Issue #98, July 21, 2021

Contents: • Gloria Richardson’s Life • The Truth About Police Reform • Blacks: Free and Enslaved on the 17th Century Eastern Shore • The Supreme Court: The Last Day • To Do the Right Thing • Ocean City Experiencing Staff and Housing Shortages this Season

To read online, go to https://www.CommonSenseEasternShore.org/

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Gloria Richardson’s Life Well-known on the Eastern Shore and beyond, she was the primary By CSES Staff leader of the civil rights protests in Cambridge, Md. in the middle Gloria Richardson, who followed in 1960s. the footsteps of her fellow Eastern Shore heroes Richardson advocated for civil and Harriet Tubman, died in New rights and economic justice. She York on July 15, 2021. worked in Cambridge for good jobs, _____ Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 © 2021 Image: Marsh grass, Blackwater NWF, Dorchester Co. Photo: Gren Whitman housing, schools, and health care, Jim Block, “Book: The Struggle is as well as desegregation. In an Eternal: Gloria Richardson and Ebony magazine article, she said Black Liberation, by Joseph R. her “only constituency was African Fitzgerald,” Common Sense for the Americans facing severe poverty Eastern Shore. and racism in Cambridge.” Her https://www.commonsenseeastern choice of tactics was often more shore.org/book-the-struggle-is- strident than the eternal-gloria-richardson-and- espoused by other major civil black-liberation-by-joseph-r- rights leaders. fitzgerald

She moved to New York in 1964 where she continued to work for ***** civil rights and justice. The Truth About Police Reform The following resources talk about her life and her activism: Michelle Gregory

John Lewis and Mike Morgan Recently, in Ocean City, video (photos), “Smoke Screen,” recordings of encounters between Magazine. the Ocean City Police Department https://www.baltimoremagazine.co and members of the public once m/section/community/cambridge- again brought the important issue riot-the-legacy-of-civil-rights-hero- of criminal justice and police gloria-richardson/ reform into the spotlight.

“Gloria Richardson Dies at 99; Led Unfortunately, every time one of Early Cambridge Civil Rights these events occurs, the calls for Movement,” Chestertown Spy. police reform are met with the https://chestertownspy.org/2021/0 false narrative that reform is anti- 7/17/gloria-richardson-dies-at-99- police or an attack on our brave led-early-cambridge-civil-rights- first responders. This faulty movement/ thinking could not be more detrimental to the safety of our Gary Gately, “Gloria Richardson, community and our public servants. fiery civil rights activist in Maryland showdown, dies at 99,” The truth is that police reform is Washington Post. beneficial for both the community https://www.washingtonpost.com/l and our law enforcement officers. ocal/obituaries/gloria-richardson- However, our current policing dead/2021/07/16/efff2b7e-2253- structure is not working and is in 11e5-84d5- major need of reform. To combat eb37ee8eaa61_story.html crime, we need a complete toolbox, and that is what reform can give.

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 2 © 2021 Law enforcement is necessary to our law enforcement even more protect society, but they are complex and contribute to many of tasked with too broad an the issues we see in policing today. undertaking with the tools provided. Establishing accountability and The actions of a few officers have providing access to new training resulted in brutality or tragic loss and techniques will improve how of life. In addition, these events we police our community. The have caused fear and distrust of majority of police officers are police in many communities and decent people who provide a have made the job of our law valuable service. They risk their enforcement officers much more lives every day to serve our difficult. communities and keep us safe. These officers agree that those Police reform is good for who don’t follow protocols or who communities because it will help abuse the community are bad for prevent these types of encounters the profession and need to be held from happening in the future, keep accountable. Police reform would unprofessional officers from being create the necessary mechanism to hired again, and rebuild trust. The hold bad actors accountable and objective of police reform is that no ensure that when they get in matter what we look like or where trouble for not upholding the we come from, we all want to know standard of law enforcement, they we can make it home to our cannot just elsewhere and families at the end of the day. continue their mistreatment of the community. But in the current debate over this issue, the ways in which police Police reform would also provide reform is also good for the police additional education in de- officers is often overlooked or not escalation and implicit bias. The discussed. greater the variety of tools we provide for law enforcement, the There can be no doubt that the more likely it becomes possible to actions of a few bad actors have create positive outcomes for harmed the community's situations like these. perception of the whole profession. These feelings of fear towards Police reform would also help police police and overall distrust make it officers by reducing the so our communities are less likely overwhelming burden we put on to cooperate with police, and them. In our society today, we ask create an unsustainable tension our police to investigate crime, between the community and our address poverty, do traffic stops, police departments. These effects solve mental health issues, work in make the already difficult job of schools, and handle pretty much

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 3 © 2021 every societal failure we face. We day. Both the community and our need a more holistic approach, one police can’t afford to stay in this in which we don’t depend on just cycle because our elected leaders one group. refuse to put in the hard work required to create legislation, We must also give police the tools educate the community about the to prove they followed the correct legislation, and then turn it into protocols and procedures. law. We need local leaders who are Introducing body cameras for on- willing to address these issues and duty officers is one such policy not “virtue signal” in an effort to be initially perceived as an attack on popular or pander. law enforcement. In actuality, it gave our officers the ability to It’s time to expect more — to defend themselves when they were expect our elected officials to put accused of wrongdoing but had in the hard work. followed the proper protocols and procedures. In theory and practice, I am running for State Senate in police reform isn’t “anti-police”; it District 38 to overcome the hyper- is a tool to provide accountability, partisan divides and address issues transparency, and to allow police just like this. My plan includes officers to show how they serve the diversifying our resources that will community in a positive light. improve community interactions, ending "broken window" and for- In politics today, many of our profit policing, and creating elected leaders and special community oversight. We can interests are resorting to catchy better support the police when we slogans and inflammatory rhetoric don't ask them to shoulder to mislead the public and create society's failures. We can do better fear about police reform. Instead of for all of us. implementing policies that address the issues raised by their constituents, they are focused on Michele Gregory is a Salisbury scoring political points with their City Councilmember and Candidate base while dividing our community for State Senate District 38. and blocking meaningful reform in the process. The problem with this ***** approach is that slogans and inaction won’t address the issues nor help our police. At the end of the day, until we have serious conversations about police brutality and the need for reform, we will continue to exist in an endless cycle that is getting worse by the

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 4 © 2021 Blacks: Free and Enslaved on free Blacks who immigrated to the 17th Century Eastern Shore Somerset County from Virginia to escape punishment. They bought By Jeanette E. Sherbondy small lots of land and established their roots. Many of their What was slavery like on the descendants still live here: the Eastern Shore of Maryland? It was Driggers and Johnsons, Robert essential to the growing colonial Butchery’s offspring, and the economy, but the history of slavery Grinedge family. Some owned land, was somewhat distinct from that of others were tenants, some married early Virginia and the western Whites and Indians, but they did shore of Maryland and quite not have the legal standing of different from the later slavery of Whites. The Maryland government the Deep South. The answer has to prohibited them from serving in include the free Blacks. The history local militias and they couldn’t of the Eastern Shore is remarkable testify against Whites in a court of for its long history of free Blacks. law.

The first 13 slaves in Maryland On the upper Shore where soils arrived on the docks of St. Mary’s were more suitable, there were in Southern Maryland in 1642, but small tobacco farms. Initially the much later on the Eastern Shore. English traded with the Indians for International transportation was the plant, but that soon became easy by ship from the Atlantic to unsatisfactory because they the Chesapeake Bay and then up wanted larger quantities of tobacco the rivers. Business in the 17th than the Indians were willing to century was brisk. English traders grow. They imported indentured bought the agricultural crops and servants who were English and lumber from the Eastern Shore and Irish convicts who were sentenced carried it to other nations on the to labor in Maryland. In the 17th Atlantic. century there were more convicts working on the Eastern Shore than The lower Eastern Shore — south enslaved Africans. The soils of the of the Choptank River — had sandy, upper Shore were more fertile than marshy soils, very different from those of the lower Shore, and ideal those of the upper Shore. They for growing tobacco. could not produce tobacco, but raised corn, wheat, livestock, and In the 1660s, large plantations timber that English and were established when Lord Philadelphia merchants shipped to Baltimore granted English the West Indies. immigrant families extensive lands. They had the resources to hire The first Black people living on the laborers, indentured servants, and Eastern Shore were not slaves, but convicts. After 1680, they imported

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 5 © 2021 enslaved Africans. These families do not share the wealth and power are still well known: the Tilghmans, of the White families. the Lloyds, the Hollydays, and the Goldsboroughs. For more details on the colonial life on the Eastern Shore, I The tobacco trade was very recommend Hirelings: African successful during the 1690s, and American Workers and Free Labor became the currency of the in Early Maryland, by Jennifer Hull economy. These families imported Dorsey, published in 2011. The large numbers of indentured author is professor of Early servants and enslaved Africans to American History and director of work the tobacco plantations. They the McCormick Center for the became very rich and had great Study of the American Revolution political influence in Annapolis. at Siena College, in Albany, NY. I They adopted the customs and drew on her publication in the manners of the more-well-known preparation of this article. Virginia elites. By the late 17th century, their businesses drove up More detailed information on the the price of land and labor and lives of the descendants of Anthony forced out the lesser farmers, who and Mary Johnson, the first free moved up the rivers of the Shore Black family, is available in to find land in Caroline County and Changing Times: Chronicle of Allen, even Delaware and Pennsylvania. Maryland, An Eastern Shore Village by George R. Shivers, published in By the first part of the 19th 1998. Professor Shivers is a native century, the elite White families of Allen, in Wicomico County. owned most of the best land. They intermarried and formed a kin Both these books are available in network that kept the land and the Maryland Public Library System. wealth in their hands. Half the Eastern Shore landowners formed The 18th century brought a network that were all kin or interesting changes to slavery on married into the other families. the Eastern Shore. Look for a This network connected them to report on this in future issues of the wealthy families of Philadelphia Common Sense for the Eastern merchants. In fact, their Shore. descendants still dominate the economy and society of the Eastern Shore. By now, it is a Jeanette Sherbondy is a retired checkerboard of genetic anthropology professor from relationships between members of Washington College and has lived the ancient Black families with the here since 1986. In retirement she White wealthy families, although has been active with the Kent the Black families did not and still County Historical Society and

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 6 © 2021 Sumner Hall, one of the organizers traction. Several high profile, of Legacy Day, and helped get politically sensitive cases were highway /historical markers resolved with majorities that recognizing Henry Highland Garnet. included the more liberal justices She published an article on her and other, more conservative ethnohistorical research of the free justices. Black village, Morgnec. The Affordable Care Act survived yet another challenge on a ***** procedural issue that attracted a majority consisting not only of the The Supreme Court: The Last three surviving liberal justices and Day Roberts, but the votes of Justices Kavanaugh and Barrett as well. By By John Christie unanimous vote, the Court found a narrow way to dispose of a case On Thursday, July 1, the last two that potentially set up a sharp opinions were released in the cases conflict between same sex accepted and argued during the marriage couples and religious Court’s 2020 term, which began on values. The free speech rights of a the first Monday of last October. cheerleader who sent vulgar One week into the 2020 term, a Snapchat messages were protected new Justice arrived, as Amy Coney in a majority opinion authored by Barrett replaced Ruth Bader Justice Breyer. If any justices Ginsberg, becoming the third registered dissatisfaction with the justice nominated by Donald majority opinion in these cases, it Trump to the highest court. was from the most conservative end of the Court, Justices Alito, Formerly, with four conservatives Thomas, and Gorsuch. and four liberals, Chief Justice John Roberts, an institutionalist, was But then came the last day and the able by his own vote to determine two significant final opinions that a case outcome. Now with five changed the overall cast of the conservatives and three liberals he term. They also perhaps would no longer be the ideological constituted a better bellwether center of the Court. Smart money picture of where the future of this assumed that this term would be Court lies, at least as presently marked by a sharp conservative constituted. swing. The first of these last two cases However, as the 2020 term got was Americans for Prosperity underway, and opinions began to Foundation v. Bonta, where the be released, this widely accepted Court struck down a California assumption appeared to lose some requirement that charities and

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 7 © 2021 nonprofits operating in the state whether a law violates Section 2. provide the state attorney Instead, the Court outlined general’s office with the names and “several important circumstances” addresses of their largest donors. that, particularly when taken Writing for a six-justice majority, together, strongly suggest it will be Chief Justice Roberts concluded more difficult for plaintiffs to that the rule violates the First prevail in the future in cases Amendment by potentially asserting that a state voting law deterring donors from making violates Section 2. contributions even while conceding that the state has an important The court’s three liberal justices interest in preventing “wrongdoing” dissented, with Justice Elena Kagan by charitable organizations. complaining that the majority “undermines Section 2 and the In a dissent joined by Justices right it provides.” The majority’s Breyer and Kagan, Justice Sonia concerns that the Voting Rights Act Sotomayor suggested that the was too “radical” and that the ruling could have an effect far statute, as written, would beyond the nonprofit and invalidate “too many” state voting charitable worlds to include laws, results in reading Section 2 political campaign contributions, much too narrowly in her opinion. writing that the majority’s ruling This “cramped reading” leads the marks reporting and disclosure Court to uphold two state election requirements with a “bull’s-eye” for provisions “that discriminate future legal challenge. against minority voters.” “What’s tragic,” she concluded, “is that the In Brnovich v. Democratic National Court has damaged a statute Committee, the Court issued a designed to bring about ‘the end of major decision on voting rights discrimination in voting.’” that will make it more difficult in the future to contest state election regulations under Section 2 of the John Christie was for many years Voting Rights Act, which prohibits a senior partner in a large racial discrimination in election Washington, D.C. law firm. He practices. By another 6-3 vote, the specialized in anti-trust litigation Court upheld two Arizona voting and developed a keen interest in provisions that the appellate court the U.S. Supreme Court about below had determined had which he lectures and writes. disparate impacts on members of minority groups. In a majority opinion by Justice Alito, the Court ***** declined to provide an “exhaustive list” of what circumstances courts should consider in determining

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 8 © 2021 To Do the Right Thing abomination that should be fought wherever possible; so I voted By Sherwin Markman against this proposal, which was defeated by a single vote. For public servants, there are times when “doing the right thing” isn’t The next day, my father received a obvious, or easy, or without pain. I telephone call from the developer, can illustrate this by relating two who was an important customer of times I had to make such choices. his. In no uncertain terms, the developer told my father that, The first was long ago when as a unless I changed my vote on the young man I served as chairman of zoning change issue, the developer the Planning and Zoning would sever his business Commission of Des Moines, Ia., the relationship with my father. My town where I was born and raised father immediately got in touch and to which I initially returned with me, repeated the developer’s after completing law school. I was demand and threat, and told me proud of our work, especially we that it was vitally important to him drafted and oversaw enactment of that I comply. I refused and Des Moines’ first city-wide master continued to do so despite my plan. father’s increasing anger, which culminated in my hanging up on Our commission met publicly one him. evening a week to consider and vote on petitions for zoning The following week, when the variances sought by individuals and developer re-raised his zoning businesses. It was at one of these issue before our commission, I sessions that I faced a moral again voted “no,” and the dilemma. proposition failed. I never learned — and never asked — if the A local developer had acquired developer followed through on his property along one of Des Moines’ threat to my father, but the cost to major streets. This land, along with me was great because it took adjoining properties, was taken up many months for my father to with large, old homes, all occupied forgive me. I never reported the and well kept. The developer developer’s attempted coercion for planned to tear these houses down the simple reason that I wanted to and replace them with commercial protect my father when there had enterprises. For that, he needed a been, as they say, “no harm, no change in zoning from residential foul.” to commercial; in other words, he wanted to “strip zone” that Should I have acted differently? community. I, for one, believed Should I have informed the that strip zoning was an authorities as soon as my father

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 9 © 2021 spoke to me? And what would I tell What my promise to them meant, them? Would I lie and omit his of course, was that in Washington, importuning that I should do as the we would be required to live on our developer demanded? Should I savings, which was a severely have abstained from again voting limited nest egg that I knew would “no” the following week, which last us no more than three or four might have resulted in the result years in Washington. the developer demanded? The law may be clear that I should have As it happened, over drinks one implicated both developer and my evening, I had confided these facts father, but in real life it is another to my client and friend, Jay Wells. matter entirely. And that is what led to my problem.

The second experience I want to It began this way: One afternoon, I share happened while I was was sitting in my West Wing office serving in the White House. when the White House operator told me that a Mr. Wells was in the In Des Moines, I had a client, Jay downstairs waiting room and Wells, who became a good friend. wished to see me. I invited him up. Jay lived in New York and was He greeted me warmly and quite wealthy, something I explained that he was here as a definitely was not when I moved member of a presidential myself and my family to commission. But, he added, he had Washington to join President another, more specific purpose in Lyndon Johnson’s White House mind. staff. “As you probably know,” he began, Not surprisingly, my wife and three “I have now accumulated more young children were far from wealth than my family and I could thrilled to be uprooted from the spend in several lifetimes.” I began place where all of us had been born, to congratulate him, but he held up and move to the high-cost-of-living his hand and continued. “On the “East,” especially since I would be other hand, I know that you are doing so at about 25% of the going broke working here, and income I was making in Des that’s not right. So I am going to Moines. In order to mollify them, I give you whatever money you promised that our home would be need to come out even in your as nice and our children’s schools living expenses. It will be a gift — would be as fine and we would no strings attached.” enjoy as good a life as we were leaving behind. Nobody was thrilled I immediately told him that I could by my promise, but, reluctantly, not agree to that, that it would not they went along with me. be right for a host of reasons, and probably not legal to boot. Jay

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 10 © 2021 countered that he would make it a And so it was that by late 1968, I loan with no interest, payable once had exhausted my savings and it I was settled after leaving the was imperative that I resign and White House. I refused that as well. return to the practice of law. Fortunately for my conscience, It was several weeks before I President Johnson was not running heard from Jay again. This time, he for another term in office, and, in wanted to come to my office actuality, understood and accompanied by Mike Feldman, the encouraged my search for another man who once had been White job. House counsel to both Kennedy and Johnson. I agreed, of course. So what to make of these two relatively minor blips of moral Jay opened the conversation by pressure that I’ve described? For telling me that he had retained one thing, the rights and wrongs of Feldman to find a way to satisfy them were not easy to discern, nor my objections to Jay’s proposals, were the results without pain. Thus, and that Feldman had succeeded. to me they illustrate that, when Feldman then handed me a sheaf sitting in judgment of our public of papers. “What we have here is a servants, the rest of us should at charitable trust,” he explained. “Its times endeavor to be considerably purpose is to finance needy and more empathetic to their moral deserving public servants such as judgments than is our usual wont. yourself. Attached to it is my legal opinion that the endeavor is entirely proper.” Sherwin Markman, a graduate of the Yale Law School, lives with his I shook my head. “I can’t do this,” wife, Kathryn (Peggy) in Rock Hall, I said. “Don’t you even want to Maryland. He served as an read it?” Feldman asked, assistant to President Lyndon incredulous. “I don’t need to,” I Johnson, after which was a trial said. “I am assuming that you are lawyer in Washington, D.C. He has correct. I’m not arguing that. But I published several books, including just can’t do it.” one dealing with the Electoral College. He has also taught and There ensured a long, sometimes lectured about the American acrimonious discussion about my political system. reasons. Essentially, these boiled down to my belief that as a presidential assistant, I should not ***** be a party to anything — especially if it involved money — that, if it became public, would embarrass my boss, LBJ.

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 11 © 2021 Ocean City Experiencing Staff delays at the embassies and and Housing Shortages this consulates overseas. On top of that, Season the number of visitors to Ocean City has increased dramatically. By George Shivers The Intrax Cultural Exchange and Each year, businesses in Ocean Educational Program is a City, Md., require about 12,000 sponsoring organization that seasonal workers overall. One-third facilitates the J-1 program locally. of these workers come from abroad The organization also expressed with J-1 visas. Back in of concern about adequate housing this year, there was concern that for seasonal workers. In an article President Biden had not eased in the Salisbury Daily Times, travel bans on foreign student Matthew Prensky and Emily Lytle workers. noted that there has been some discussion in Ocean City of Last summer, after Proclamation “exploring new foreign labor 10014 by then-President Trump, options, including using more H-2B foreign workers were not permitted workers from other countries, such entry because of covid-19 as El Salvador. Pensky and Lyle restrictions. A later action by went on to report that “having Trump, Proclamation 10052, already seen what life would be suspended the entry of aliens who like without J-1 visa students, presented a risk to the U.S. labor businesses don’t want this to be market after the coronavirus the reality going forward.” outbreak. Ocean City’s economy has grown Biden revoked 10014 in March, but substantially over the last 30 years, not 10052, which expired and developers have built more automatically on March 31. and more hotels and Unfortunately, only a fraction of condominiums, all of which are the J-1 visa students were able to high-price properties. With more come, resulting in businesses businesses, more seasonal workers having to turn to “adjusted were needed, but affordable business models,” such as altering workforce housing has lagged the days or hours they are opened behind the need, a fact that may or limiting services or the menu be attributed to high construction options they provide. costs and land prices.

The result may be longer lines and In addition to financing, local closures. It’s true that more zoning rules are an obstacle for students have come this year than potential developers of housing for last, but the workforce is still much workers. As of June of this year, smaller, primarily due to ongoing the Greater Ocean City Chamber of

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 12 © 2021 Commerce was in the early stages Matthew Prensky and Emily Lyle, of a project that would house up to “Beach businesses are understaffed. 300 seasonal workers. The You could miss these favorites due chamber hopes to have these units to labor shortage. Salisbury Daily ready for occupancy by next year. Times, https://www.delmarvanow.com/sto The Ocean City Development ry/news/local/maryland/2021/07/1 Corporation is another organization 4/ocean-city-md-delaware- that is attacking the problem by beaches-labor-shortage-impact- providing financial incentives to get due-j-1-visas-foreign- projects started. Their current workers/7775004002/ project is a 50-bed unit on Dorchester St., but it has required Shawn Soper, Maryland Coastal two grants from the state to get Dispatch, 3/4/2021, done, according to the https://mdcoastdispatch.com/2021 organization’s executive director. /03/04/foreign-workers- Ocean City has always considered availability-for-summer-remains- housing for seasonal workers a unknown-existing-ban-expires- private matter, but now it’s clear march-31-but-hope-was-for- that government intervention is earlier-lift/ necessary to incentivize low-cost housing for workers. A native of Wicomico County, George Shivers holds a doctorate Sources: from the University of Maryland Matthew Prensky, “The Housing and taught in the Foreign Squeeze,” Salisbury Daily Times, Language Dept. of Washington 6/27/2021, College for 38 years before retiring https://www.delmarvanow.com/sto in 2007. He is also very interested ry/news/local/maryland/2021/06/2 in the history and culture of the 4/ocean-city-maryland-affordable- Eastern Shore, African American housing-md-labor-shortage- history in particular. 2021/7589503002/

Common Sense for the Eastern Shore, Issue #98, 7/21/21 13 © 2021