Baltimore invents red lining
Baltimore City Council enacts the first racial zoning ordinance explicitly barring African Americans from moving into majority-white blocks.
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Legal
Thurgood Marshall wins Brown vs. Board of Education case in 1954
Thurgood Marshall, Maryland’s most famous lawyer, wins Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954 to desegregate public schools. Appointed the first African American to the Supreme Court in 1976, Marshall serves 24 years.
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Morgan State students stage first sit-in
Seven Morgan State College students stage the first sit-in at Read’s Drugstore in Baltimore. Ends peacefully. This is 5 years prior to more famous Greensboro, NC sit-in.
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Lillie May Carroll Jackson is the mother of the Civil Rights Movement
Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, with daughter Juanita, begins “Buy Where You Work” Campaign. She makes Baltimore branch of the NAACP the largest and most effective.
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Lincoln suspends habeas corpus, locks up secessionists at Ft. McHenry
Lincoln suspends Habeas Corpus to jail secessionists at Ft. McHenry. John Merryman sues and Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney rules against Lincoln. Ruling ignored.
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Marylander Roger B. Taney hands down the Dred Scott decision.
Roger Taney, Maryland native and Supreme Court Chief Justice, delivers 7-2 opinion in 1857, in the Dred Scott case, declaring that Blacks in the US are not considered citizens nor entitled to government protection, and that Congress cannot prohibit slavery. The decision becomes a major factor leading to the Civil War.
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Fugitive Slave Act is tested in Monkton
Edward Gorsuch of Monkton, pursues 13 enslaved escapees to Christiana, just over the Pennsylvania line. Although he has a warrant under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act., the free Black community defends the escapees and Gorsuch is killed. It is the first test of federal legislation to retrieve escaped slaves.
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McCulloch vs. Maryland is the largest expansion of federal power to date
The 1819 US Supreme Court decision in the McCulloch vs Maryland Case expands federal power by ruling for the national bank over state banks. Chief US Justice John Marshall rules in favor of the federal government.
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Patty Cannon, notorious slave catcher
Patty Cannon, female head of a notorious gang of slave catchers, is arrested in 1829 and indicted for the murder of four Black men. She dies in jail awaiting trial.
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First Supreme Court Justice impeached
US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase (born in Somerset Cty) is impeached by US House but found not guilty in Senate. Pres. Jefferson opposes independent power of the judiciary, supports impeachment.
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