INTRODUCTION
Painting of the arrival of the first Africans arriving in Virginia. Sydney King. Courtesy of the National Park Service.
The history section of this website traces systemic racism in American history from slavery and segregation to the present, and it analyzes the sociological impacts systemic racism has had on the United States. We begin with the arrival of the first African slaves on the North American shores in 1619 and conclude with the resurgence of white supremacy in 2019. While the history section is, for now, complete, we will continuously update the website. The story does not end in 2019.
Definitions
We approach this narrative from an interdisciplinary perspective, relying on research from history, sociology, and race theory. In adopting a sociological/historical approach to slavery and racism, we agree with historian Ira Berlin’s (1998) assessment that “[r]ace, no less than class, is the product of history, and it only exists on the contested social terrain in which men and women struggle to control their destinies” (p. 1). And, as sociologists Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (2018) has noted, “notions of racial difference are human creations rather than eternal, essential categories” (p. 8).
In focusing on the sociological development of systemic racism, we rely upon the research and theories of two distinguished sociologists, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Joe R. Feagin. Both sociologists study racism in the context of African Americans in the United States. As such, their definitions of systemic (or structural) racism are focused on the experiences and opportunities (or lack thereof) for white people and Black people in the United States.
Bonilla-Silva (2018) defines systemic racism as “the totality of the social relations and practices that reinforce white privilege” (p. 8, italics his). Feagin (2006) defines systemic racism as a system that
[E]ncompasses a broad range of racialized dimensions of this [American] society: the racist framing, racist ideology, stereotyped attitudes, racist emotions, discriminatory habits and actions, and extensive racist institutions developed over the centuries by whites. (p. xii)
Approach
In this site, we are not analyzing individual expressions of racism as unique acts. Nor are we engaging in a finger pointing exercise that separates heroes from villains in U.S. history. We explore how deeply held beliefs about the inferiority of one “race” (dark skinned people) by another “race” (light skinned people) has influenced the formation of the United States as a nation. We detail how the nation’s laws, conventions, and political system were influenced by white assumptions and fears about Black people to demonstrate how systemic racism has permeated all aspects of U.S. history. As Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (2018) has noted, “we are all affected by racialization and racial ideology” (p. 164).
We also assert that systemic racism has remained “masked” from the dominant population because of its adaptability and subtly of expression in modern American life. This work is intended to encourage an honest conversation — rooted in historical evidence and demonstrated through sociological data — about the horrific effects that systemic racism has had on our nation, our states, our cities, but most importantly, upon us as a “United” people.
We understand that this subject and our retelling of this history may be uncomfortable. This is to be expected when confronting a dominant narrative many of us have accepted and lived. Until many of us come to terms with our whiteness – what it means and what it does in the world around us – we will remain limited in our ability to change the world. We ask that you read with an open mind, face the discomfort with mindful introspection, and join us in our efforts to become authentic antiracists.
African American History
Historians have long debated the appropriate way to narrate African American history and have struggled to strike a balance between accurately describing victimization alongside agency. We recognize that this history focuses more on the ways that African Americans have been oppressed. In doing so, we do not intend to discredit the agency and heritage of African Americans. Our purpose is to look at how systemic racism has led to the ongoing struggles we face in the United States today. As such, we highlight the victimization experienced and perpetuated over 400 years of American history.
We are also conscious of the fact that the very narrative of white people versus Black people may, in some ways, reinforce the separation that we trace from 1619 onward. It is not our intention to restrict the narrative to a simple binary. To the extent that black/white language has been used historically, we rely upon it to demonstrate the centrality that notions of race have played in the formation of the United States.
Structure
We have divided the narrative by centuries. We start by tracing the early experience of African Americans in 1619 and overview how racial views from Europe influenced the early structures of governance from the colonies through the founding of the United States to the end of the nineteenth century. While not comprehensive, we explore the ways that attitudes, actions, ideology, and institutions systematically formed the United States into a nation divided between white people and Black people.
Starting in the twentieth century we narrow the geography to focus on Baltimore and rely more heavily upon a sociological approach. We focus on key events that reveal the attitudes, actions, ideologies, and institutions within Maryland, and the United States, that demonstrate the ways that racism adapted and infused itself more deeply into the structural framework of the United States.
Invitation
As we look at the history of slavery and race in America – more specifically in Baltimore and Maryland – we are engaging in a debate about ourselves, about what it means to exercise freedom and about what it means to be a citizen of the United States. To quote Berlin again,
The tenacious nature of this argument [about slavery] speaks to the centrality of freedom in American life, which, in turn, is embedded in the very meaning of American citizenship as stated in the nation’s founding charters and in its connection to the nation’s most critical contemporary social problem: racism. For the American people, the struggle to abolish slavery, secured by constitutional amendment almost 150 years ago, remains very much alive among us and about us. (p. 1)
This website and this historical section continue that dialogue. We hope that by elevating this particular story within U.S. history we can more intentionally study the ongoing social/political/economic/cultural struggles we face today. As communities organize to advocate for more economic opportunity, community-based policing, and fair access to health care and education, we all benefit from understanding the systems that contributed to the inequalities and biases experienced today.
We also hope that this overview of systemic racism in Maryland and Baltimore is a first step toward the collaborative effort of creating a more just and democratic community. The public grappling over a resurgence of white nationalism in our current time is a necessary step in marking the four hundredth anniversary of the first enslaved people landing on the shores of Virginia.