In this issue, we share a story from nonprofit news outlet The 19th News. Reporter Candice Norwood details a fight some members of the Reservoir Hill community are waging against Amtrak’s planned Frederick Douglass Tunnel. They say that the tunnel could have negative effects on their now-majority-Black community. The residents have filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation, saying that the project could disturb their homes and possibly affect their health and safety.
“Keondra Prier, the president of the Reservoir Hill Association who has lived there since 2017, said Amtrak should be developing an emergency plan in partnership with the community, which has not happened,” Norwood writes. “Residents have also requested an alert system that would notify people if an emergency occurs or the air quality changes to dangerous levels, she added. Lisa Ward said the response from Amtrak representatives has been full of ‘disdain’ when she and others attempt to ask questions.”
Theirs isn’t the only federal civil rights complaint discussed in this issue.
In an op-ed, two professors talk about a complaint filed by South Baltimore Community Land Trust. The group argues that the Baltimore City Department of Public Works has not kept citizens safe from the harmful effects of incineration.
“Incineration should concern all residents of Baltimore, but organizers are right that it disproportionately harms residents of color, who are twice as likely as white residents to develop cancer from toxic exposure and suffer some of the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the United States,” write Chloe Ahmann and Anand Pandian.
We can’t create a future that works for all of us until we learn from the work of past organizers and activists. To that end, Irene Bantigue writes about “Revolution in Our Lifetime.” This exhibition, at The Peale Museum until July 7, focuses on the Black Panther Party’s Baltimore chapter.
“The exhibition not only examines the Baltimore Panthers’ ideological roots and community-oriented programs, but also contextualizes the chapter’s relationship to neighboring political organizations and social justice movements nationwide amid the 1960s and ’70s. Intertwined in the Baltimore Black Panther Party’s legacy is the Baltimore Police Department’s efforts to undermine and dismantle it,” Bantigue writes.
Film critic Dominic Griffin reminisces about 1998 Wesley Snipes classic “Blade,” and how it can’t ever be duplicated — not even by Academy Award-winning actor Mahershala Ali.
“Ali, it is said, sees ‘Blade’ as his ‘Black Panther,’ his opportunity to lead a culture-shaking moment at the movies. But that’s not what made the original ‘Blade’ special,” Griffin writes.
This issue’s Photostory page has beautiful images of Baltimore braving the heat to see performances from Busta Rhymes, Big Daddy Kane, Eze Jackson, and more. The photos were shot by Baltimore photographer Myles Michelin. We have a poem from Writers in Baltimore Schools participant Jett Stephens titled “Memories of an Origin.”
Thanks for reading, and see you in two weeks.
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