Recent Stories
Havre de Grace's Green Book Entry
In the Jim Crow era, black travelers in the United States often had a difficult time finding hotels that would allow them to stay, or restaurants and other facilities that would allow them to purchase goods and services. Racist practices dominated…
Read's Drug Store- Havre de Grace, Maryland
Read's was a popular chain of drug stores/luncheonettes in the 20th century with approximately 39 outlets around Baltimore, scattered around central Maryland; It was the Walgreens of its day, with lunch spots.
Like many establishments of a…
Roye-Williams Elementary School
The current Roye-Williams Elementary School began it's building life as a segregated, all-black school serving the Havre de Grace/Aberdeen area of Harford county. In 1953, Harford County Public Schools opened the K-12 Havre de Grace…
The Flying Clipper
The Flying Clipper was a relatively upscale and spacious restaurant, nightclub and motel on Route 40 in Aberdeen at the time of the 1961 Freedom Ride. The CORE brochure listed it as "Still Segregated," hence it was a likely Freedom Rider…
The New Ideal Diner
The New Ideal Diner existed in downtown Aberdeen, Maryland in 1961 and into the 21st century. In 1961, it was listed as the "Ideal" restaurant in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) brochure for Freedom Riders and listed as…
The Aberdeen Diner
In 1961, the Aberdeen Diner existed in the south western edge of Aberdeen, along Route 40 near a creek and where a 7-11 store currently stands. When Freedom Riders came through Aberdeen, they stopped at the diner. They were met by the owner reading…
Featured Stories
Fair Housing Activism in Harford
In December 1959, United States Army Reserve Captain Brennie Hackley had a housing issue. Captain Hackley held a Ph.D. in chemistry and worked in the chemistry division of the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Center (ECC), a satellite of the Aberdeen…
Route 40 Freedom Ride
Usually when Americans remember the Freedom Rides, they think of buses that traversed the deep South in the early 1960s to protest racism at bus depots and lunch counters and the like. The Freedom Riders' demonstrated that, in many southern states,…
The A. Dwight Pettit Story & Student Desegregation in Harford County
In 1958, George S. Pettit had a problem. Pettit was a scientist who worked for the U.S. Army based at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland. The Pettit family had recently moved to Aberdeen from Baltimore County and included 8th grader Alvin…
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Harford Civil Rights Project
A project by Harford Community CollegeHarford Civil Rights is a free mobile app that allows users to learn about the 20th Century African-American civil rights movement in Harford County, Maryland. Located in central Maryland in the greater Baltimore region, civil rights activists, educators, students and others took actions in the 1950s and 1960s that boldly challenged the segregated status quo.
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