As a social historian specializing in community studies, I am often asked to do media interviews after catastrophes or significant accidents. These tragedies can profoundly impact the social, economic, and historical fabric, altering lives, historic buildings, landmarks, and artifacts. This was the case this week. After a three-alarm fire destroyed a 170-year-old hotel in Elkton…
Integrating Delaware Nursing Schools
I am researching the struggle for equality in healthcare, a lesser-known dimension of the civil rights movement. Although the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to “separate but equal” in public schools in 1954, segregation persisted for years in medicine. However, by the mid-1960s, a combination of protests, federal legislation, and judicial rulings had significantly…
Mrs. Grant Was One of the Freedom Riders
BEL AIR, Feb. 9, 2023 — I had the opportunity to attend an award ceremony for Janice East Moorehead Grant, 89, where she received the first Harford County Civil Rights Leadership Award from Harford Community College. In the 1950s and 1960s, Mrs. Grant led various efforts to support civil rights in northeastern Maryland. These included…
The “Lynching Bee” — Coming to Terms
In a historical context, the term bee brings to mind social gatherings or events where a group of people came together to accomplish a task or achieve a common goal. Often called work bees or community bees, they were associated with quilting, barn raising, and spelling—activities where a crowd assembled to work for a purpose,…