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TASK FORCE TO STUDY THE HISTORY AND LEGACY OF SLAVERY IN MARYLAND (Final Report) 1999/12/31 MdHR 991422 MdHR 991422, Image No: 156 Print image (42K) |
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TASK FORCE TO STUDY THE HISTORY AND LEGACY OF SLAVERY IN MARYLAND (Final Report) 1999/12/31 MdHR 991422 MdHR 991422, Image No: 156 Print image (42K) |
| 147 The Task Force can not ignore that a disproportionately large number of African American Marylanders deprived of freedom has a long history that goes back to the practice of slavery in the State. The disproportionate number of present-day African Americans ensnared in the criminal justice system means that many are not self-reliant or engaged in normative patterns of family and community social interaction with their employability, in some cases, permanently compromised. Moreover, as Maryland is one of a small minority of states, virtually all with large minority populations, where felony convictions can result in the permanent lost of voting rights, disproportionate numbers of African Americans, who are convicted felons, are prevented from political participation, a situation which possibly aggravates their sense of alienation. Professor McDougall has also pointed out that blacks were virtually prohibited from voting in Maryland until 1870. Even in Baltimore which was more progressive than many other parts of the Maryland, law-abiding blacks could not serve on juries before 1880 and it was only in 1885 that the Supreme Court of Baltimore recognized the right of black lawyers to practice before it. Although the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation intended to disenfranchise |