What is Blacks of the Chesapeake?

Vince Leggett and Captain Eldridge Meredith

Captain Butler

Vince Leggett and Captain Eldridge Meredith

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African-Americans who have worked and continue to work in the maritime and seafood processing industries in the Chesapeake Bay region are an integral part of this area's rich culture and heritage. In 1994, the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation began to document this aspect of Americana. The foundation serves the community with a broad range of historical, cultural, and educational activities.

Documentation includes the book, The Chesapeake Bay Through Ebony Eyes, which provides a history of African-American contributions in the Chesapeake's maritime industries, and includes a collection of seafood recipes, poetry, photographs and sketches; and the book, Blacks of the Chesapeake, An Integral Part of Maritime History, which provides a pictorial history of African-Americans at work as ship captains, sail makers, watermen, and seafood processing plant employees.

BoCF’s Admiral Earl White Legacy Endowment Fund

This fund is to provide income and long-term protection for the operations of the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation. African-Americans who have worked and continue to work in the maritime and seafood processing industries in the Chesapeake Bay region are an integral part of this area's rich culture and heritage. In 1994, the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation began to document this aspect of Americana. The foundation serves the community with a broad range of historical, cultural and educational activities.

Telling the WHOLE Story

Protecting Maryland’s Historic Black Beaches

“Our heritage and land preservation project: ‘Black History, Recreation and Public Access,’ will lay the foundation for interpretation and creation of an authentic experience and understanding of the great beaches of the Chesapeake Bay. To accomplish this goal, the Foundation and its allies will collect the raw stories, documents, films, photos, and other memorabilia that celebrate and offer glimpses into ‘The Beaches’ experience. From these materials, we will develop programs to capture the intersection of place and time. Visitors will step back in history and feel what it was like to belong at our beloved Carr’s, Sparrow’s, and Elktonia beaches. The message to young people, and those young at heart, is to assure them they can travel the seven seas, plumb the depths of the ocean floor, and explore far-off galaxies from this exact latitude and longitude" ~ Vincent Leggett

Chesapeake Underground: Charting a Course to Freedom

Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass are Blacks of the Chesapeake

Their lives were shaped by the bay and its many harbors, rivers, and creeks. Douglass did his work in the light and Tubman labored under a celestial canopy by night. They both were well acquainted with Maryland waterways and used them as a part of their heroic quests for freedom. The remarkable part of their meta narratives is the fact that once they were free, they used their God-given gifts and graces to help others.

Learn more about their lives and others through the Tubman-Douglass Institute for Chesapeake Studies.