Team Leader: AJ

Leadership Day(s): 

Monday *if time, assess Oxford Museum on whoever has Monday's day

Tuesday:

8a.m.: Breakfast near accommodations

9a.m.-10:30a.m. The Hill Walking Tour (takes approx. 90 minutes, a tour of Easton's important African American historical sites)

11a.m.-3p.m. Head out to Water’s Edge Museum for assessment, group tour scheduled

Since we will need to be working on our research, we will grab lunch nearby at Salter’s Tap Room and Tavern at the nearby Robert Morris Inn

3p.m.-5p.m. Interview with Claude Berube *tentative*

Depending on when the interview is scheduled for & how much time that gives us, I’d like to visit the NOAA Chesapeake Environmental Science Training Center. I think it would be beneficial for everyone’s research to understand how climate change affects the community as a whole, especially the watermen communities (both white & black).

5:30p.m.-7p.m. Downtime at Oxford Beach!

7:30p.m. Dinner at Out of the Fire– serves farm-to-table local fare & emphasizes local cuisine (111 S. Washington St.)

I intend to split our time evenly between interviewing people of interest & people living within the community about their experiences and visiting cultural institutions. As none of us within the group are of African-American descent, I believe that the best way to go about our research so we can respectfully represent a marginalized group's lived experience is to first hear from them. With their words fresh in our minds, I hope that we will be able to assess the cultural institutions better with the community's priorities in mind. 

I also intend for our group to both experience and inquire further into elements of the community's culture as discussed in our third meeting (food/drink, accent/dialect/slang, relationships and ways of defining family units, holidays and special occasions, religion). I am in the process of reaching out to some of the people of interest below to further guide my planning as I am trying to spend what limited time we have intentionally.

Person(s) of Interest (to request interview)

1. Vince Leggett (v.leggett@blacksofthechesapeake.com)

Founder & President of the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundations, regulated lobbyist in the Maryland General Assembly with focus areas in Equity Educational Funding, Natural Gas, Oil and Clean Energy, Environment, and Historic & Cultural Preservation, Board Member of the Chesapeake Legal Alliance

Other Possible Places and People of Interest Related to the Research Question:

History of the Bay's Watermen

Information Sites

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/30/barbara-paca-zeal-art-healing-black-history-eastern-shore/

https://talbotspy.org/african-roots-of-chesapeake-foodways/

https://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/18549

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24907446#metadata_info_tab_contents

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/37911

https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2019/02/04/brief-history-black-people-chesapeake-bay/

https://www.tclf.org/sites/default/files/microsites/landslide2021/locations/waters.html

1. Black watermen

2. www.mdsg.umd.edu/sites/default/files/files/MN16_2_BlackMenBlueWaters.PDF

3. www.dailypress.com/history/dp-nws-black-watermen-20180130-story.html

4. https://blacksofthechesapeake.wildapricot.org/

5. https://www.visitchesapeake.com/things-to-do/history/aaht/

6. https://www.chesapeakebay.net/discover/history/african-americans-in-the-chesapeake

7. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/groundbreaking-partnership-to-document-african-american-historic-sites-in-chesapeake-bay-watershed.htm

8. https://www.chesapeakeconservation.org/black-history-in-the-chesapeake-watershed/

9. https://www.chesapeakeconservation.org/celebrating-the-natural-and-cultural-diversity-on-the-chesapeake-bay/

10. https://savingplaces.org/stories/vince-leggett-tells-of-african-american-ties-to-history-culture-and-waterways-of-chesapeake-bay-region#.Y2U9mXbMI2w

11. https://www.bayjournal.com/news/people/african-american-history-focus-of-bay-mapping-effort/article_821c90c8-3559-11eb-a0bf-eba5dfc86d30.html

12. https://www.visitannapolis.org/blog/stories/post/african-american-watermen-of-the-chesapeake/

Easton, Md.

The Hill Walking Tour: Easton’s Hill neighborhood has been home to free African Americans since the 1780s and is believed to be the oldest free African American community in the country. Take the self-guided Hill Walking Tour to see the churches that were dedicated by Frederick Douglass. You’ll visit the site of the Buffalo Soldier House and the neighborhood of founding resident Grace Brooks. To learn more, contact Talbot County Economic Development and Tourism at 410-770-8000, thehillcommunityproject.org/walking-tour

While you’re in Easton don’t miss a chance to view the Frederick Douglass mural, painted by world-renowned muralist Michael Rosato. It can be seen on the side of the Solid Tops Building at 505 South Street on the Easton Rails to Trails walking path.