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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: 235 Print image (63K) |
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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: 235 Print image (63K) |
| Honorable Albert C. Ritchie, Governor of Maryland, Annapolis. Honorable and Dear Sir: The Inter-Racial Commission appointed by your Excellency has been duly organized for the purpose set forth in Joint Resolution No. 8 adopted by the Legislature of Maryland authorizing the appointment of the Commission. The Commission organized by creating five divisions for the study of inter-racial conditions. These divisions are used as a basis in our report, and are as follows: 1. Education, Public and Private. 2. Health, Housing and Sanitation. 3. Public Service and Legal Status. 4. Industry and Economic Life. 5. Public Welfare, Charitable and Penal Institutions. The Negro population is approximately 1/7 or 14% of the total population of the State. The welfare of these Negro citizens is so interwoven .with the general problems of the State that it is not an easy task to recommend specific remedies. The Negro farmer, laborer, family servant, as well as the teacher, preacher, doctor and tradesman, ask only the same chance as his white neighbor,—an opportunity to make a living and to enjoy his home and the fruits of his labor in peace and quiet. The Negro's worst enemy, as with others, is ignorance and its train of evils, among which are vice and crime. Just in proportion as these people can be educated into self-respect and higher ideals will the excessive crime and death ratio decline and the.State's cost of courts and jails be proportionately reduced. Repressive measures only aggravate. Penitentiaries do not cure. Knowledge of the laws of health, of the rewards of good morals, of the fruits of right living make for better citizenship in the Negro as with others. While the Negro race must be left to evolve from within, it |