Chestertown, Md

The Heart of the Eastern Shore

Chesapeake Heartland project puts Kent County Black history on the map

by Kate Livie

A mobile operations center collects and preserves history directly from the community. K im Briscoe Moody carries a map in her memory. “I was born and grew up on Prospect Street, in Chestertown. My mom grew up, was born on Calvert Street, and my father was also born on Prospect Street. I grew up in the Bethel AME Church [on the block in between], and I can remember playing on the back lot. It brings me joy, when I go home, to see these places.”

These streets, in the heart of what was once Chestertown, Md.’s predominantly Black neighborhood, have changed since Moody was a little girl. Thriving nightclubs, grocery stores, barber shops—all Black owned—have vanished since her childhood in the 1960s. All over Kent County, small rural Black communities have followed the same trend, dwindling in population as generations of young Black Kent Countians have moved away, seeking opportunities elsewhere

Moody was one of those talented African American Kent County ex-pats. A valedictorian and MVP star athlete of her graduating class in 1978, Moody moved away for a career and family. Over the years, she’s returned to Kent County, and has observed the slow disappearance of the Black community’s cornerstones. So when Airlee Ringgold Johnson, a community historian and old friend working with the Chesapeake Heartland project, reached out to collect her snapshots and stories, Kim saw an opportunity to preserve several generations of her family’s Kent County’s history.

Heart of the Eastern Shore

The cultural map in Moody’s memory is as developed as the rural landscape of Kent County is not. The stories, traditions, language, and kinship of the Black community are vibrant, passed down through generations that have called this place home. This cultural landscape is largely uncharted and in some cases threatened by time—something the new Chesapeake Heartland initiative is working to change. Through the combined efforts of the local Black community, local and national partners, and the Starr Center at Washington College, oral histories, family photos, local lore, and historic documents are being shared and carefully preserved for future generations—mapping a rich and deeply rooted heritage along the way.

The inspiration for the Chesapeake Heartland project started in 2017, when then-director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Lonnie Bunch, made a trip across the Chesapeake Bay to Chestertown. Bunch was in town to receive an honorary degree from Washington College, and stopped by the historic Grand Army of the Republic Post #25, Sumner Hall, which was hosting a Smithsonian-sponsored Museum on Main Street exhibit, “The Way We Worked.” The exhibit focused on work in the Black community, and during his visit, Bunch met with the organizations—including the Starr Center—who had partnered with Sumner Hall on “The Way We Worked” for a roundtable discussion.

There, Bunch identified something the local Black community already knew: that the depth and breadth of Kent County’s African American history and culture was unique. “The Way We Worked” marked just the beginning of what was possible when the community was asked to share their knowledge. For Bunch, the true heart of the National Museum of African American History and Culture wasn’t in Washington D.C. It was in places like Kent County, where the stories of Black triumph and artistry, celebration and accomplishment were just starting to be documented. Later, over eggs and coffee at a local diner, Bunch spoke with some of the Starr Center staff about how to keep the momentum going through a partnership with the Smithsonian. The best approach, he suggested, was the one already modeled through “The Way We Worked” exhibit. Rather than an organization or museum identifying stories and objects to collect and then going out to ask for them, the Starr Center should rely on the Black community’s expertise. As community curators, they should define what

Above: Singer-songwriter Kentavius Jones speaks to Chesapeake Heartland interns about the Maryland Spirituals Initiative. Left: Smithsonian Director Lonnie Bunch speaking at Washington College.

Airlee Sparrows Beach This photo shows sisters Airlee and Muriel Ringgold during their family vacation at Sparrow’s Beach in Annapolis in 1953. Sparrow’s Beach— together with neighboring Carr’s Beach—served as respite resorts for Black vacationers in the tri-state area between 1920 and 1970. These exclusive properties came to be known as the Black Coast, and drew such major musicians as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Ray Charles.

Airlee Ringgold Johnson, from the Chesapeake Heartland Digital Archive

Heartland intern Paris Young (right) looks over images with Irene Moore, a volunteer curator at The African American Schoolhouse Museum in Worton, Md. they thought was important to share and preserve, and work with the Center closely to tell the stories of their own history and heritage.

It is this approach—community curation— that is the core of the Chesapeake Heartland project. Envisioned as a grassroots initiative to find, digitize, share, and interpret four centuries of Kent County Black history, the Chesapeake Heartland team of local, regional, and national collaborators aimed not only to illuminate the region’s rich culture, but to define the Chesapeake Bay watershed as a national heartland of African American history and culture.

For this to work, it was clear the power needed to be in the hands of the community from the start. “From the beginning, there was a very diverse group of stakeholders from within the community who came together to talk about this initiative and brainstorm,” said Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College. From those conversations, it was clear that there were already members of the Kent County African American community who were collecting and sharing histories—and doing it in creative and important ways. Identifying these people and getting them involved was going to be critical to the project. “We had this network that already existed of people who knew local history, who had grown up in the heart of it, and who were gifted and dedicated chroniclers and sharers of that history,” Goodheart said.

Airlee Ringgold Johnson was one of the community historians who signed on to the Chesapeake Heartland project’s launch in 2020. Along with her friend and colleague Carolyn Brooks, she helped the Starr Center and its partners reach out to the Black community to ask for their guidance and suggestions, and gather their oral histories, documents, and photos for a large public archive. Ringgold Johnson is a natural connector who seems to know everyone in Kent County, and if she doesn’t, she can reach out to someone who might.

Like Kim Briscoe Moody, Ringgold Johnson is a native of Kent County who moved away after graduation for college and a career, but she returned to Chestertown to retire. A passionate lover of local history herself who has long volunteered for Kent County historical societies and organizations, Ringgold Johnson is proud of her work with the Chesapeake Heartland project. It’s an initiative that’s important to her, on a community level and on a personal level, too. “I got involved with the project from the very beginning. I’ve always been very interested in history and I believe totally in our community. I just wanted to be part of it,” Ringgold Johnson said. She liked that the project was giving back to the community in a collaborative spirit.

In her role as community historian, Ringgold Johnson has worked with Kent County citizens as

Fugitive Broadside This poster (also known as a broadside), printed in 1793, attests to This poster (also known as a broadside), printed in 1793, attests to the successful escape of an enslaved man named Amos, and his the successful escape of an enslaved man named Amos, and his master’s fruitless attempt to recapture him. A great rarity, it is master’s fruitless attempt to recapture him. A great rarity, it is among the earliest extant documents of its kind—one of just a among the earliest extant documents of its kind—one of just a handful of such broadsides surviving from 18th-century America. handful of such broadsides surviving from 18th-century America.

Document image from the Commodore Collection, courtesy of the Chesapeake Heartland Project, chesapeakeheartland.org

whole, identifying who knows what; where treasure troves of photos, ephemera, and stories might be found; and slowly collecting, digitizing, and archiving the history shared with them. And what Ringgold Johnson and the Starr Center team have collected so far is astonishing and vast: photos and stories of the second African American ever admitted to the Coast Guard, William Pickrum; yearbooks from Garnett, Chestertown’s all-Black high school; oral histories from local Black clergy, community leaders, athletes, and entrepreneurs; wedding invitations; oil paintings of local scenes; family trees and home movies; and footage from Juneteenth celebrations and BLM protests. Ringgold Johnson, ever the staunch historian, has also submitted her own contributions to Kent County’s Black history, including photos of debutante balls and treasured snapshots of summer trips to Chesapeake African American resort beaches with her extended family.

For Ringgold Johnson, being able to provide a wider background for individual histories or photos is deeply rewarding. “When I talk with people, oftentimes I can put things together or correlate things, putting them into context with what happened in earlier times or previous centuries. We’re able to connect the dots from the time that African Americans first came to Kent County up until now, and the whole story is just fascinating.”

In particular, Ringgold Johnson appreciates the celebratory nature of the Chesapeake Heartlands project, and the chance to elevate the stories of Kent County’s flourishing Black community. “We have a rich history. Chesapeake Heartland shows that despite all odds, we endured. We have a vibrant culture and we’ve been able to surpass our minority, oppressive situation, and it hasn’t kept us from mentally flourishing in our own community.” The Chesapeake Heartland project is further supported by a veritable army of Washington College students, interns, faculty, and local, regional, and national partners as it reaches into the community and researches what they share. A big, blue Heartland truck—staffed by students and interns, and equipped with digital recording equipment, teaching materials, scanners, televisions, whiteboards, and other gear—acts as a roving collections center, exhibit, and studio. Branded with the project’s “sankofa” logo (an

Left: Digitization technician Jada Aristilde examines slides. Below: Chesapeake Heartland’s recording studio.