Last updated: January 8, 2025
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Baltimore National Heritage Area (Baltimore, Maryland)
African American Civil Rights Network
The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), in Baltimore, Maryland, is a certified heritage areas in Maryland and one of dozens of Congressionally designated national heritage areas across the U.S. A heritage area is comprised of historic structures, landscapes, parks, museums, and other resources integral to a place's cultural heritage and history. The BNHA includes over one dozen sites associated with the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
The Baltimore National Heritage Area features over 15 sites related to the Civil Rights Movement including colleges and universities, African American churches, and a branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Sites associated with the Civil Rights Movement in the BNHA represent the fight for African Americans to gain equality both local and nationally. Among the several civil rights sites in the BNHA are the AFRO American Newspaper and Archive, Morgan State University, a historically-black higher education institution (HBCU), and the Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Musuem.
Influential Civil Rights leaders like Lillie Carroll Jackson, Thurgood Marshall, and Parren James Mitchell called Baltimore home. Beginning in the 1930s, Lillie Carroll Jackson served as president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP for approximately 35 years. As president, she led grassroots efforts to secure equal rights to housing, education, employment, and voting for African Americans and earned the moniker, “mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” Her home would become the Lillie Carroll Jackson Museum.
In 1950, the Baltimore Branch of the NAACP, led by Jackson, supported Parren James Mitchell’s successful lawsuit to gain admission to graduate school at the University of Maryland. Baltimore-native Thurgood Marshall served as legal counsel for Mitchell’s case and it paved the way for the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court, which Thurgood Marshall argued. In 1955, one year at the ruling in Brown v. Board, students at Morgan State initiated one of the first successful sit-ins after protesting segregated lunch counters at Read’s Drug Store. The school’s students would continue to play an important role in the local civil rights movement.
The Baltimore National Heritage Area became a part of the African American Civil Rights Network in 2024.
The African American Civil Rights Network recognizes the African American Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the sacrifices made by those who fought against discrimination and segregation. Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017, and coordinated by the National Park Service, the Network tells the stories of the people, places, and events of the U.S. African American Civil Rights Movement through a collection of public and private resources to include properties, facilities, and programs.
The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), in Baltimore, Maryland, is a certified heritage areas in Maryland and one of dozens of Congressionally designated national heritage areas across the U.S. A heritage area is comprised of historic structures, landscapes, parks, museums, and other resources integral to a place's cultural heritage and history. The BNHA includes over one dozen sites associated with the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
The Baltimore National Heritage Area features over 15 sites related to the Civil Rights Movement including colleges and universities, African American churches, and a branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Sites associated with the Civil Rights Movement in the BNHA represent the fight for African Americans to gain equality both local and nationally. Among the several civil rights sites in the BNHA are the AFRO American Newspaper and Archive, Morgan State University, a historically-black higher education institution (HBCU), and the Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Musuem.
Influential Civil Rights leaders like Lillie Carroll Jackson, Thurgood Marshall, and Parren James Mitchell called Baltimore home. Beginning in the 1930s, Lillie Carroll Jackson served as president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP for approximately 35 years. As president, she led grassroots efforts to secure equal rights to housing, education, employment, and voting for African Americans and earned the moniker, “mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” Her home would become the Lillie Carroll Jackson Museum.
In 1950, the Baltimore Branch of the NAACP, led by Jackson, supported Parren James Mitchell’s successful lawsuit to gain admission to graduate school at the University of Maryland. Baltimore-native Thurgood Marshall served as legal counsel for Mitchell’s case and it paved the way for the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court, which Thurgood Marshall argued. In 1955, one year at the ruling in Brown v. Board, students at Morgan State initiated one of the first successful sit-ins after protesting segregated lunch counters at Read’s Drug Store. The school’s students would continue to play an important role in the local civil rights movement.
The Baltimore National Heritage Area became a part of the African American Civil Rights Network in 2024.
The African American Civil Rights Network recognizes the African American Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the sacrifices made by those who fought against discrimination and segregation. Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017, and coordinated by the National Park Service, the Network tells the stories of the people, places, and events of the U.S. African American Civil Rights Movement through a collection of public and private resources to include properties, facilities, and programs.