Sit-in prompts police dogs & fire hoses in Princess Anne, MD: 1964
Students from Maryland State College sit and kneel on Main Street in Princess Anne, Maryland during a demonstration against segregation at a town restaurant February 26, 1964.
Sixty-two were subsequently injured when police and fire fighters cleared the streets using police dogs and fire hoses and Maryland was again in the national spotlight for its racial discrimination.
The Maryland chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) had been sponsoring demonstrations attempting to desegregate the Eastern Shore and began picketing in Annapolis March 3rd in response to Princess Anne.
A special session of the state legislature had been called to consider both a tax increase and an increase in teach salaries. The crisis forces Gov. Milliard Tawes to put the full weight of his office behind a bill banning discrimination in businesses that accommodated the public across the state.
At one point the CORE demonstrations were so disruptive to the state legislature that the NAACP asked the group to suspend demonstration and go home. CORE refused.
A weak bill had passed the legislature the previous year that permitted counties to “opt out” and the entire Eastern Shore did so. The special session ultimately passed a bill that covered the whole state, but exempted establishments that sold alcoholic beverages.
Segregationists petitioned the new law to a referendum in November where it passed 53%-47%.
The federal 1964 Civil Rights Act predated Maryland’s law when it was signed July 2nd by President Lyndon Johnson.
For more information and related images,https://www.flickr.com/gp/washington_area_spark/933Jun
The photographer is unknown. The image is an auction find.
Sit-in prompts police dogs & fire hoses in Princess Anne, MD: 1964
Students from Maryland State College sit and kneel on Main Street in Princess Anne, Maryland during a demonstration against segregation at a town restaurant February 26, 1964.
Sixty-two were subsequently injured when police and fire fighters cleared the streets using police dogs and fire hoses and Maryland was again in the national spotlight for its racial discrimination.
The Maryland chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) had been sponsoring demonstrations attempting to desegregate the Eastern Shore and began picketing in Annapolis March 3rd in response to Princess Anne.
A special session of the state legislature had been called to consider both a tax increase and an increase in teach salaries. The crisis forces Gov. Milliard Tawes to put the full weight of his office behind a bill banning discrimination in businesses that accommodated the public across the state.
At one point the CORE demonstrations were so disruptive to the state legislature that the NAACP asked the group to suspend demonstration and go home. CORE refused.
A weak bill had passed the legislature the previous year that permitted counties to “opt out” and the entire Eastern Shore did so. The special session ultimately passed a bill that covered the whole state, but exempted establishments that sold alcoholic beverages.
Segregationists petitioned the new law to a referendum in November where it passed 53%-47%.
The federal 1964 Civil Rights Act predated Maryland’s law when it was signed July 2nd by President Lyndon Johnson.
For more information and related images,https://www.flickr.com/gp/washington_area_spark/933Jun
The photographer is unknown. The image is an auction find.