This is an insight written by Stella Hudson on the recent Bahá’í Chair for World Peace Lecture on “Confederate Streets and Black-White Labor Market Differentials” co-sponsored by the Critical Race Initiative and the Department of African American Studies on November 16, 2021.
Maryland never seceded from the union, yet we still have plenty of streets named after Confederate figures like Robert E Lee. Houses are adorned with Confederate battle flags despite the state never being a part of the Confederacy, and the statue of Chief Justice Taney, who ruled against Dred Scott in 1857 was only recently removed from its place of honor in front of the State House in Annapolis. Because Maryland remained in the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation, delivered in January of 1863, did not free the people enslaved here. Slavery was not outlawed in Maryland until 1864.