White Space, Black Hood

by Sheryll Cashin

  14. Pietila, Not in My Neighborhood, 70, 72.

  15. “Segregation a Boon to Real Estate Sharps,” Afro-American, January 23, 1915.

  16. Pietila, Not in My Neighborhood, 95–104.

  17. Pietila, 159, 171.

  18. Pietila, 146, 154.

  19. Alec MacGillis, “The Third Rail: In Baltimore, Public Investment—and Disinvestment—in Transportation Have Figured Greatly in the Persistence of Racial and Economic Inequality,” Places Journal, March 2016, https://placesjournal.org/article/the-third-rail.

  20. Pietila, Not in My Neighborhood, 204.

  21. Pietila, Not in My Neighborhood, 219; “Harlem Park,” Baltimore Heritage, accessed September 17, 2020, https://baltimoreheritage.org/history/harlem-park; Complaint at 13–14, Balt. Reg’l Initiative Developing Genuine Equal, Inc. v. Maryland (2015).

  22. Raymond A. Mohl, “Race and Space in the Modern City: Interstate-95 and the Black Community in Miami,” in Urban Policy in Twentieth-Century America, ed. Arnold R. Hirsch and Raymond A. Mohl (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1993), 102, 134–36; “Sweet Auburn Historic District,” National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/atlanta/aub.htm.

  23. Pietila, Not in My Neighborhood, 95. “Red Line Community Compact: Defining the Success of Baltimore’s Red Line Transit Project,” Go Baltimore Redline, 2008, 8; Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 13–15; John Miller, “Roads to Nowhere: How Infrastructure Built on American Inequality,” Guardian, February 21, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/21/roads-nowhere-infrastructure-american-inequality.

  24. Pietila, Not in My Neighborhood, 95–104, 219, 244. A recent study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago demonstrated a decline in Fair Housing Act mortgage insurance and in private lending in C- and D-rated communities after the creation of Baltimore’s HOLC map. It further found that HOLC maps had a lasting impact on the communities they described, including Baltimore. The authors write, “Maps led to reduced credit access and higher borrowing costs which, in turn, contributed to disinvestment in poor urban American neighborhoods with long-run repercussions. . . . Being on the lower graded side of D-C boundaries led to rising racial segregation from 1930 until about 1970 or 1980 before starting to decline thereafter . . . Nevertheless, racial segregation along both the C-B and D-C borders remains in 2010, almost three quarters of a century later. Moreover . . . the maps had sizeable effects on homeownership rates, house values and rents.” Daniel Aaronson et al., “The Effects of HOLC’s ‘Redlining’ Maps,” Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (2019): 1, 36.

  25. Renewing Inequality, https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/renewal/#view=0/0/1&viz=cartogram&city=baltimoreMD&loc=13/39.3020/-76.6170.

  26. Pietila, Not in My Neighborhood, 214, 229–33.

  27. William A. Galston, “Pittsburgh’s Revival Lesson for Baltimore,” Wall Street Journal, May 6, 2015, https://www.wsj.com/articles/pittsburghs-revival-lesson-for-baltimore-1430867776.

  28. Thompson v. HUD, 1 No. MJG-95–309 (D. Md. 1995); Anft, “Three Years After His Death, Freddie Gray’s Neighborhood Faces a New Loss”; Laurie Braham, “Foes Killing House Plan Funds,” Chicago Tribune, December 15, 1994, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1994–12–15–9412150065-story.html; Michael A. Fletcher, “Mikulski, Champion of Liberal Causes, Led Fight to Kill MTO,” Baltimore Sun, September 25, 1994, http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1994–09–25/news/1994268041_1_mikulski-mto-housing-in-baltimore.

  29. Ron Cassie, “Back to the Future,” Baltimore, April 2018, https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/2018/4/20/thirty-years-ago-kurt-schmoke-openly-advocating-for-decriminalization-of-marijuana.

  30. Cassie, “Back to the Future.”

  31. Michael S. Rosenwald and Michael A. Fletcher, “Why Couldn’t $130 Million Transform One of Baltimore’s Poorest Places?,” Washington Post, May 2, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/why-couldnt-130-million-transform-one-of-baltimores-poorest-places/2015/05/02/0467ab06-f034-11e4-a55f-38924fca94f9_story.html?utm_term=551ac0a5c00e.

  32. MacGillis, “The Third Rail.”

  33. “Community Health Assessment,” Baltimore City Health Department, September 20, 2017, 7–9, 10, https://health.baltimorecity.gov/sites/default/files/health/attachments/Baltimore%20City%20CHA%20-%20Final%209.20.17.pdf.

  34. Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 3.

  35. Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 3.

  36. Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 11–12.

  37. Lawrence Brown, “Baltimore’s White L Crime Panic & Post-Uprising Policies,” Medium, November 15, 2017, https://medium.com/@BmoreDoc/baltimores-white-l-crime-panic-post-uprising-policies-794f21f1ffbd.

  38. MacGillis, “The Third Rail.”

  39. WBAL-TV II Baltimore, “Video: Baltimore’s Struggle to Get to Work,” posted May 11, 2017, YouTube video, 3:30, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=122&v=9lDtuOyFNVk; Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland; Sarah Kline, “Weighing Maryland’s Economic Future: Assessing the Benefits from the Red and Purple Lines,” Transportation for America, May 2015, 8, https://t4america.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Maryland-Transit-Report.pdf; Interview with Samuel Jordan, November 1, 2018, notes on file with the author.

  40. Pietila, Not in My Neighborhood, 249; Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 3–4, 9; MacGillis, “The Third Rail.”

  41. “Red Line Community Compact.”

  42. Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 14; MacGillis, “The Third Rail.”

  43. Patrick Sharkey, Stuck in Place: Urban Neighborhoods and the End of Progress Toward Racial Equality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013), 120; Robert J. Sampson, “‘Broken Windows’ and the Meanings of Disorder” and “The Theory of Collective Efficacy,” in Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighboring Effect (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 2139-3112, Kindle.

  44. Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 6–8; “Red Line Community Compact”; MacGillis, “The Third Rail.”

  45. In a third debate with opponent Democrat Anthony Brown, Governor Hogan “all but said he’d kill the Red Line and the Purple Line and dump transportation cash into roads [and] played to his strength among rural voters . . .” See Barry Rascovar, “Some Glimmers of Clarity on Issues,” Maryland Reporter.com, October 19, 2014, http://marylandreporter.com/2014/10/19/there-you-go-again-how-brown-and-hogan-did-in-the-last-debate; MacGillis, “The Third Rail.”

  46. “Purple Line: About the Project, Overview,” Maryland Transit Administration, https://www.purplelinemd.com/about-the-project/overview.

  47. Michael Laris, “Maryland Governor Lists Transportation Priorities, Meets with Top Trump Administration Officials,” Washington Post, March 22, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/maryland-governor-lists-transportation-priorities-meets-top-trump-administration-officials/2017/03/22/f86e20f6–of2a-11e7–9d5a-a83e627dc120_story.html?utm_term=.fea08d489298.

  48. Andrew Metcalf, “Report: Purple Line Among 50 Infrastructure Projects Deemed Priorities by Trump Team,” Bethesda Magazine, January 25, 2017, https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/transportation/report-purple-line-among-50-infrastructure-projects-deemed-priorities-by-trump-team.

  49. Martin Di Caro, “What Does Larry Hogan’s Election Mean for the Purple Line?,” WAMU, November 6, 2014, https://wamu.org/story/14/11/06/would_larry_hogan_really_kill_the_purple_line_in_maryland.

  50. Robert McCartney et al., “Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan Says Purple Line Will Move Forward,” Washington Post, June 25, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/2015/06/25/a255fe8c-1b4d-11e5–93b7–5eddc056ad8a_story.html?utm_term=.7fecb02fa2af.

  51. Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initia
tive Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 7; “Red Line Community Compact,” 3–5; MacGillis, “The Third Rail.”

  52. Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 7.

  53. “Maryland,” CNN Politics, December 21, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/election/2018/results/maryland/governor.

  54. Anft, “Three Years After His Death, Freddie Gray’s Neighborhood Faces a New Loss.”

  55. Christina Sterbenz, “A ‘Big Question’ Surrounds the Arrest of Freddie Gray, Which Sparked Riots Across Baltimore,” Business Insider, April 30, 2015, https://www.businessinsider.com/did-police-have-a-right-to-stop-freddie-gray-2015–4; MacGillis, “The Third Rail.”

  56. “Timeline: Freddie Gray’s Arrest, Death, and the Aftermath,” Baltimore Sun, April 12, 2015, http://data.baltimoresun.com/news/freddie-gray; https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32546204.

  57. Joel Gunter, “Baltimore Police Death: How Did Freddie Gray Die?” BBC News, May 1, 2015, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32546204; Natalie Sherman et al., “Freddie Gray Dies a Week After Being Injured During Arrest,” Baltimore Sun, April 19, 2015, https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-freddie-gray-20150419-story.html.

  58. MacGillis, “The Third Rail.”

  59. Yvonne Wenger, “Unrest Will Cost City $20 Million, Officials Estimate,” Baltimore Sun, May 26, 2015, https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-unrest-cost-20150526-story.html.

  60. “The Problem with ‘Thugs,’” Baltimore Sun, April 29, 2015, https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-thugs-freddie-gray-20150429-story,amp.html; German Lopez, “The Baltimore Protests over Freddie Gray’s Death, Explained,” Vox, August 18, 2016, https://www.vox.com/2016/7/27/18089352/freddie-gray-baltimore-riots-police-violence.

  61. Ahiza Garcia, “Mayor Backtracks: ‘We Don’t Have Thugs in Baltimore,’” Talking Points Memo, April 28, 2015, https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/thugs-baltimore-mayor-stephanie-rawlings-blake.

  62. David Jackson, “Obama Stands by the Term ‘Thugs,’ White House Says,” USA Today, April 29, 2015, https://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2015/04/29/obama-white-house-baltimore-stephanie-rawlings-blake/26585143.

  63. “Gov. Hogan Declares State of Emergency, Activates National Guard,” CBS Baltimore, April 27, 2015, https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/04/27/gov-hogan-puts-maryland-national-guard-on-notice.

  64. “The Problem with ‘Thugs.’”

  65. “The Problem with ‘Thugs.’”

  66. Luke Broadwater and Michael Dresser, “In West Baltimore, Frustration over Red Line’s Demise,” Baltimore Sun, June 16, 2015, https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-ci-red-line-loss-20150626-story.html.

  67. “Red Line Community Compact,” 5; “Re: Cancellation of Baltimore Red Line Project—Administrative Complaint,” Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition, http://www.moretransitequity.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/titleVI_complaint_121915.pdf.

  68. Sheryll Cashin, “How Larry Hogan Kept Blacks in Baltimore Segregated and Poor,” Politico, July 18, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/07/18/how-larry-hogan-kept-black-baltimore-segregated-and-poor-367930.

  69. Sarah Larimer, “‘Kids Are Freezing’: Amid Bitter Cold, Baltimore Schools, Students Struggle,” Washington Post, January 5, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/kids-are-freezing-amid-bitter-cold-baltimore-schools-students-struggle/2018/01/05/8c213eec-f183-11e7-b390-a36dc3fa2842_story.html; Talia Richman, “Leaky Roofs, Lead in the Water, Fire Risk: Baltimore Schools Face Nearly $3 Million in Maintenance Backlog,” Baltimore Sun, September 27, 2018, https://www.baltimoresun.com/education/bs-md-ci-facilties-costs-20180914-story.html.

  70. “Governor Hogan Rolls Back Tolls Statewide—Saving Marylanders $54 Million a Year,” Office of Governor Larry Hogan, https://governor.maryland.gov/2015/05/07/governor-hogan-rolls-back-tolls-statewide-saving-marylanders-54-million-a-year; Colin Campbell, “MTA to Raise Transit Fares for Buses, Subway, Light Rail, Mobility Shuttles in June,” Baltimore Sun, https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-mta-bus-fare-increase-20190514-story.html.

  71. “Red Line Community Compact,” 4, 9–10; Lillian Reed, “Baltimore Police Video Shows Takedown of Man,” Baltimore Sun, June 15, 2019, 1, 9, http://digitaledition.baltimoresun.com/html5/desktop/production/default.aspx?pubid=99644e1a-52da-4fe3–8f78-a84e4fe4d386; Michael Dresser, “Hogan Shifts Money to Roads, but Not Everyone’s a Winner,” Baltimore Sun, July 18, 2015, https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/bs-md-hogan-highways-20150718-story.html; Dan Rodricks, “Larry Hogan’s $61.5 Million ‘Nowhere’ Highway Project Gets Underway in Western Maryland,” Baltimore Sun, December 14, 2018, https://www.baltimoresun.com/bs-md-rodricks-sunday-column-1216-story.html.

  72. Eric Cortellessa, “Who Does Maryland’s Governor Really Work For?” Washington Monthly, March 2020, https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/january-february-march-2020/who-does-marylands-governor-really-work-for/.

  73. Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 24–33.

  74. Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 8.

  75. Stefanie DeLuca and Peter Rosenblatt, “Walking Away from the Wire: Mobility and Neighborhood Opportunity in Baltimore,” 27 Housing Policy Debate 519, 527 (2017), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10511482.2017.1282884.

  76. Kline, “Weighing Maryland’s Economic Future,” 4.

  77. Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 2, 9–10.

  78. Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 14; “Red Line Community Compact,” 8–10.

  79. Complaint, Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality v. Maryland, 10; “Asthma,” Baltimore City Health Department, https://health.baltimorecity.gov/node/454; “Trouble in the Air: Millions of Americans Breath Polluted Air,” Environment Maryland, https://environmentmaryland.org/sites/environment/files/reports/Trouble%20in%20the%20Air%20vMD.pdf.

  80. Letter from Charles E. James Sr., director, Departmental Office of Civil Rights, to Pete K. Kahn, Maryland Secretary, Department of Transportation, July 13, 2017, on file with the author.

  81. Cashin, “How Larry Hogan Kept Blacks in Baltimore Segregated and Poor.”

  82. Interview with Samuel Jordan, November 1, 2018, notes on file with the author.

  83. “BaltimoreLink: Reliably Less Than Promised,” Baltimore Sun, July 6, 2018, https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-0709-baltimore-transit-20180706-story.html.

  84. Katherine Shaver, “New Bus System Revives Anger, Frustration over Lost Light-Rail in Baltimore,” Washington Post, July 15, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/new-bus-system-revives-anger-frustration-over-lost-light-rail-in-baltimore/2017/07/15/0a11b22a-61a4–s11e7-8adc-fea80e32bf47_story.html?utm_term=.d3f2cae4aa3c.

  85. Richard Gilpin, July 17, 2013, 10:41a.m., “Comment on,” Shaver, “New Bus System”; trejean, July 16, 2017, 10:57 a.m., “Comment on,” Shaver, “New Bus System”; Suburb Lifer, July 17, 2017, 1:56 p.m. “Comment on,” Shaver, “New Bus System.”

  86. Eugene L. Meyer, “The Road Less Traveled,” Bethesda Magazine, September 30, 2013, https://bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Magazine/September-October-2013/The-Intercounty-Connector.

  87. Andrew Zaleski, “A $9 Billion Highway That Promises to Pay for Itself,” Bloomberg CityLab, September 26, 2017, https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/09/a-9-billion-highway-that-promises-to-pay-for-itself/541119.

  88. Brown, The Black Butterfly, 111–14; Brown, “Two Baltimores”; Audrey G. McFarlane and Randall K. Johnson, “Cities, Inclusion and Exactions,” Iowa Law Review 102 (2017): 2145.

  89. Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg, “In Baltimore, Police Officers Are the Bad Guys with Guns,” New York Times, May 14, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/opinion/police-guns-baltimore.html.

  90.
James Forman Jr., Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017); Rebecca Leber, “Liberal Policies Didn’t Fail Baltimore. Here’s What Did,” New Republic, May 1, 2015, https://newrepublic.com/article/121685/liberal-policies-arent-whats-wrong-baltimore.

  91. Prison Policy Initiative, The Right Investment? Corrections and Spending in Baltimore City (February 2015), https://www.prisonpolicy.org/origin/md/report.html.

  92. Prison Policy Initiative, The Right Investment?

  93. Richard Rothstein, “From Ferguson to Baltimore: The Fruits of Government-Sponsored Segregation,” Working Economics Blog, April 29, 2015, https://www.epi.org/blog/from-ferguson-to-baltimore-the-fruits-of-government-sponsored-segregation.

  94. Luke Broadwater and Talia Richman, “Are City Services Worse in Black Baltimore Neighborhoods? Racial Equity Bill Would Require Answers,” Baltimore Sun, August 1, 2018, https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-racial-equity-charter-20180731-story.html.

  95. See Urban Institute, “The Black Butterfly”: Racial Segregation and Investment Patterns in Baltimore (February 5, 2019), https://apps.urban.org/features/baltimore-investment-flows; Lawrence T. Brown, The Black Butterfly.

  CHAPTER 2: WHITE SUPREMACY BEGAT “THE GHETTO”

  1. Sheryll Cashin, The Agitator’s Daughter: A Memoir of Four Generations of One Extraordinary African American Family (New York: PublicAffairs, 2008), 30; see also W. E. B. Du Bois, The Philadelphia Negro (Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania, 1899).

  2. Cashin, The Agitator’s Daughter.

  3. Cashin, The Agitator’s Daughter, 29–36; Andy Waskie, “Biography of Octavius V. Catto: ‘Forgotten Black Hero of Philadelphia,’” https://generalmeadesociety.org/octavius-catto-biography, accessed August 17, 2019.

  4. Cashin, The Agitator’s Daughter, 37.

  5. Du Bois, The Philadelphia Negro, 37.