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Maintaining Baltimore's Black History

January 14 Hub Staff Report

A $4 million grant will focus on preserving the history of Black Baltimoreans

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation on Wednesday awarded a $4.4 million grant to a team of scholars at Johns Hopkins University that is investigating the history of academic racism in higher education and building a citywide network to preserve Baltimore’s Black history, culture, and arts.

inheritance-baltimore-leaders-portraits
Collaborators on Inheritance Baltimore include Johns Hopkins faculty members (clockwise from top left) Lawrence Jackson, Kali-Ahset Amen, Stuart Schrader, and Nathan Connolly

The project is a collaboration between the Program in Racism, Immigration and Citizenship; the Billie Holiday Project for Liberation Arts, which is affiliated with the Center for Africana Studies; and the Sheridan Libraries and University Museums. Inheritance Baltimore will focus on three goals:

“We want to cultivate the historical legacy of Black people in the city and in this region where so many African American archives are either incomplete or are being actively discarded,” said Lawrence Jackson, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of English and history. “The university actually has a responsibility to direct resources toward the historical preservation of the complex features of Black life in the city of Baltimore.”

Read more about Inheritance Baltimore: Humanities and Arts Education for Black Liberation at The Hub. 

Topics: Johns Hopkins, Fuel Discovery, Support Scholars