The Brotherhood of Liberty
*The Brotherhood of Liberty was formed on this date in 1885. Known as Mutual United Brotherhood of Liberty, it was in Baltimore, Maryland, that the organization sought to remove social injustices and protect the civil rights of Blacks against the structures of the Jim Crow Era. The Brotherhood of Liberty used legal means to protect the civil rights of African American people.
The Brotherhood of Liberty was founded by Rev. Harvey Johnson, a pastor at Union Baptist Church, and other local pastors, Ananias Brown, William Moncure Alexander, Patrick Henry Alexander, John Calvin Allen, and W. Charles Lawson. They advocated for the right of Blacks to practice law in Maryland. The Brotherhood of Liberty created schools for Blacks and was a pioneer in assisting Blacks in getting a better education, uniting them, and improving their standard of living.
At the time the Brotherhood was established in Jim Crow Baltimore, there were no high schools for Black children and no Black teachers. Blacks passed the examination to teach, but the school board refused to appoint them. Separate African American schools had all-white teachers. The Brotherhood petitioned the city council, the board of school commissioner, and the city courts. The white school board said that there were not enough African Americans on the Northwest side of Baltimore to have a public elementary school. The Brotherhood enrolled 300 children at Shiloh Baptist Church and hired three teachers.
Baltimore built the first new school for African Americans at Carrollton and Riggs Ave. The first African American teachers and principals were Fannie Barbour and George Biddle. The school was closed after some time because whites in the area were determined to take over the school and make it all-white. The Brotherhood of Liberty created the first colored schools with colored teachers and principals, providing them with resources to succeed. The Brotherhood of Liberty and its members accomplished much for the African American community in Maryland.
In 1885, Everett Waring, a council member of the Brotherhood of Liberty, became the first Black attorney to practice law in the Maryland court system. Waring was the first Black person admitted to the bar of the Court of Appeals in 1880, which opened the door to allowing five more Black Baltimore citizens to be allowed admittance to the University of Maryland School of Law in 1890. In 1889, William M. Alexander, an original member of the Brotherhood of Liberty, opened Public School No. 9, the first public school for Black children. In 1888, at Irving Park, the Brotherhood celebrated the removal of the word "white" from the statute books of Maryland.
