Opinion (Mark A. Thomas)
Afro News BALTIMORE –
Civil rights icon Andrew Young recently came to Baltimore as a guest of the Baltimore Orioles and the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership to help celebrate the establishment of the Baltimore Black Sox memorial and lift up another remarkable chapter in Baltimore’s history.
As America approaches its 250th anniversary, Baltimore’s story runs through so many chapters of the nation’s story: industry, culture, civil rights, labor, education, neighborhood life and baseball. The Black Sox are part of that inheritance. Their story reminds us that Baltimore’s history is not a backdrop. It is a source of identity, pride and possibility for what this city and region can still become.
Like many people, I knew Ambassador Young as a civil rights icon, former U.N. Ambassador, and former Mayor of Atlanta. What I did not realize until his visit was that he once served as Chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, effectively the GBC of my hometown.
Ambassador Young understood the work from both sides: as a civil rights leader and as a business-civic leader helping shape one of the country’s most influential regional economies.
When former Mayor Young shared that Baltimore’s Inner Harbor helped inspire Underground Atlanta’s redevelopment in the 1980s, it was a reminder that Baltimore has made bold moves before, and that those moves have reached farther than we sometimes acknowledge.
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