Sharp Leadenhall by Foot: 250 Years of African American Heritage
Solo Gibbs Park 1044 Leadenhall Street, Baltimore, MD, United StatesMs. Betty Bland-Thomas, a long-time community activist and member of the South Baltimore Partnership, will lead this walking tour through the Sharp Leadenhall neighborhood in South Baltimore. This community is home to Ebenezer AME, the third oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the nation, and has been home to a vital African American community since the late 1700s. As in West Baltimore, residents struggled against displacement and demolition by highways projects in the 1960s and continue to organize against gentrification. The walking tour not only highlights this long history, but will also offer a chance to hear stories from long-time residents on their everyday experiences growing up in the neighborhood in the 1940s and 1950s.