redwood, the first Maryland officer to die in France.

By October, 1918, when the Allied forces drove through the German lines, the German high command urged the chancellor to propose an armistice on the basis of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points. On November 9 Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated, and two days later, Americans received the happy news that an armistice had been arranged. The brutal war had finally come to an end.

Although the war had ended, it was several years before there was much peace at home. Severe post-war dislocations continued the hardships for many people. One immediate effect of the peace was economic confusion. Returning veterans found many industries laying off workers who had been hired to produce war material. White and black rural migrants were laid off. Sometimes veterans got their jobs back, but often there were no jobs.

Wartime had brought union recognition and gains in wages and working conditions for many workers. Peacetime brought strikes to maintain these gains. Workers struck the B & 0 and Western Maryland Railroads and the Maryland Drydock Company. Longshoremen struck; mill workers in Hampden and Woodber ry struck; and some Baltimoreans, accustomed during the war to blaming all troubles on foreign espionage, held Russian Communism responsi ble. They feared a Bolshevik revolution would take place in the United States similar to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Housing had become scarce during the war as thousands moved into Baltimore to work in the war industries. Returning veterans found

Colonel Milton Reckord leads the homecoming of the 115th In fantry in 1919

homes were even harder to locate. Over crowding grew even more severe. The scarcity of homes and the poverty that resulted from the unemployment of many war workers resulted in visible slums by 1920. Blacks, who were not allowed to live in many neighborhoods and who were often the last hired and first fired, suffered most.

Rivalries for jobs and housing intensified prejudices that had existed before the war. Wartime fears and experiences predisposed men to violent and summary actions. The time was ripe for the rise of groups like the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was active in Baltimore in the early 1920s. All their enemies were here:

Catholics, immigrants, Jews, Negroes, and union members, whom the Klan viewed as Commu nists. Although Governor Ritchie denied them the use of the 5th Regiment Armory, masked Klansmen paraded in Baltimore in 1922. The Catholic Review, under the direction of

Archbishop Michael Curley, led the opposition to them and ran a series of articles linking Catholics and American patriotism. The Jewish Times stressed Jewish contributions to the city and patriotism during World World I. Eventually the city passed an antimasking ordinance. Revelations of scandals within the Klan contributed to its decline. The Klan never became as dominant a force in Baltimore as it did in other cities, and a gradual return of prosperity resulted in a distinct decline in the limited popularity that the group did enjoy here.

The housing shortage, deteriorating living conditions in the central city, and the rapid population increase stimulated the momentum of the movement to the suburbs already in progress before the war. As the peacetime economy picked up in the early 1920s, more people could afford the move. Baltimore's last major annexation of county land occurred in 1918 and brought large open tracts within the

1917-1980

city limits. By vote of the state legislature, 46.5 square miles of Baltimore County and 5.4 square miles of Anne Arundel County filled out the city. Further annexations were forbidden by a constitutional amendment passed after World War II.

Suburban communities developed rapidly in the annexed area and contiguous land beyond. Working-class commuter suburbs like Dundalk in the east and Brooklyn in the south opened up green spaces and the new life-style to blue-collar workers. Upper-class Baltimore- ans continued to move northward. The Roland Park Company first offered lots in Guilford for sale in 1913. Guilford proved so popular that in 1924 the company bought Homeland, the estate of David Perine, which the city had considered purchasing for park land two years before.

Institutions follow people, but the interven tion of the Depression and World War II slowed the process in this case. After the end of the Second World War, a number of the city's leading churches were built along North Charles Street.

Planning for the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation took several decades. The structure as it now stands was finally completed in 1947. The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, which began as a small country chapel used by the Perines and a few neighboring families, grew to be the largest parish in the state. Architect Pietro Belluschi of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed a new, larger church building in the 1950s to compliment the older Gothic chapel. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of Mary Our Queen is located on Charles Street, two blocks south of the Church of the Redeemer. The Cathedral, also built in the 1950s in a neo-Gothic style, stands on land donated by the Baltimore dry-goods merchant, Thomas j. O'Neill. The legend is that he decided to make the gift when his store survived the great fire of

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1904. The Grace Methodist congregation, a union of three older churches, began worship ping at Charles Street and Northern Parkway in 1951. The Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church of Bolton Hill did not move, but opened a second church on North Charles Street in 1961.

After World War I, German and Eastern European Jews moved to the northwest suburbs. Like blacks, Baltimore's Jews in the 1920s faced restrictive housing covenants which excluded them from many neighborhoods. The northwest was open, however. By the 1950s, the major religious congregations had begun building new synagogues. The Baltimore Hebrew Congrega tion, Har Sinai, Oheb Shalom and many others with histories going back to East Baltimore during the mid-1800s now stand along Park Heights Avenue, both inside and beyond the city limits.

As the immediate post-war dislocations subsided, the country slipped into the period historians have dubbed the "Roaring Twenties." Prosperity and rebellious assertion of new freedoms characterized the period. An economic boom supported the social and intellectual rebellion.

Baltimore's 1920s boom, like that of the rest of the nation, was based on demands for consumer products that had not been available during the war as well as new items like radios and automobiles. The construction industry boomed. Baltimore businessmen reflected the nation-wide mania of boosterism and promoted their city. Both of Baltimore's mayors during the period, Republican William F. Broening and Democrat Howard W. Jackson, joined with them. They attracted new industries to the city. Glenn L. Martin Aircraft came. American Sugar built a processing plant. Western Electric opened a plant for manufacturing telephone equipment. Bethlehem Steel added a $100,000,000 expansion at Sparrows Point. In the

a

Right:
The new Roman Catholic Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, built on North Charles Street in the 1950s, is two hundred and seventy feet long Its stone towers stand one hundred and twenty-eight feet high

Above:
Dry-goods merchant Thomas O'Neill left his fortune to the archdiocese of Baltimore to build the new cathedral
Center: Above:
The Episcopal Church of the The Baltimore Hebrew
Redeemer, which began as a Congregation, which first
small country chapel (rightl, worshiped in the Lloyd Street
added the new main church Synagogue, moved to this new
designed by Pie tro Belluschi in synagogue on Park Heights
the 1950s Avenue at the city line in the
1950s

National Crises & Urban Renaissance
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six years following 1920, Baltimore's volume of foreign trade rose from seventh in the nation to third. The boosters were succeeding magnificently

The city's building program reflected its prosperity. The Baltimore Museum of Art opened next to the Hopkins campus. A new municipal office building and fire and police department headquarters appeared around War Memorial Plaza. The city built a wading pool in Carroll Park, a swimming pool in Riverside Park, and two swimming pools in Druid Hill Park, one for whites and one for blacks. For all the new commuters, the city constructed new roads and extended existing ones like Charles Street Avenue, Walther Avenue, the Alameda, and Loch Raven Boulevard out into the developing suburbs. Automobile ownership caused a new problem for the city: traffic congestion. Everyone discussed it, but little was done.

Throughout the boom, politics continued as usual. Sonny Mahon and Frank "Slot Machine" Kelly, vied for power within the Democratic Party. In 1919, Kelly's candidate, George William Weems, defeated James Preston for the Democratic mayoral nomination. In the general election, Mahon's forces sat by and let the Republican candidate, William Broening, win. His party won nine City Council seats as well. Two of these men, Warner T. McGuinn and William L. Fitzgerald were black. Democrats resumed their use of Reconstruction politics and charged that Republican Mayor Broening was a threat to Baltimore's system of white supremacy, even though he had allowed the Ku Klux Klan to parade as evidence of his support for segregation.

Kelly and Mahon scrambled to register new Democratic voters to enlarge their own camps. They had a substantial pool of potential voters to fight over. Rural white migrants voted Democratic as did most foreign immigrants

188

except for a large minority of Germans and some Jews who registered as Republicans. By 1923, about 75 percent of Baltimore's voters were Democrats.

The election of 1923 showed the results of a temporary truce between Mahon and Kelly that had been orchestrated by Governor Ritchie two years before. Kelly allowed Mahon's candidate, Howard Jackson, to run for mayor with the understanding that the other city offices and patronage jobs would be divided evenly. Jackson defeated the incumbent Broening in a landslide. For the first time the City Council was chosen in that year from six districts which elected three councilmen each. The Democrats had gerrymandered most of the Republicans into the 4th District, containing heavy proportions of blacks and Jews. Much to the surprise of everyone, only one Republican, Daniel Ellison, a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant, won a seat in the City Council. The two black candidates were defeated by white Democrats, although by the next election, those two seats reverted to black Republicans.

Clearly, neither Jackson, nor Mahon, nor Kelly possessed the kind of city-wide control that the pre-war Rasin machine had exercised. The mid-twenties saw even greater dispersion of power with the rise of William Curran, who in 1923 helped the Kelly faction gain control of the City Council. In 1927, the Democrats nominated Curran for mayor. William Broening, with Mahon's help, defeated Curran and carried nine city councilmen into office as well. Frank Kelly and Sonny Mahon both died in 1928 leaving control of the Democratic Party in the hands of Governor Albert Ritchie and William Curran. Curran, a criminal lawyer, was the last city-wide leader. He maintained his influence until he died in 1954. Under Curran, several district leaders acquired considerable influence, among them Richard Coggins and Patrick O'Malley in the

Left:
William Curran is generally considered to have been the last Democratic boss of Baltimore city. Since his death in 1954, political power has been divided among various district leaders
Below:
The United Railways buses parked by the Johns Hopkins campus ran along Charles Street carrying commuters from the popular new northern suburbs to the central business district

Left: Above:
This filling station which opened Automobile ownership caused a
in 1911 is said to have been the new problem for Baltimore:
first in Baltimore. It was located traffic congestion
on the corner of St. Paul and
Lexington Streets

National Crises and Urban Renaissance
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third district and James H. (Jack) Pollack in the fourth district.

In 1931 Curran and Ritchie conceded to popular demand and allowed vote-getter Howard Jackson to run for mayor, provided he accept Curran men for City Council president and comptroller on his ticket. A group of reformers, working with some independent ward bosses, managed to elect their own candidate, E. Lester Muller, as City Council President. Jackson did win the mayoralty and became Baltimore 5 only four-term mayor, remaining in office until 1943.

One archenemy of Jackson's was Marie Bauernschmidt. A reform leader who cam paigned for years to rid the city school system of graft and politics of corruption, she found Jackson particularly objectionable because of his periodic bouts with demon rum. She challenged him to "take the cure" or resign from office. Jackson's drinking helped him politically in some parts of town, especially during Prohibition.

The 18th Amendment, originally proposed as a wartime conservation measure, became effective in 1919 when the Volstead Act provided enforcement procedures and funding. Throughout the dry years, Baltimore was known as a wet" town. Several breweries continued to produce the real thing under the guise of near-beer. Distilled liquor arrived regularly through the ports of both Baltimore and Annapolis and was manufactured locally as well. Speakeasies proliferated as the laxity of prosecution became apparent. The city government under Jackson and the state government under Ritchie, a national leader of the wets, never appropriated money for enforcement of Prohibition. In fact, Ritchie's attorney general ruled that the local police did not have the right to make arrests under the Volstead Act. Federal agents did occasionally conduct raids in Baltimore, but frequently they were met by hostile crowds and violent opposition against which local police officials declined to provide aid.

Drinking in spite of Prohibition was one of many forms of rebellion during the "Roaring Twenties." Although roots of the rebellion stretched back into the late nineteenth century, it was nurtured in the wartime spirit of "eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we may die." Many people, particularly members of the younger generation who had served overseas, began to question old values, to look for new meanings, and to experiment with new life-styles. This breaking out and innovation, often accompanied by a rejection of traditions was opposed particularly by those members of the older generation who felt that their whole way of life and moral system were being threatened. People who already felt threatened by immigrants, strikes and Communists, tended also to react with fear to cocktail parties, new fashions, new trends in music and theater, and the new life-style of women. Despite the opposition, rebellion flourished in the prosperity of the 1920s.

New forms of music, especially jazz, and theatrical presentations with themes of realism, rebellion, and explicit sex drew large crowds. Baltimore both before and after World War I was a good theater town. Leading actors and musicians performed before large audiences in the city's numerous theaters. A gradual transition from vaudeville and live theater to movies took place during the early decades of the twentieth century

At the turn of the century, at least eight theaters were thriving in Baltimore. The two leading playhouses were the Holliday Street Theater, housed in the 1872 structure which survived until 1927 when it was razed to make way for War Memorial Plaza, and Ford's Grand Opera House, which opened in 1871 with a

It appears that Baltimoreans expected liquor to be available, but more expensive, after the Vols tead Act went into effect

Marie Bauernschmidt, a reformer and an archenemy of Jackson's, was unfortunately noted for leading many unsuccessful campaigns against him
Howard Jackson, one of Baltimore's most popular mayors and the masterful leader during the depression of the 1 930s, makes a speech at the laying of the cornerstone of the new Touch Pratt Free Library central building which opened in 1933

National Crises & Urban Renaissance
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performance of As You Like It and closed ninety-three years later with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. For many years a family business, Ford's Theater brought stars like George M. Cohan, Edwin Booth, Helen Hayes, Maurice Evans, and Tallulah Bankhead to Baltimore. When movies were new, Ford's screened big features like D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation in 1915 and Cecil B. DeMille's Ten Commandments in 1925. Under the ownership of Morris A. Mechanic, Ford's remained beyond World War lIthe only legitimate theater in town.

At the turn of the century, vaudeville reigned as the national entertainment. Admission usually ranged from 25 to 50 cents. Some shows were rough and ready; others were billed for the whole family. James Kernan, who donated the land for the hospital for crippled children, made his fortune from the Monumen tal Theater, where some of Baltimore's more daring acts were presented. Women dancers wore tightly laced corsets, but raw flesh was taboo. Hawaiian style hula dancers provided the most naked entertainment. With his profits from the Monumental, Kernan opened the Maryland Theater for "refined" vaudeville. He censored the acts himself to make sure nothing would offend the ladies and children in his audiences. Ethel Barrymore and Lillian Russell appeared, and Al Jolson debuted in Kernan's Theater. Variety shows included jugglers, bicyclists, acrobats and animals. In the winter, when cool temperature modified the odor, acts featuring horses and elephants were popular. The Maryland led the way in incorporating movies into its live shows, a practice the theater began in 1904. Finally, it became exclusively a movie theater before it was torn down in 1951. Most of the old vaudeville theaters became movie theaters and then either closed or burned down.

One rather unique theater, the Lyceum, shows the transition well. Built in the 1890s in

192

the fashionable neighborhood of 1200 North Charles Street, the stage originally featured amateur performances. A little bar and smoking room were located beneath the lobby. The first few rows of spectators sat on comfortable sofas. John Albaugh, who operated a vaudeville syndicate, purchased the theater and brought in stars like George Arliss, Blanche Bates, and George Fawcett. During the Great War, the Lyceum offered a mixture of road shows, musicals, vaudeville, and films. In the early twenties, when legitimate theater drew smaller crowds, offerings like White Cargo and Seduction brought audiences seeking the sensational. The police gave the theater good publicity when they arrested some of the performers and charged them with indecent exposure. The next show, Getting Gertie's Garter, was a sellout. In 1925, the Lyceum burned down.

As filmmaking technology improved, movies proliferated and drew even larger crowds. By 1920, Baltimore's biggest movie houses, the New, the Hippodrome, and the Victoria, each averaged thirty thousand spectators weekly. The Hippodrome featured big band concerts as well. The Municipal Band and the Colored Municipal Band played summertime concerts in the city's parks. With all the merrymaking, many people forgot the fears that had characterized the immediate post-war period.

Baltimore's segregated society led to the growth of a separate black entertainment district. Pennsylvania Avenue emerged as the center of black culture in the 1920s. The spirit of the Harlem Renaissance came to Baltimore, and "the Avenue" flourished. The Douglas Theater, built by the black-owned Douglas Amusement Company, dominated the 1300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue. Later known as the Royal, the theater throughout the years between the

In the 1920s, elaborately decorated movie theatres like the New drew an average of 30,000 spectators weekly

National Crises & Urban Renaissance
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wars featured the big-name musicians like Eubie Blake, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, and Duke Ellington. After World War II, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat "King" Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, and Billie Holiday all performed at the Royal, and later the Supremes, the Platters, and James Brown. Live performances lasted until 1965 at the Royal, when it went the way of the city's other old vaudeville theaters and became exclusively a movie house. Five years later it was bulldozed to make space for a new school.

During the heyday of the Royal Theater a cluster of clubs, where big name entertainers also appeared, opened along the Avenue. Gamby's, the Ritz, the Comedy Club, owned by Isaiah Dixon, and the Casino Club, where owner Willie Adams introduced Redd Foxx, all drew crowds. Some of the performers stayed at the Casino Club. Others made their quarters at the black-owned Penn Hotel, whose guests included Ethel Waters and Pearl Bailey as well as the band leaders.

Pennsylvania Avenue meant more than theaters. Movie houses were there. A YMCA was located nearby. Businesses that catered to blacks opened stores along the Avenue. As Negro customers found themselves unwelcome in many of the big downtown stores, they turned more and more to the Avenue shops. From the 1930s through the 1950s, the Pennsylvania Avenue Merchants Association sponsored an Easter Parade. While whites paraded their Easter finery around Mt. Vernon Square, Negroes showed theirs along the Avenue.

A major institution, Douglass High School, moved in 1925 to new quarters just west of Pennsylvania Avenue at Calhoun and Baker Streets. Almost all of Baltimore's middle class Negroes sent their children to Douglass, which was noted for its high academic standards. In the 1920s fully one-third of its graduates went on to college or normal school. Douglass' more

194

famous alumni include band leader Cab Calloway, civil rights activists Clarence Mitchell, Jr. and his wife, the former Juanita Jackson, and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Although some black Baltimoreans clearly shared in the prosperity and revelry of the twenties, many did not. Discrimination in hiring and lack of educational background left many in poverty. Overcrowded and unhealthful living conditions were one result of that. Tuberculosis especially plagued Baltimore's Negro communi ty. The city's health officials dubbed as "Lung Block" the square bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue, Druid Hill Avenue, Biddle and Preston Streets because so many cases of tuberculosis occurred there.

But progressivism was not completely dead. Medical officials and social workers still labored in Negro and white slums. City-wide charity organizations carried an increasing share of the burden previously borne by ethnic and religious societies. Reformers like Elisabeth Gilman, the daughter of Johns Hopkins' first president, a social worker who became a socialist, fought to keep people's consciences aroused. The reform impulse remained, but it was no longer as dominant as it had been before the war to save the world for democracy had been fought and won and left the world still unperfected. Social activists were no longer society's celebrities.

Popular heroes of the twenties and thirties tended to be either outstanding individual achievers or outspoken rebels. Baltimore provided its share of national heroes. H. L. Mencken, who never really left, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who came to Baltimore during the 1920s, drew the attention of the nation's literati to the city on the Patapsco. Babe Ruth, even after he played for the Yankees, and Roy Campanella who played for the Baltimore Elites, gave the city fame among sports fans.

The joyous days of the twenties provided a

Left:

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood
Marshall is one among many
nationally famous alumni of
Douglass High School
Below:
Big names like Al Jolson (left) and Cab Ca lb way (right) performed on Pennsylvania Avenue in its heyday

Left:

Douglass High School, noted for its high academic standards when Baltimore's public schools remained segregated, sent an unusually high number of graduates on to college or normal school

National Crises & Urban Renaissance
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needed respite beiween World War I and the difficult years of the Depression and World War II which followed. Although the date of the great crash, October 24, 1929, generally marks the beginning of the crisis, in reality the transition from prosperity to depression was somewhat less abrupt. Throughout the nation, several sectors of the economy were in trouble before

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1929. Housing construction tell off after the post-war shortage was satiated. Farmers faced the consequences of their wartime expansion once a recovered Europe no longer purchased so much American food. Such poor agricultural markets and also the devastations of the boll weevil drove many farmers and agricultural workers into cities like Baltimore in search of employment.

Just as some segments of the economy had wound down before the crash, others continued to operate at a fairly high level after 1929. All states and cities faced grave difficulties, but the specific problems varied somewhat from place to place. During the period immediately following the stock market crash, Baltimore fared better than some other cities.

Unemployment spread more slowly in Baltimore because of the city's diversified economy. The numbers of jobless people rose gradually here. Towns that were dependent on one major industry often felt a more sudden shock wave. Furthermore, only a few big banks in Baltimore failed. The Baltimore Trust Company was the first to close its doors in September, 1930. Most of the big banks in town did not fail. They were managed by conservative bankers not given to the speculative policies of their more adventuresome colleagues. Because of this, most Baltimore depositors did not see their lifetime savings wiped out. One other advantage Baltimore possessed was its large number of home owners. In an era when many mortgages were paid off in five years, a large number of people owned their homes clear of debt and therefore did not face losing them in foreclosure proceedings.

All these factors notwithstanding, Baltimore soon began to feel the effects of the national slowdown. Men and women began to face layoffs or salary cuts. Unemployment ran highest among the city's blacks, who were often the first

Opposite:
Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, pictured here in his World War I uniform, lived in Baltimore during the 7920s, for some time occupying an apartment overlooking the campus of the Johns Hopkins University on North Charles Street
Henry L. Mencken, who hved
most of his life on Hollins Street, brought renown to the city of his birth as one of the leading pundits of his time
Roy Campanella, who played in the Negro League for the Baltimore Elites, was one of many players who moved into the major leagues when they desegregat~d after World War II
George Herman Ruth first played baseball at St. Mary's Industrial SchooL Jack Dunn, owner of the Orioles, gave the Babe his first major league job, and the Baltimore boy became a national hero

National Crises and Urban Renaissance:
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fired. Women workers faced layoffs from employers who felt they should not take jobs away from men. This was true sometimes even when the women were responsible for the support of their family. Blacks and women may have lost their jobs first, but everybody was threatened. By January 1931, roughly 42,000 Baltimoreans, or one-eighth of the total work force were unemployed. In September 1931, Baltimore's labor unions reported that 31 percent of their members were unemployed and 27 percent could find only part-time work. President Herbert Hoover's Commission for Unemployment set Baltimore's rate at 19.2 percent in 1931. People were suffering.

The men in charge in 1930, while this situation was developing, were known humani tarians. Maryland's Governor Albert C. Ritchie began his career as a progressive. A popular politician, he held his office from 1920 to 1935. Baltimore Mayor William Broening was known for siding with the "little guys" and working for safety rules in industry and other such protective measures. In particular, Ritchie was loathe to accept funds from the federal government. Maryland was one of only eight states that turned down the first federal monies offered.

In 1930 no state agency existed to handle unemployment or relief problems. The Board of State Aid and Charities served primarily to give advice to private charities and to make inspections. In May, 1930, Mayor Broening established a Commission on Employment Stabilization and in December a Municipal Free Employment Service. Neither agency could handle the large numbers of unemployed. There simply were not enough jobs to go around.

Private charities did their best to provide relief. In Baltimore, 80 percent of the relief cases were handled by the Family Welfare Association. Additional help came from the Bureau of Catholic Charities, the Jewish Social Service

198

Bureau, the Salvation Army, and smaller groups. In 1930, the city reluctantly granted $8900 to the Family Welfare Association and $3900 to the Jewish Social Service 'Bureau when those organizations ran out of funds.

Police Commissioner Charles Gaither announced that the department would assume a role in providing relief and asked for donations of money and gifts in kind. By February, 1931, the Police Department had provided fuel and food for 7500 families and had fed 6600 persons at lqcal station houses. That same month, the Baltimore Association of Commerce organized a Citizens' Emergency Relief Committee. W. Frank Roberts served as its chairman. Mayor Broening contributed $50,000 from the city's contingency fund. By April the businessmen had raised $350,000. The Sunpapers sponsored Self-Denial Day on March 27, 1931. Boxes appeared all over town. Baltimore's citizens were asked to deny themselves something they wanted and contribute the money for distribution among the needy. The 1931 Community Chest drive raised $2 million for relief in Baltimore. The Citizens' Emergency Relief Committee total rose to $650,000. Ritchie contributed $125,000, four days proceeds from the racetrack, for relief in Baltimore. But none of this was enough.

As the May, 1931 mayoral election approached, Howard Jackson campaigned promising that the municipal government would do all it could to bring relief and employment. He won. And the situation continued to get worse. In September, 3800 families in Baltimore received aid from the Citizens' Emergency Relief Committee. Five months later, 14,100 families requested relief. By March, 1932, the committee needed $50,000 a week. That month, Jackson contributed $100,000 from the city's contingen cy funds. Other money was raised by bonds which Ritchie had reluctantly agreed to issue. By January, 1933, 20 percent of all Baltimore's

By 1933 scenes like this showed the desperation of the city's unemployed. Over 20 percent of the population was unemployed during the worst days of the Depression

workers were unemployed. Over 20,000 families were on relief:Finally, in March, Ritchie applied to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for a loan to bring some federal money into the state.

Governor Ritchie's slowness, similar to President Hoover's, to experiment with new methods of government financing to meet the crisis, contributed to his election defeat in 1934. Jackson's people did not support Ritchie. The Republican candidate, Harry W. Nice, carried Baltimore and the state.

Howard Jackson soon realized that the situation he found when he took office in 1931 needed more than temporary relief. He led Baltimore into the New Deal, and he set out to run the city like a business. The log& he imprinted on his stationery bespoke his approach to his office: "Be courteous, efficient, and economical."

Jackson launched Baltimore on a plan of business-like management of municipal government, efficient relief projects, and ijseful public works. Accepting funds from Washington on one hand, he initiated a successful drive to collect local taxes on the other. When other cities faced large defaults in 1933 and 1934, Jackson collected 85 percent and 94 percent, respectively, of all monies owed. Such efficiency enabled him to reduce assessments and lower the tax rate from $2.54 to $2.34. Jackson did reduce salaries paid to municipal workers: those who earned more than $1000 received a five percent cut, and those whose salaries were over $1200 lost 10 percent. He decreased his own salary by 20 percent. But unlike many other cities, Baltimore's employees received checks every payday and the city maintained a good credit rating. That proved beneficial in attracting federal money, especially for programs that required matching funds.

Jackson won national acclaim for his administration of Baltimore. His insistence on efficient management of all programs and appointment of competent people to run them were crucial to Baltimore's survival. Judge Thomas Waxter directed the Baltimore Welfare Department which handled all federal, state and municipal funds for general public assistance. Waxter 'was highly praised. Dr. Huntingdon Williams, who directed the city's Health Department, twice won awards for the most efficient health program in the nation.

Jackson insisted that all New Deal projects have long-term usefulness as well as providing ernployment for hungry people. City officials worked with representatives of the Civil Works Administration, the Works Progress Administra tion, the Public Works Administration and other agencies to plan the projects. The Maryland director of the Public Works Administration, Abel Wolman, a sanitary engineer from Johns Hopkins, was especially helpful. The list of projects is impressive. Jackson built a new wing for the Art Museum and the new Enoch Pratt Free Library. Collections at both places were catalogued. Additions were made to several city hospitals and to Morgan College.

New Deal funds constructed the Mount Pleasant Park and Golf Course, a second tunnel from Loch Raven Reservoir to Montebello, and the new Prettyboy Reservoir. New schools and playgrounds opened. Existing schools were repaired and beautified. Baltimore gained wider roads and the viaducts on Howard and Orleans Streets. Late in the New Deal the city's first public housing, the Edgar Allen Poe Homes, opened in East Baltimore.

With all these successes, it is not surprising that Howard Jackson won reelection in 1935 and 1939. In 1935 he defeated Willie Curran's man in the primary and in the. general election won easily over both Republican Blanchard Randall, Jr. and Socialist Elisabeth Gilman. Jackson

National Crises and Urban Renaissance
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entered the gubernatorial primaries in 1938 but lost the nomination to Herbert O'Conor, an ally of Curran's. O'Conor defeated Nice for the governorship. The following year, Jackson defeated the Curran-O'Conor candidate for the mayoral nomination and then went on to beat a popular new Republican, Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, to win his fourth and last term as. mayor.

Despite Mayor Jackson's efficiency, life remained exceedingly difficult for a great many people during the 1930s. Soup lines continued to feed many hungry people. Others scraped by without enough food, without decent homes, and without opportunities for education.

200

Throughout the nation, different groups I protested the system under which these

conditions persisted through the decade. But although Socialists and other protest parties fielded candidates in many elections, most voters chose to work within the existing system. Somehow, President Franklin Roosevelt inspire& confidence that everything would come out all ri'ght.

The New Deal marked a watershed in the American's political history. Before Roosevelt was president, the usual national majorit~ was Republican. Since the New Deal, it has been Democratic. Baltimore was already a heavily Democratic city, but national changes were reflected in local politics. The most dramatic change occurred as black voters switched their allegiance from the party of Lincoln to the party of the New Deal. Former Repub'lican City Councilman William Fitzgerald's move t9 the Democratic Party and his work as a W.P.A. official typified the transformation. As in so many similar cases, Roosevelt's economic policies precipitated the move.

An. interesting black protest group was formed in Baltimore in 1931, at a time when many civil rights organizations were stagnating. Their techniques and goals prefigured the broader civil rights movement of the 1960s. The Young People's Forum was organized by a group of well-educated, younger members of some of Baltimore's leading black families. Juanita Jackson served as president of the group. Her mother, Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson, an experienced civil rights activist, was an advisor. Members met at the Bethel A.M.E. Church and other churches. They invited speakers chosen "to promote youth consciousness," among them Walter White of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, athlete Jesse Owens, diplomat Ralph Bunche, birth control advocate Margaret Sanger, and

Opposite:
City councilman William
Fitzgerald moved into the
Democratic Party to support the
New Deal

Right:
As the depression made economic difficulties even harsher, black Baltimoreans protested discrimination in employment
Below:
Free entertainment like this baseball game in 1931 drew crowds during the depression years

National Crises & Urban Renaissance
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newspaperman Gerald Johnson. In an effort to change policies that hurt the black community economically, the Young People's Forum sponsored "buy where you can work" drives. Their boycotts and picketing of Pennsylvania Avenue stores, including the A&P, resulted in the hiring of black clerks. The group also helped register blacks to vote.

All the protests and all the New Deal programs continued on through the 1930s, and none of them ended the Depression. British economist John Maynard Keynes had figured out the solution: spending. But no one, in or out of the New Deal, imagined the magnitude of spending that would be necessary to put America's millions back to work and start the economic cycle upward again. What really ended the Great Depression was World War II. Millions of men were taken out of the civilian work force and paid by the Army. Millions more were hired to produce war material which the soldiers of all nations destroyed almost as fast as it came out of the factories. Prosperity returned, but with it came ~he agonies of war.

Three days after the b6mbs fell on Pearl Harbor, Mayor Jackson organized a Civil Defense Committee, headquartered at City Hall and chaired by Baltimore's Highways Engineer, George A. Carter. A crash program to train instructors was put together. During the Christmas holidays 1,100 teachers qualified as civil defense instructors and then taught others. Within six months ten thousand persons had been trained. Before the war ended, over twenty-five thousand Baltimoreans participated in some form of civil defense activity. Air raid wardens~ auxiliary police and firemen, a medical corps, messengers, demolition and clearance crews all received training. Over four hundred people were trained to work in decontamina tion squads in case of gas attacks. Warning centers staffed by volunteer women telephone

202

operators were set up to operate 24 hours a day. The media ran a campaign to teach people how to react in case of a bombing. Practice blackouts allowed familiarization with some of the procedures.

As thousands of Baltimoreans left to join the Armed Forces, and student pilots practiced in the sky beyond Mt. Washington, Governor O'Conor authorized a state guard, known as the Minute Men, to give local protection in case of sabotage. Despite this precaution, fears of local enemies were not as great as they had been during World War I. Although a small percentage of Baltimore's German Americans had joined the pro-Nazi Bund during the thirties, many more had been outspoken in their condemnation of Hitler and their loyalty to the United States. East coast Germans faced little of the paranoia that sent west coast Japanese Americans to detention camps. Some German groups were placed under surveillance, and a number did not survive the war, but the irrational hatred of all things German that had characterized the First World War did not reappear.

Baltimore, as it had in so many wars, served as a major military supply center. Men, food, and supplies moved rapidly through the port. Two local industries, shipbuilding and aircraft, and their suppliers were especially important. As early as the fall of 1941 the Bethlehem-Fairchild Shipyards received contracts to build 62 ships. Before the war was over, the company had hired forty-seven thousand workers to construct 384 Liberty ships, 94 Victory ships, and 30 ISTs. The Maryland Drydock Company hired twelve thousand new employees to work on conversion and repair orders received before Pearl Harbor. At the same time, Glenn L. Martin Aircraft was backlogged with orders worth $743 million and hired six thousand people to work on them. This rate of production continued throughout the

Right:
The war abroad changed the appearance of the streets of Baltimore. Here several men inspect sandbags installed by local civil defense officials
center:
Sailors with loaded duffel bags march past the Richmond Market
Above:
Air-raid sirens were installed throughout the city for use in blackout drills during the war

Left:
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor visited Baltimore in 1947. A large crowd, curiosity seekers among them, turned out to greet the former Wallis War field Simpson who once lived in the city

National Crises and Urban Renaissance
1917-1980

war.

Thousands of men, women and children poured into Baltimore from rural Maryland, Appalachia and points south to work in the war industries. Women and blacks were hired in jobs previously closed to them. The burgeoning population placed a burden on all city services: schools, health, sanitation, transportation. Ten thousand new housing units were needed. Military needs, of course, took priority.

Everyday life in Baltimore quickly reflected those military priorities. Sugar shortages hit early. Waitresses in restaurants asked "how many?" if a person ordered sugar with coffee and often refused to give more than two cubes. The 5un reported in April 1942 that tea was getting scarce and so were lawn mowers. Tires were rationed. Price ceilings were established for tires, retreads, sugar, electrical appliances and much more, so people had a fair chance at purchasing the limited supplies that were available. Favorite soft drinks were unobtainable at the end of each month as that month's quota ran out. Rubber heels were more expensive. Razor blade production was curtailed. People carried old tubes to the d~ugstore to get refills of toothpaste and shaving cream. Home heating oil deliveries were limited. The Baltimore Transit Company's ridership grew by leaps and bounds as more and more people saved their cars and gasoline for special uses.

Despite a great degree of unity in national politics and widespread support of the war effort, local political rivalries continued as usual. Baltimore elected a new mayor in 1943. Howard Jackson ran for an unprecedented fifth term. The Democratic Party alliances had fallen apart, however, and Curran's forces once again opposed Jackson. Curran and O'Conor had also split in a patronage dispute. The result of the Democratic disunity was a victory for Republican candidate Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, who

204

served as mayor through the final years of the war and the first years of the peace.

Baltimoreans followed the war in Europe and in the Pacific on the radio and in newspaper reports. They watched eagerly as the tide of battle turned slowly in 1943 and 1944. They cheered the June 6, 1944 landing in Normandy and the Allied arrival in Paris on August 25. They mourned the death of President Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, and less than a month later, on May 7, rejoiced at the unconditional surrender of Germany. They watched the new president, Harry Truman, and read of the results of his first major decision as the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and were glad and relieved when Japan also finally surrendered on September 2. The long war was over.

Once again Baltimore began the transition from a wartime to a peacetime society. Veterans returned, war industries ceased production, and some workers lost their jobs. By October, 1945, approximately thirty-nine thousand persons had been laid off; but several factors cushioned the shock. Industries quickly reconverted to meet the large demand for consumer goods. Government programs for veterans, especially the G. I. Bill, funneled many veterans out of the labor market. Returning soldiers hastened to take advantage of the opportunity for higher education. The Johns Hopkins freshman class in 1946 enrolled half teenagers and half veterans. By the academic year 1948-49, 70 percent of all Hopkins undergraduates were ex-servicemen. While these people studied, industry reconver ted. The government supervised this and other processes more than it did after World War I. Consequently, socio-economic dislocations were fewer.

Almost immediately, however, a cold war replaced the past conflict as the absorbing international concern. One domestic result of the rivalrybetween the United States and Russia

Before the war's end, the workers

at the Bethlehem-Fairchild

Shipyards built over 500 ships.

Here the Liberty Ship Patrick

Henry readies to set sail

Below:

Rationing cards regulated the amount of many scarce commodities people could purchase. Here, precious sugar is being weighed carefully

National Crises and Urban Renaissance
191 7-198O

was the rise of a strong anti-Communist movement in this country. Just as the threat of a Bolshevik revolution had been exaggerated after World War I, the fear of Communist infiltration mushroomed following World War II. Several Baltimoreans figured prominently in the trag~c circumstances.

graduate of Johns Hopkins and former editor of the student Newsletter, Alger Hiss received an honorary LL.D. from his alma mater in the university's Commemoration Day ceremonies in February, 1947. He was honored for distinguished service in international relations. Less than three years later, Hiss was convicted of perjury for lying about his affiliations with the Communist Party.

Owen Lattimore, director of the Walter Hines Page School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins and an expert on the Far East, was accused by Senator Joseph McCarthy of being the top Communist agent in the United States. The university resisted pressure to fire Lattimore, and faculty members, including George Boas and Clarence Long, rallied to his support. Finally, Maryland Senator Millard E. Tydings cleared his name before McCarthy's committee. McCarthy then undertook to remove Tydings from the Senate, which he did in the scandalous campaign of 1950 when McCarthy supporters juxtaposed photographs of Tydings and a former head of the American Communist Party, Earl Browder, to give the impression that they worked together. Ugly incidents like these occurred all too widely in Baltimore and elsewhere until the frenzy subsided in the mid-1950s.

Baltimore's post-war history is a success story. Like much of the rest of the nation, the city in 1945 faced major problems of readjustment and rehabilitation which had been accumulating through the crises of the Great Depression and World War II. Baltimore's solutions stirred

206

enthusiasm both locally and throughout the nation. The involvement of many segments of the population and the broad cooperation between the public and private sectors in planning and executing rehabilitation projects have played a large part in the success of

The renewal program began under Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr. who was elected in 1947. He defeated Curran '5 candidate, Howard Crook, in the primary and Republican Deeley K. Nice in the general election. D'Alesandro had the support of a number of ward leaders including Ambrose Kennedy, Patrick O'Malley, Jack Pollack, and Joe Wyatt. D'Alesandro wanted to build, and he took office at the right time to do just that.

Blight had been spreading across downtown Baltimore through the poverty of the 1930s and the war years of the 1940s. A survey made in 1950 revealed the decay which was most extensive in a ring around the downtown area. Of Baltimore's two hundred fifty thousand homes, ninety-one thousand were in blighted areas. One-third of the city's people lived in those areas. Over forty-five thousand homes were classified as substandard and eighteen thousand as dilapidat ed. Between twenty thousand and thirty thousand homes lacked toilets, baths, hot water or all three. Most census tracts were either all black or all white.

Shortages of schools and recreation facilities had worsened during the war. Inner-city decay and post-war prosperity accelerated suburban growth. People who could afford to were abandoning the inner city to people whose needs for city services were greatest. The central business district suffered heavily as fewer people shopped downtown. Traffic congestion and lack of parking kept increasing numbers of Baltimoreans away. Its assessed value declined heavily.

Above: Top:
v-J Day is hailed by this crowd at News of the German surrender
Baltimore and Charles Streets. brought crowds to the streets
Finally the long war had ended
Above:
Peace brought happy reunions on Pier 11 at Canton

National Crises & Urban Renaissance
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Several programs were begun to ameliorate the decay. A comprehensive system of housing rehabilitation which became known as the Baltimore Plan resulted in the restoration of homes by the enforcement of sanitary and safety regulations. Despite a crash program, twenty- five thousand substandard homes still surround ed the downtown area in 1954. Mayor D'Alesandro's building program had given the city five hundred miles of new streets, 17 recreation centers and pools, 9 new schools, 7 off-street parking garages, 4 new hospital and health buildings, 4 new firehouses, a new expressway and the lower deck of the new Memorial Stadium.

Big league teams came to Baltimore to play in the new stadium. The National Football League Colts began to play here in the fall of 1953 after Carroll Rosenbloom and other local investors purchased the team. Their first win of an NFL championship in January, 1959 gave Baltimore a bigger boost than all the building projects combined. Major league baseball came to the city when the season opened in the spring of 1954, after Clarence Miles headed a group of Baltimoreans who purchased the St. Louis Browns. Joseph Iglehard and then Jerold C. Hoffberger served as chairman of the board. In 1966, the year after Hoffberger took over, the Orioles won the American League pennant and the World Series.

More innovations appeared. Baltimore became the first American city to add fluorine to its water supply. D'Alesandro hired the nation's foremost traffic engineer, Henry Barnes, to straighten out the city's horrendous traffic problems. The new Friendship Airport begun under Theodore McKeldin's administration opened. Mayor D'Alesandro, Governor William Preston I,ane, and President Harry Truman dedicated the facility in 1950.

The years 1954 and 1955 saw several key

.208

events that set the future course of Baltimore's development. By the end of that time, a pattern of cooperation of the city's residents, business leaders, and government officials was beginning to evolve. Several processes occurred simulta neously. Blacks, the one major group which had been excluded from power, began to integrate more fully than ever before into the life of the city. At. the same time, businessmen and politicians joined in a venture to promote the city and improve the environment for both business and living.

The events of 1954, the year of the Supreme Court school integration decision, signalled a new beginning for Baltimore's black community. Just under a third of the total population at this time, Negroes had been without elected political representation since 1931 when the last black Republicans served on the City Council. As blacks moved into the Democratic party in increasing numbers during the 1930s, a small number of patronage jobs were distributed among them, but the policy-making positions were retained by whites. Then in 1954, a group of Negroes led by a Republican, Harry Cole, successfully challenged Jack Pollack's domina tion of the 4th District. Harry Cole won election to the State Senate. Emory Cole, also a Republican and no relation, and Truly Hatchett, a Democrat, gained seats in the House of Delegates.

The following year, Pollack included a black candidate, Walter Dixon, on his victorious City Council ticket. In 1958, Verda Welcome and Irma Dixon became the first black women ever elected to the Maryland State Legislature. Verda Welcome's supporters formed the nucleus of the Fourth District Democratic Organization. Dr. Carl Murphy and William "Little Willie" Adams were early contributors. Over the years, warring factions splintered off and formed new groups. As the Negro population in East

Right:
Pitcher Dave McNally and Brooks
Robinson cheer the winning of
the 1966 World Series

Below:
President Harry S. Truman joined
Governor Preston Lane (left) and
Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro
(right) at the dedication of
Friendship Airport in lune 1950

National Crises & Urban Renaissance
1917-1980

Baltimore increased, they established a political power base there as well. By 1970, black political organizations were strong enough to elect Parren Mitchell to Congress.

As blacks were beginning to move into elective offices in Baltimore, where they would speak out in favor of rehabilitating the city's slum, some other people began to formulate a program to revitalize the downtown business district. They planned to rejuvenate the central area and make that a catalyst for future renewal programs throughout the city.

A group of businessmen formed the Greater Baltimore Committee in 1955. They chose Clarence Miles to be chairman, Thomas Butler vice-chairman, Jerold C. Hoffberger secretary, and Daniel Lindley, treasurer. James Rouse became chairman of the executive committee. William Boucher, Ill joined the group as executive director in 1956. Mayor D'Alesandro appointed municipal agencies to work with the

G.B.C. Thus, from the start, the principle of partnership of public and private groups was established. They set out to define Baltimore's problems and then develop a'concrete program to revive and promote the city.

The Greater Baltimore Committee, joined by the Committee for Downtown, presented the concept of the Charles Center to city government in 1958. The project was designed to halt the deterioration of the downtown business district and to rejuvenate the social, cultural and economic life of the city. The plan called for use of the resources at hand so development could take place in a relatively short time. Private business was to finance the major portion of the costs. The pla~ners hoped that Charles Center would lead to improve ments in the accessibility of downtown via mass transit. The city accepted the program and issued urban renewal bonds to help raise money. The Charles Center Management Office was

210

opened under the direction of J. Jefferson Miller.

As the building began, a mayoral primary election replaced D'Alesandro with machine opponent J. Harold Grady as the Democratic nominee. Despite Pollack's "vote your conscience" support of Republican candidate Theodore McKeldin, Grady won and held the office during the initial construction stages. When he resigned to accept a judgeship in 1962, Philip Goodman, who was President of the City Council, filled the vacancy. The following year McKeldin defeated Goodman and became not only mayor, but the only Republican dffice holder in the city. During this same period, the city benefitted from the recently created Maryland Port Authority which had been authorized by the state in 1956 when McKeldin was governor and Marvin Mandel the chairman of the city delegation in the House of Delegates.

Ground-breaking ceremonies for One Charles Center in 1961 marked the beginning of the renewal in new public and private investment in office buildings, apartments, a hotel, a theater, commercial and specialty space, parks, overhead walkways and underground garages. The Civic Center with its 10,000-seat sports arena and 100,000 square-foot exhibition hall opened nearby in 1962.

Before Charles Center was completed, part two of the dream started to materialize. Abel Wolman joined others who viewed the inner harbor as the perfect place to continue renewal. He urged McKeldin to set in motion plans for the neglected waterfront area. At the urging of William Boucher Ill, the mayor reassembled the winning partnership that had created Charles Center. David Wallace and Thomas Todd drew up the master plan in 1964. The following year, the city signed a contract to allow Charles Center Inner Harbor Management, Inc. to direct the planning and operation of both projects. By

Left:
lames Rouse, who built Cross Keys, was chosen to develop a commercial complex at the Inner Harbor
Above:
Charles Center was the first stage in Baltimore's downtown renewal
Center Right:
Theodore McKeldin (center) won the mayoralty in 1963 and became the city's only Republican official. With him here (left to right) are: lohn Marshall Butler, I. Glenn Beall, Samuel Culotta, and lames Devereaux
Right:
The Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Charles Center began drawing crowds back to the downtown area in the evening hours
Right:
Owner Jerry Hoffberger talks with three members of the winning team. Left to right: Hank Bauer, Andy Etchebarren, and Boog PowelL

National Crises & Urban Renaissance
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1967, with the full cooperation of the city's new mayor, Thomas D'Alesandro Ill, Project I which dealt with a one-block deep area along the harbor's edge was unveiled. With both public and private money, the actual development began in 1971. Inner Harbor investment to 1980 represents $775 million. Private investors have borne 80 percent of the costs. Real estate tax revenues have increased by an average of $5 million a year.

During the planning years of the Inner Harbor, Baltimore saw racial tensions culminate in riots that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968. Those riots expressed in a vivid way the frustrations of blacks with the continuing poverty and discrimination that they faced. Although National Guard commander General George Gelston minimized personal confrontation by issuing orders against shooting, six people died and property damage was assessed at over $14 million. The city that the planners were trying to solidify split wider apart. More suburbanites than ever declined to come downtown for any reason at all. More middle-class families moved 6u~. In fact, census f~gures of 1960 and 1970 revealed that Baltimore had lost residents in both preceding decades. And, despite all the planning, the city's public image remained poor.

A major turnaround came with the election of Mayor William Donald Schaefer in 1971. His enthusiasm for his native city quickly communi cated itself to city and suburban dwellers alike. He took Charles Center and the Inner Harbor and loved them out loud. With his support, the City Fair, begun in 1970, grew into the largest urban festival in the nation. Ten years later, as a firmly entrenched tradition, the fair draws millions to the Inner Harbor each September. Schaefer and his co-workers capitalized on success. To the fair they added ethnic festivals and "Sunny Sundays" in the Inner Harbor. To

212

the large urban renewal programs they added dollar houses, neighborhood revitalization programs like the ones in Washington Hill and Butcher's Hill, and blocks upon blocks of renovated houses that are bringing middle income taxpayers back to Baltimore as home owners. The new community called Coldspring, planned by Moshe Safdie, on the site of a rock quarry, should house twelve thousand people when it is finished.

The real genius of Baltimore's renaissance has been its inclusiveness. All the city's neighborhoods, and most economic and ethnic groups have joined in the planning. Renewal has encompassed both buildings and living. In the decade of the 1970s, a cultural blossoming has drawn people back to downtown Baltimore. Crowds and facilities have grown together. Creations of the 1950s like Arena Players and of the 1960s like Center Stage perform to large audiences in modern theaters. The Morris Mechanic Theater in Charles Center draws more subscribers each year. The Baltimore Symphony, transformed under the direction of Sergiu Comissiona, soon will play in the new Maryland Concert Hall, sponsored jointly by the city, the state, and Joseph Meyerhoff. During the 1970s, a new wing at the Walters Gallery has allowed more complete exhibition of its treasures. Construction of an aquarium is underway on the north shore. The Science Center with its planetarium opened on the southwest corner of the Inner Harbor. The Art Museum has broken ground for a sculpture garden.

Baltimbre's renaissance began, like most urban renewal projects, with businessmen planning buildings for the city's commercial district. The flowering, which has won Baltimore national acclaim, made people the center of the renewal. In the peaceful 1970s, Baltimoreans have had the opportunity to rediscover the joys of urban living.

lose ph Meyerhoff presents a model of the new Maryland Concert Hall

The Inner Harbor, Baltimore's showplace, contains office and residential buildings, green space and promenades, museums, and a marina

Left:
loining in the 7973 groundbreaking of the IBM Building on Pratt Street are (left to right) Robert Hubner, Vice President of IBM, State Comptroller Louis Goldstein, Mayor William Donald Schaefer, and Baltimore Housing Commissioner, Robert Embry. Behind them, former mayors Theodore McKeldin and Thomas D'Alesandro, Ill look on