The year is 1792. The town: Easton. Grace Brooks, a 52-year-old Black midwife, has saved up enough money to free herself, her children, and her grandchildren from bondage. She was not the first free Black to move into this neighborhood, but according to one record, she was the first to buy her own freedom.

What she did next changed the course of African American history on the Eastern Shore. With the money she had saved, she purchased a modest home assessed at $50. Within a few years, there were more than 400 free Blacks living in this Hill neighborhood.

These free Blacks were integrated into the community-at-large, often working side by side with slaves and servants. Yet, as they saved money, they began to buy their friends and relatives out of slavery.

Almost a century after Brooks lived there, Frederick Douglass visited this neighborhood frequently. He walked around and talked to people, dedicating A.M.E churches like the Bethel A.M.E Church-Easton, the Eastern Shore’s oldest congregation. Today his five-times great-nephew, Tarence Bailey, is leading the charge to honor its history. Last year, Bailey unveiled a mural in the Hill community honoring Douglass.

Today, this community still stands in Talbot County, Maryland. It has come to be known as the oldest African-American community in the country.

This February, we honor people like Grace Brooks and Frederick Douglass, who made sacrifices we could not comprehend, to make this community possible. I turn to the words of the Republican Star which published a full-page obituary for Grace Brooks, making her the first Black American to be honored in such a way: “Grace Brooks has left an impression on the hearts of all who knew her many virtues and services, that will never be forgotten while they possess recollection – white and black, are the offspring of the Divine Creator.” We are all first and foremost human, and attempts to divide us based on race are just tactics of people who are scared. Scared of embracing our future as a diverse and prosperous nation.

I hope you'll join me in supporting the Bailey-Douglass family's vision to build an African American Cultural Center in the Hill Community to honor the residents and their legacy of resilience. The family and the Hill Community hope to build a better future for their town, the Eastern Shore, and all of Maryland.

Thanks,

Dave