Saving The Spirit of Place
The Otobo Project
The Otobo Project
Baltimore is known as “the city of neighborhoods”. But, the spirits of these neighborhoods have wandered into obscurity. At the core of many of them are dozens of African American historic spaces — churches, parks, monuments, theaters, and maybe especially, cemeteries. They were the heart of these neighborhoods. They gave each a dignity, a unique sense of place, and a source of pride. Subjected to unrelenting political and social forces these communities declined. Now, only vestiges of these spaces remain, oddly familiar, but hauntingly vacant. We could say, using an African concept for the village square, they lack their Otobo. The Romans called it genius loci — the spirit of place. But the African term goes beyond that. In Nigerian Igbo culture the village center and its Otobo are part of every villager’s proud personal identity, carried with them wherever they go. We believe that this Otobo, or spirit, must become one of the foundational concepts driving Baltimore’s and other cities’ redevelopment plans. To reinvigorate all our communities, Otobo is where we must lay the first stone.
A Mission Focused on Human Capital
The Otobo Project grew out of our Foundation’s mission to preserve the history of Carroll’s Hundred — a community of plantation workers that we know today as — Pigtown, Morrell Park, and Carrollton Ridge. At the root of these and, in fact, every neighborhood across the city is a unique historic core. We believe this core identity — this Otobo, this spirit — is being overlooked in most new planning and redevelopment efforts where “development” is focused more on investment capital than on human capital. Every neighborhood’s cultural identity — its particular locus — arises from its traditions, folkways, monuments, local heroes, and history that makes it unlike any other. The Otobo Project will focus on identifying and promoting the rich but neglected cultural core of each of the city’s African American neighborhoods. Development goals need to be rooted in, and built upon, that core identity. Otherwise, the benefits flow up and out of neighborhoods, not inward, to the people, where they are needed most.
"Where everyone knows your name"
Cities often look to dramatic, high-cost redevelopment efforts, believing that infusions of capital and glittering new infrastructure will cure the patient. But, as we’ve seen, this rarely works for the people who need it the most. Renewal needs to start at the heart of struggling neighborhoods with critical employment, educational, and housing projects that focus on the quality of community life — “where everyone knows your name”. Where you belong to your community, and your community belongs to you. What you have a stake in, you value and sustain. This was the magic of the enormous success of The Baltimore City Fair. It promoted neighborhoods’ civic pride, bringing millions of us downtown once a year to celebrate them. It helped spur an urban renaissance. Powered by Us. And, it could again.
The map below identifies some of the most historic African American spaces in our city. There are many more, of course, and we will be adding them in the months to come. This is merely the start of an effort to enlist citizens, cultural historians, urban planners and designers, city leaders, and business to collaborate on a grassroots, multi-disciplinary community restoration model. A model that builds on the cornerstone of cultural identity (Otobo) to create a new Baltimore, and one that can serve as a model for other cities around the country.
The Otobo Project is an offshoot of the Carroll Park Foundation’s educational mission to preserve the diverse cultural history of Carroll’s Hundred. We expand upon that to advocate for the preservation of Baltimore’s African American neighborhoods and their histories. For more information about The Otobo Project or to volunteer, contact us at carrollshundred@verizon.net.
Above photos: Baltimore Sun Photography Archives 1970, 1973.
You Can Help
Baltimore’s greatest strength is its diversity. Our African American neighborhoods have given the nation some of its greatest artists, intellectuals, and political leaders — Billy Holliday, Thurgood Marshall, W.E.B. Du Bois, Joshua Johnson — to name a fraction of them. But we are losing the historic communities that nurtured them.
You can help us change this! Start by exploring the interactive map below, by joining the discussion on our blog, and by following our projects on Facebook. If you know about an Otobo space we’ve missed, please let us know. For more information about The Otobo Project or to volunteer, contact us at carrollshundred@verizon.net.
Otobo Map Legend
1531 S. Edgewood Street 21227
Founded by John H. Murphy, Sr., a former slave, in 1892. Murphy had been a member of the Colored Troops during the Civil War, and was a member of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore. The current newspaper emerged from the combination of three of Murphy’s church publications: The Sunday School Helper, The Ledger, and The Afro-American. It is the oldest continuously operating African American newspaper in the United States.1
2426 Pennsylvania Avenue and North Avenue 21217
The Arch Social Club was established in 1905 as a meeting hall for black men from all walks of life. It was a place to socialize and later to organize civil rights. Famous entertainers like Billie Holliday, Cab Calloway, and James Brown performed there; civil rights leaders, Clarence and Juanita Mitchell, Thurgood Marshall, and Charles Hamilton Houston visited “The Arch”. More recently it served as a sanctuary following the death of Freddie Gray. 2
1300 Druid Hill Avenue 21217
Located in the Historic West Baltimore African American neighborhood of Upton, the church was founded in 1785 by Richard Allen. It “is the oldest independent black institution in the city”. The church began as a prayer group, the African Methodist Society; by 1797 it had become the Bethel Free African Society”. 3
1500 Washington Boulevard 21217
Known as Carroll Park, this Southwest Baltimore National Historic Landmark was once a 3,000-acre industrial iron plantation. Its nationally significant African American history prompted the National Park Service to liken it to Mount Vernon and Monticello. It is a major subject of this website.
1609 Druid Hill Avenue 21217
The origins of the Druid Hill “Y” go back to 1893 and an African American group known as the Mutual Brotherhood of Liberty of the United States. Its central mission was to reverse the Jim Crow era 1875 “Civil Rights” Act as unconstitutional. In 1893, the Brotherhood petitioned the Central YMCA and was granted, the right to change the Y’s name to the Colored YMCA of Baltimore. The Brotherhood wanted to address issues that affected the African American community. Education, public accommodation, employment, and youth opportunities were high on the list. John Murphy, editor of The Afro-American, and Dr. George Murphy, a high school principal, were among the founding members. The “Y” raised over $200,000 in donations to construct a permanent building at its current location in 1918. Since then, and to this day, the Druid Hill YMCA has been one of the anchors of African American life in West Baltimore. During WW II it provided dormitories for African American servicemen and women. The “Y” opened a camp on the Patuxent River when African Americans were denied camping facilities. It played a central role in the Civil Rights issues of the 1960s, and it remained open and provided a calming presence during the unrest of 2015.4
Elk’s Hall — Monumental Lodge No. 3
1528 Madison Street 21217
Elk’s Hall’s official name is: Monumental Lodge No. 3, Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World. It was founded in 1900, after the Ohio Benevolent Society of Elks refused to admit African Americans. The Baltimore Chapter is the oldest in the City. It became a leading voice in the Civil Rights movement through its very prominent members that included, George W.F. McMechen*, William H. Smith, Ray R. Bond, and Pearl Brown. They promoted black leaders and encouraged their constituents to vote. It is generally acknowledged that Lodge No. 3 was one of the major forces creating the Civil Rights Movement in Baltimore. *(At last we know where “McMechen Street” got its name!)5
1417 Thames Street 21231
Isaac Myers and fifteen other African American men founded the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company in 1866. It was the first black-owned shipyard in the United States. Frederick Douglass succeeded Myers as President of the Colored National Labor Union in 1872.6
516-524 S. Dallas Street 21231
An early affordable housing project developed by Frederick Douglass in 1892. Known in Baltimore as “alley houses”, they were constructed as rental housing for African Americans in the Fells Point neighborhood.Douglass had lived in this area from c. 1820 to 1838, and worshipped at nearby Dallas Street Station Methodist Episcopal Church.7
Belair Road and Elmley Avenue 21213
Founded 1852, near North Avenue and ‘Bel Air’ Road, in then Baltimore County. It was a non-denominational final resting place for African American elites. By the 1940s, it had fallen onto hard times. In the 1950s, it was purchased for $100, in a shady land deal, by two Baltimore City officials. An early “big box” store and a parking lot were constructed on the site. Of the thousands of burials, only a hundred or so of the monuments were relocated to land in Carroll County. Sadly few if any of the human remains traveled with their markers.8
1320 Eutaw Place 21217
Home of the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement”. Born in 1889, Lillie Mae Carroll was the daughter of Charles Henry Carroll, a descendant of the Signer, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. In 1910, she married Keiffer Albert Jackson. Inspired by her recovery from a life-threatening illness in 1918, Lillie Carroll Jackson dedicated herself to “a lifetime of service”. Through non-violent protests, with Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Mitchell, Jr., and others she fought to end lynching, segregated public facilities, and to promote social justice. The Museum is the home Lillie Carroll Jackson bequeathed to her daughter, Virginia Jackson-Kiah, with the hope that one day it would become a civil rights museum.9
MeDeSo Club
1800 Eutaw Place at Laurens Street 21217
The little-known Medical Dental Society (MeDeSo) with its conservative, low-profile name became, throughout the 1940s and 1950s in Baltimore, a powerful force for racial justice. Harnessing the resources of prominent black physicians, the organization under the leadership of John E. T. Camper, M.D. was a major factor in the Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education Supreme Court decision in January 1954. Responding to Thurgood Marshall’s plea for a desperately needed infusion of cash, the physicians contributed a timely $15,000 to defray legal expenses. The rest is history.10
Mount Auburn Cemetery
2630 Waterview Avenue, Westport 21230
The origins of Mount Auburn are in three separate African American cemeteries, the earliest beginning in 1807, as The African Burying Ground. All the cemeteries were established by Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church. The second, Belair Burying Ground, was founded in 1839 when The African Burying Ground was filled. When Belair was threatened by an extension of Patterson Park, Sharp Street Church relocated 475 bodies from Belair to the new Sharp Street Cemetery in 1878. Mount Auburn was developed in 1872 as a confrontation to the “Jim Crow” practice of segregating black remains within larger white cemeteries, or not allowing them space at all. Dr. Kami Fletcher writes, “Deep under its surface … is 211-year-old Black Baltimore history. From enslaved Africans to the Who’s Who of Baltimore are buried within its keep ….”11
Negro Heroes of the U.S. Monument
War Memorial Plaza, Calvert and Lexington Streets 21202
The Battle Monument adjacent to Baltimore’s City Hall was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1972, by the artist James Lewis to commemorate African American servicemen from all American wars.12
Oblate Sisters of Providence
610 George Street 21201
The oldest order of African American Catholic sisters in the nation was founded at 610 George Street in Baltimore on July 2, 1829. Sisters Mary Elizabeth Lange, Mary Frances Balas, Mary Rose Boegue, and Mary Theresa Duchemin took their vows as the Oblate Sisters of Providence in a rented row home in the area now known as the Parish of Immaculate Conception. A monument commemorating the OSP was unveiled on February 13, 2000. Following thousands of refugees, Lange and her family emigrated to Fells Point in 1813, as a result of the turmoil in Santo Dominingo and the Caribbean. In 1828, the Sisters and Father James Soubert, a Sulpician priest, risking arrest, opened a school for free and enslaved black children in Lange’s father’s home — the first school for “colored” children in Baltimore. The Oblate Sisters now have their motherhouse at 701 Gun Road in Catonsville, and operate St. Frances Academy in East Baltimore. 13 14
Old Bethel Cemetery — Final Resting Place of the Rev. Mr. William Levington
Formerly Saratoga and Gay Streets 21202
No longer in existence, Old Bethel Cemetery was once located near the intersection of Saratoga Street and Gay Streets. It served as the final resting place for members of the Bethel Free African Society, founded in 1785, and now Bethel A.M.E. Church in West Baltimore. The Bethel Free African Society occupied what had been a former Lutheran Church on East Saratoga Street, so the churchyard was in close proximity. Not only was it one of the earliest African American cemeteries in the city, it was also the final resting place of the Rev. Mr. William Levington, who established St. James Episcopal Church, the first African Protestant Episcopal Church in Baltimore.15
The Orchard Street Church
512 Orchard Street 21201
The church was started as a prayer meeting in 1825, by Truman Pratt, a freedman who had been born a slave. By 1839, Pratt together with Basil Hall and Cyrus Moore, founded the “Orchard Chapel”. The Greater Baltimore Urban League, now occupying part of the church, writes that “the building itself was erected by slaves and black freedmen who worked by torchlight in the night.” A stairway discovered by archaeologists in the church basement is thought to have been a part of the Underground Railroad network, and possibly a stop on Harriet Tubman’s route. Now called the Orchard Street Church, it became a hub for the free African American community after the Civil War. 16 17
Provident Hospital
419 Orchard Street 21201 (1894); 413 W. Biddle Street 21201 (1896); 1514 Division Street (1926);
2600 Liberty Heights Avenue 21215 (1970 – 1986)
The first black-owned and operated hospital for African Americans in Baltimore opened with ten beds in a private home on Orchard Street in 1894. It was founded by African American doctors to care for care for their black patients and to train other doctors as well as nurses. No doubt, many prominent Provident doctors also were members of the prestigious MeDeSo Club listed here. The small hospital always struggled for cash, moving several times from 1894 through the mid-1980s. It merged with Lutheran Hospital to become Liberty Medical Center in 1986. Within a year, the new facility would close. Ten years later, Liberty merged with Bon Secours Hospital. Today, the Provident Hospital archives, known as The Bon Secours Health System Inc./Provident Hospital Archives Collection (MSA SC 5971) are housed at the Baltimore City Archives, 2615 Matthews Street, Baltimore 21218.18
Formerly Howard and Lexington Streets, SE corner On January 20, 1955, one of the first desegregation sit-ins in America took place at a Read’s “soda fountain” in Baltimore. Students from Morgan State University joined members of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) and participated in a peaceful demonstration in the store for about thirty minutes. The owner of the Read’s chain at the time, Arthur Nattans, Sr., who had been sympathetic to the movement, desegregated all of his store’s two days later. In 2011, then Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake approved a plan to demolish the entire building where Read’s had been located over the objections of activists and historic preservationists. These groups eventually lost to the City and developers, who agreed only to preserve two walls of the original building, rather than to preserve the store as a museum.19
The Royal Theater
1329 Pennsylvania Avenue 21217
Ultimately one of the most famous jazz venues in America, The Royal opened in 1922 as the Douglass Theatre. It was entirely black owned and one of five similar theaters for exclusively black entertainment — the Apollo in Harlem, the Howard in Washington, D.C., the Regal in Chicago, and the Earl in Philadelphia. The greatest names in jazz performed at the Royal: native son, Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Count Basie, Billie Holliday, The Supremes, and many more. A victim of white flight and the 1968 riots, The Royal was demolished in 1971. Similar to the fate of historic Read’s Drug Store, Baltimore City could only summon the resources for a “Marquee Monument” at the corner of Pennsylvania and Lafayette Avenues.20
1020 W. Lafayette Avenue 21217
The Church’s history is tied to its founder the Rev. Mr. William Levington. He was ordained in Philadelphia when he was thirty-one at St. Thomas’s Church in 1824. Thirty years earlier, the Rev. Absalom Jones had been ordained there as the first African American admitted to the Episcopal ministry. Levington decided very early to dedicate himself to the plight of African Americans in the South and to establish an Episcopal “Negro Church”. Over a very short period of time, Levington had settled in Baltimore and had secured an “upper room” at the corner of Park Avenue and Marion Street for what was to be called, St. James First African Protestant Episcopal Church. Levington also began a day school for free African children. The congregation constructed its first building in 1826 at Saratoga and North (now Guilford) Streets; later the church moved to Lexington and High Streets c. 1890; and finally moved to its current location on West Lafayette Avenue in 1932. It had become one of the largest black Episcopal churches in the nation with a congregation of more than 500. The new building was formerly the Church of the Ascension whose congregation had participated in the historic flight of white families to the suburbs. 21 22
St. Katherine’s of Alexandria
Presstman & Division Streets 21217
The Church was established in November of 1891 on the Feast of St. Katherine as a “colored” mission of Mount Calvary Episcopal Church. It takes its name from St. Katherine, a 4th-century Egyptian woman, who converted to Christianity after seeing a vision of Mary and the Holy Child. The church’s first location was at 1350 Calhoun Street (in a house). After several moves, in 1911 the congregation moved to its current location, the former St. George Episcopal Church, at Presstman & Division Streets. Many prominent African American families have worshipped at St. Katherine’s since that time, including Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who was confirmed there. In 1998, Mayor Kurt Schmoke signed legislation making St. Katherine’s an official Baltimore City Landmark.23
St. Peter Claver Catholic Church
1546 N. Fremont Avenue 21217
St. Peter Claver was a sixteenth-century Spanish priest who is known as the patron saint of slaves. The church itself at Pennsylvania and Fremont Avenues was founded in 1888, and is the second oldest African American Catholic Church. True to its heritage, the church has for many years been known for its activist role in seeking civil rights for African Americans in Baltimore. Father Philip Berrigan is perhaps its most famous activist priest, who together with his brother Daniel and the Catonsville Nine, burned Vietnam War draft cards in the 1960s. With the Baltimore Interfaith Peace Mission, Father Berrigan advocated for the city’s African American communities. Father John Harfmann was another Civil Rights activist from St. Peter’s, working on integration of public facilities and supporting BUILD (Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development) on behalf of better housing, employment opportunities, and restoring neighborhoods. The church’s support of the No Boundaries Coalition continues its long mission for racial justice in Baltimore.24
Sandtown-Winchester
East-West Monroe to Fremont; North-South North Avenue to Lafayette 21217
The name “Sandtown” comes from the sand that was dropped by horse-drawn wagons leaving the nearby sand and gravel quarry and passing through the neighborhood. “Winchester” is one of the local streets. Also known as Baltimore’s “Harlem”, in the 1950s and 1960s Billie Holiday and Diana Ross performed there at The Royal Theater. Other well-known residents included, jazz-singer Ethel Ennis, boxer Gervonta Davis, and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Today, the neighborhood has become known more for the tragic death of Freddie Gray and the mass protests that led to looting and arson in 2015. It is one of the poorest areas of the city, with 52% of 16-64 year-olds unemployed, as of 2015.25
Sharon Baptist Church
1375 N. Stricker Street & Presstman Street 21217
The church began as a Sunday School that organized into a congregation of ten in 1885. The Afro American wrote that its origins actually were “in an abandoned horse stable.” Since then Sharon Baptist Church has become a cornerstone of the West Baltimore community, operating a prison ministry, a food bank, and back-to-school drives. A little-known piece of the church’s history is that it was the birthplace of the Afro-American Newspaper, then only four pages, in 1892. John Henry Murphy, Sr. took over responsibilities for the paper from the Sharon’s pastor, the Rev. William M. Alexander, in 1897. Murphy developed the paper into “the leading black publication in the nation until his death in 1922.”26
Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church
508 Dolphin Street 21217
The origin of Sharp Street Memorial came about at the turn of the 18th century when Methodism, that had been very anti-slavery and welcoming towards black parishioners, followed the growing trend towards segregation — excluding blacks from church cemeteries, creating separate balconies for African Americans, or forcing them to sit in the rear of the church. In Baltimore, African American Methodists followed the growing trend, begun in Philadelphia by the Rev. Richard Allen, a former slave who founded the first independent black Methodist Church. Here, in 1787, Jacob Fortie and Caleb Hyland broke from Lovely Lane Methodist Church to form the Colored Methodist Society. The Society acquired property on Sharp Street in 1802 to form the Sharp Street Methodist Church. It became known as the “Mother Church of African American Methodism in Maryland”.27
Union Baptist Church
1219 Druid Hill Avenue 21217
Like the African American Methodists, Union Baptist Church separated from the Maryland Baptist Union Association in 1892, because of racial discrimination in the Church’s treatment of its black parishioners. The fifth pastor of Union Baptist, the Rev. Dr. Harvey Johnson who was a friend of W.E.B. DuBois, became instrumental in the formation of the Colored Baptist Convention, as well as the Niagara Movement, a precursor of the NAACP. The sanctuary of Union Baptist Church is a National Historic Register property because of the significance of the Rev. Dr. Johnson and of the Sanctuary’s architect, William J. Beardsley.28
East-West Fremont to McCulloh; North-South Lennox to Edmonson 21217
Upton is part of what was known as Old West Baltimore. At the turn of the century (20th), it was one of the most affluent African American neighborhoods in the United States. Cab Calloway grew up there, and Eubie Blake debuted at The Royal Theater there. But its origins were in South Baltimore where about 1885, “overcrowding and poor sanitation”, due in part to shallow wells, prompted African Americans living in the “alley districts” there to move to the higher ground of what is now Upton. Not long after, in the early 1900s, more African Americans joined the first wave of Upton pioneers. In their book, The Baltimore Book: New Views of Local History (1993), the editors note that, “By 1904, one-half of the African American population of the city was living in Old West Baltimore.”29
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Afro-American. Photo: The Afro-American
- https://www.archsocialclub.com/about. Photo: The Afro-American
- http://bethel1.org/about-us/history/ https://www.nathanielturner.com/baltimoreblackchurches.htm Photo: Wikimedia Commons
- From: The Y in Central Maryland: ”The Y in Druid Hill: 100 Years” https://blog.ymaryland.org/the-y-in-druid-hill-100-years/ Photo: DHA_YMCA
- CHAP – Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation, “Landmark Designation Report” (2013). Photo: The Afro-American
- https://livingclassrooms.org/programs/frederick-douglass-isaac-myers-maritime-park/ Photo: Visit Baltimore
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglass_Place Photo: Wikimedia Commons
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/grim-history-hidden-under-baltimore-parking-lot-cemetery-african-american;
- https://www.coppin.edu/laurelcemeterysymposium
- https://www.lilliecarrolljacksonmuseum.org/dr-jackson
- Cahn, Jonathan D., “Medical History: A Doctor’s Legacy: Dr. John E.T. Camper and the MeDeSo,” Journal of the American Medical Association 72 (1980): 283-287. Photo: The Afro-American
- The description cites information from Dr. Kami Fletcher, an Assistant Professor of African American History at Delaware State University, and her article, “Baltimore’s Mount Auburn Cemetery: Autonomously African & Free From White Control”. http://www.orderofgooddeath.com/baltimores-mount-auburn-cemetery-autonomously-african-free-white-control
- Photo: The Marc Steiner Show
- From Visit Baltimore: “African American Heritage in Baltimore”.
- https://baltimore.org/ultimate-guide/african-american-heritage-baltimore Photo: Visit Baltimore
- Frederick N. Rasmussen, “Order of black nuns founded in 1829; History: Starting tomorrow, a stone monument will mark the spot where Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange established the Oblate Sisters of Providence,” The Baltimore Sun, 12 February 2000. Photo: Maryland Historical Society
- Therese Wilson Favors, “During Black Catholic History Month We Salute The Oblate Sisters of Providence and Fannie Montpensier,” www.churchofstcecilia.org/documents/osp-fanny_bchur_doc2.pdf
- https://mdahgp.genealogyvillage.com/biography_of_william_levington.html
- https://baltimore.org/ultimate-guide/african-american-heritage-baltimore Photo: Wikipedia
- http://www.gbul.org/orchard-street-church.html
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provident_Hospital_(Baltimore)#cite_note-History-1
- Photo: Maryland State Archives
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read%27s_Drug_Store#cite_note-JMM-1 Photo: BGE Collection Baltimore Museum of Industry
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Theatre_(Baltimore); Photo: http://theatretalks.tumblr.com/post/6908148633/ralph-cooper-at-the-royal-theatre-baltimore
- Judy White, “Biography of William Levington,” Maryland Biographies / Maryland AHGP: Part of the American History & Geneaology Project (2011-2019). https://mdahgp.genealogyvillage.com/biography_of_william_levington.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_James_Episcopal_Church_(Baltimore,_Maryland) Photo: Wikipedia
- Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, “Church of St. Katherine of Alexandria, Baltimore”, On The Trail of Souls (2019). Photo: Eli Pousson
- The Explore Baltimore Heritage Team, “St. Peter Claver Catholic Church: Religion and Community Activism on Pennsylvania Avenue,” Baltimore Heritage (2018). https://explore.baltimoreheritage.org/items/show/345
- Photo: Eli Pousson
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandtown-Winchester,_Baltimore
- Alexis Taylor, “Sharon Baptist Church Honors its Shepherd of 25 Years”, The Afro-American Newspaper, 17 November 2011.
- Photo: Sharon Baptist Church Facebook page
- Sid Levy, Lara Westwood, “The Rise of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore and the Bethel A.M.E. Church,” Underbelly: MDHS Library Department (2017). https://www.mdhs.org/underbelly/2017/11/30/the-rise-of-the-african-methodist-episcopal-church-in-baltimore-and-the-bethel-a-m-e-church/ Photo Credit: Maryland Historical Trust
- Union Baptist Church webpage: http://unionbaptistmd.org/history.aspx Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
- Elizabeth Fee, Linda Shopes, and Linda Zeidman, eds., The Baltimore Book: New Views of Local History (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), pp. 57 ff. Photo Credit: Wikipedia