The history of White Americans in Baltimore dates back to the 17th century when the first white European colonists came to what is now Maryland and established the Province of Maryland on what was then Native American land. White Americans in Baltimore are Baltimoreans "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa." [1] [2] Majority white for most of its history, Baltimore no longer had a white majority by the 1970s. [3] As of the 2010 census, white Americans are a minority population of Baltimore at 29.6% of the population (Non-Hispanic whites were 28% of the population). White Americans have played a substantial impact on the culture, dialect, ethnic heritage, history, politics, and music of the city. Since the earliest English settlers arrived on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore's white population has been sustained by substantial immigration from all over Europe, particularly Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Southern Europe, as well as a large out-migration of White Southerners from Appalachia. Numerous white immigrants from Europe and the European diaspora have immigrated to Baltimore from the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Spain, France, Canada, and other countries, particularly during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Smaller numbers of white people have immigrated from Latin America, the Caribbean (particularly Haiti), the Middle East, North Africa, and other non-European regions. Baltimore also has a prominent population of white Jews of European descent, mostly with roots in Central and Eastern Europe. There is a smaller population of white Middle Easterners and white North Africans, most of whom are Arab, Persian, Israeli, or Turkish. The distribution of White Americans in Central and Southeast Baltimore is sometimes called "The White L", while the distribution of African Americans in East and West Baltimore is called "The Black Butterfly." [4]
White population in Baltimore | ||
---|---|---|
Year | Percentage | |
1790 | 88.3% | |
1800 | 78.8% | |
1810 | 77.8% | |
1820 | 76.6% | |
1830 | 76.5% | |
1840 | 79.3% | |
1850 | 83.2% | |
1860 | 86.9% | |
1870 | 85.2% | |
1880 | 83.8% | |
1890 | 84.5% | |
1900 | 84.3% | |
1910 | 84.8% | |
1920 | 85.2% | |
1930 | 82.3% | |
1940 | 80.6% | |
1950 | 76.2% | |
1960 | 65% | |
1970 | 53% | |
1980 | 43.9% | |
1990 | 39.1% | |
2000 | 31% | |
2010 | 29.6% | |
In the 1790 census, the first census in the history of the United States, white Americans constituted 88.3% of Baltimore's population. 11,925 lived in Baltimore in that year. [5]
In 1815, 36,000 white people lived in Baltimore. By 1829, Baltimore was home to 61,000 white people. [6]
From 1800 until 1840, white Americans were around 77–79% of Baltimore's population. The white population began to increase in the mid and late 1800s, boosted by large-scale European immigration, resulting in Baltimore's whites remaining between 80% and 87% of the population between the 1850s and the 1920s. [5]
During the time of the Hillbilly Highway, between 1910 and 1970, thousands of white people from Appalachia and the Southern states moved to Baltimore in search of better socioeconomic conditions. Baltimore was a major destination for these white Southern and Appalachian economic migrants.[ citation needed ]
In the 1960 United States census, Baltimore was home to 610,608 white residents, 65% of Baltimore's population. [7] By 1970 white Americans were 53% of Baltimore's population, on the verge of becoming the minority for the first time due white flight to the suburbs and an increasing African-American population. [5]
In the 1980 United States census, there were 345,113 white people living in Baltimore, constituting 43.9% of the population. The 1980 census was the first census for which white people were a minority in Baltimore. [8] By the 1990 United States census, there were 287,753 white Americans, constituting 39.1% of the population. [8]
In the 2010 United States census, 29.6% of the population of Baltimore was white, a total population of 183,830 people. [9]
In 2018, 30.3% of Baltimore was white and 27.6% was non-Hispanic white. [10]
Baltimore's white population has been increasing in numbers since the 2010s. This is largely due to gentrification and an influx of white millennials. [11]
In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was populated by Native Americans who had lived there since at least the 10th millennium BC, when Paleo-Indians first settled in the region. [12] During the Late Woodland period, the archaeological culture known as the "Potomac Creek complex" resided in an area from Baltimore to the Rappahannock River in Virginia, primarily along the Potomac River downstream from the Fall Line. [13] The Baltimore County area northward was used as hunting grounds by the Susquehannocks living in the lower Susquehanna River valley who "controlled all of the upper tributaries of the Chesapeake" but "refrained from much contact with Powhatan in the Potomac region." [14] Pressured by the Susquehannocks, the Piscataway tribe of Algonquians stayed well south of the Baltimore area and inhabited primarily the north bank of the Potomac River in what is now Charles and southern Prince George's south of the Fall Line [15] [16] [17] as depicted on John Smith's 1608 map which faithfully mapped settlements, mapped none in the Baltimore vicinity, while noting a dozen Patuxent River settlements that were under some degree of Piscataway suzerainty.
In 1608, Captain John Smith traveled 210 miles from Jamestown to the uppermost Chesapeake Bay, leading the first European expedition to the Patapsco River, a word used by the Algonquin language natives who fished shellfish and hunted [18] The name "Patapsco" is derived from pota-psk-ut, which translates to "backwater" or "tide covered with froth" in Algonquian dialect. [19] A quarter-century after John Smith's voyage, English colonists began to settle in Maryland. The English were initially frightened by the Piscataway in southern Maryland because of their body paint and war regalia, even though they were a peaceful tribe. The chief of the Piscataway tribe was quick to grant the English permission to settle within Piscataway territory and cordial relations were established between the English and the Piscataway. [20]
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During the civil rights movement between the 1930s and the 1960s, many white Americans in Baltimore reacted violently to African-Americans and were intransigent in their support for segregation. Some white residents of Baltimore engaged in acts of terrorism against African-Americans, including the 1911 lynching of King Johnson in the neighborhood of Brooklyn. [21] White elected officials and citizens made life difficult for African-Americans by engaging in various forms of discrimination. However, some anti-racist white liberals and progressives joined with African-American activists. White Communists were among the most vocal white supporters of the civil rights movement. [22]
The largely white Baltimore Committee for Political Freedom was created due to fears that Baltimore police were planning to assassinate Black Panther Party leaders in Baltimore, with Reverend Chester Wickwire and the sociologist Peter H. Rossi playing a prominent role. [23]
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Due to demographic and socioeconomic changes, Baltimore's urban core is slowly becoming more white and more affluent. Young urban professionals have been attracted to the city, echoing patterns of gentrification that have occurred across many major American cities in recent decades. As the city's white population has increased and the rate of poverty has dropped, income and property values have been rising. The effects of gentrification and a growing white population have been felt the most in the historically black working-class neighborhoods of East Baltimore and to a lesser extent in the neighborhoods of North Central Baltimore. The proximity of these neighborhoods to the Johns Hopkins Hospital has been a major factor in the gentrification and increasing white population of East Baltimore's neighborhoods. [24] Because of these demographic changes, Baltimore has been called "the new Brooklyn" and has been compared to similarly gentrifying cities across the United States such as New York City and Washington, D.C. [25]
According to linguists, the "hon" accent that is popularized in the media as being spoken by Baltimoreans is particular to Baltimore's white working-class. [26] White working-class families who migrated out of Baltimore city into Baltimore County and Carroll County along the Maryland Route 140 and Maryland Route 26 corridors brought local pronunciations with them, creating colloquialisms that make up the Baltimore accent, cementing the image of "Bawlmerese" as the "Baltimore accent". This white working-class dialect is not the only "Baltimore accent", as Black Baltimoreans have their own unique accent. For example, among Black speakers, Baltimore is pronounced more like "Baldamore," as compared to "Bawlmer" among white speakers. [27]
In 2003, Kenneth D. Durr published Behind the Backlash: White Working-Class Politics in Baltimore, 1940-1980, an historical examination of white working-class life and politics in Baltimore during the mid to late 1900s. [28]
Most White Americans in Baltimore are Christians, generally either Catholic or Protestant. Smaller numbers of white Christians belong to denominations such as Mormonism, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Oriental Orthodoxy. Minorities of White Americans belong to other religions such as Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam, while some are atheist or agnostic.[ citation needed ]
During the 1800s and 1900s, many neighborhoods of Baltimore were reserved exclusively for white Christians. One such neighborhood, Roland Park, was developed as a wealthy white Christian enclave for "discriminating" people that used racially restrictive covenants to exclude African-Americans. Some white Christian neighborhoods used restrictive covenants to exclude Jewish Americans as well. At that time, living in a white Christian neighborhood was a sign of social status. [29]
During this same time period, white Protestant-dominated banks would ignore or turn away customers who were Eastern European or Southern European immigrants; consequently "white ethnic" immigrants would establish their own banking institutions to serve the specific needs of their communities. These banks for white ethnic immigrants had hours and customs that seemed less alien to immigrants and often had translators on staff. Discrimination against non-WASP immigrants persisted in banking until the 1930s. [30] As late as the 1930s and 1940s it was not uncommon for Slavic Catholics, such as Poles and Czechs, to be called ethnic and religious slurs such as "bohunks" and "fish eaters." Slavs were often stereotyped as stupid and superstitious. White Protestants coined the term "fish eater" to refer to Catholic immigrants because the Catholics did not eat meat on Fridays. [31]
Baltimore, like many other major northeastern cities, has a large population of white Catholics, many of whom are "white ethnic" immigrants and descendants of immigrants from majority-Catholic countries of Europe such as Ireland, Italy, Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Historically, the Catholic Church in Baltimore practiced segregation of its white and black worshippers. In the early 21st century, Roman Catholic authorities began to acknowledge the long legacy of racism from the majority-white leadership of the Church. The first Archbishop of Baltimore, John Carroll, was a white slave-owner. Many white Catholics in Baltimore moved to the suburbs during the period of white flight between the 1960s and 1980s, leaving most Roman Catholic churches in the city with an African-American majority while many Roman Catholic churches in the suburbs are majority white. [32]
A large minority of white Baltimoreans have been Jewish, predominantly Ashkenazi Jews of European descent. Between the 1880s and the 1920s, Baltimore received tens of thousands of white Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants arriving from Central and Eastern Europe. [33] Due to the largely European origins of Baltimore's Jewish community, close to 90% of Baltimore area Jews are white. However, as of 2010, around 8% of Jewish households in the Greater Baltimore area were multiracial. [34] Following the 1968 riots and the subsequent white flight, many white Jews in the city (along with many white gentiles), left the city for the suburbs. Today, thousands of descendants of these white Jews live in Baltimore County, especially in Pikesville and Owings Mills, though many remain in the city in neighborhoods such as Park Heights, Mount Washington, and Roland Park. Historically, there were strong links between African-American and Jewish-American communities in Baltimore and many white Jewish Baltimoreans were strong supporters of the civil rights movement. However, there has been tension between the two communities, with instances of anti-black racism from white Jews such as the 2010 Park Heights beating of a black teenager by white members of an Orthodox Jewish community patrol group. [35] White Jews in Baltimore have experienced a mixture of both religious and racial antisemitism as well as privilege due to their white skin. In majority-white Jewish spaces in Baltimore, white Jews are sometimes accepted while black Jews and other Jews of color may face skepticism and questioning of their identity. [36]
There are a small number of white Muslims in Baltimore, most of whom are converts. Some white Muslims have earned leadership positions within their communities, with a few becoming teachers at children's schools for their local mosques. [37]
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Maryland is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The state borders Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to its east, and the national capital of Washington, D.C. to the southwest. With a total area of 12,407 square miles (32,130 km2), Maryland is the ninth-smallest state by land area, and its population of 6,177,224 ranks it the 18th-most populous state and the fifth-most densely populated. Maryland's capital is Annapolis, and the most populous city is Baltimore. Occasional nicknames include Old Line State, the Free State, and the Chesapeake Bay State. It is named after Henrietta Maria, the French-born queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland during the 17th century.
Port Tobacco, officially Port Tobacco Village, is a town in Charles County, Maryland, United States. The population was 13 at the 2010 census, making Port Tobacco the smallest incorporated town in Maryland.
Accokeek, "at the edge of the hill" in Algonquin, is a census-designated place (CDP) located in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The CDP is located on the Potomac River, borders Charles County and is approximately 17 miles from Washington. It is a part of the Washington metropolitan area. The population of the CDP, as of the 2020 United States Census was 13,927.
Hamilton Hills is a mixed-use suburban neighborhood located in the northeastern corner of Baltimore, Maryland. Hamilton Hills represents a section of Hamilton, a larger historic area that includes other neighborhoods in Northeast Baltimore. The neighborhood's borders are Old Harford Road and Harford Road to the east, Echodale Avenue to the south, Perring Parkway to the west and the Baltimore County line to the north. The main thoroughfare in Hamilton Hills is Harford Road, which has been an integral part of the area's history.
The Piscatawaypih-SKAT-ə-WAY or Piscatawapih-SKAT-ə-WAY, PIH-skə-TAH-wə, are Native Americans. They spoke Algonquian Piscataway, a dialect of Nanticoke. One of their neighboring tribes, with whom they merged after a massive decline of population following two centuries of interactions with European settlers, called them the Conoy.
The District of Columbia is a federal district with an ethnically diverse population. In 2020, the District had a population of 689,545 people, with a resident density of 11,515 people per square mile.
This article describes the history of the Baltimore and its surrounding area in central Maryland since the establishment of settlements by European colonists in 1661.
The history of the Germans in Baltimore began in the 17th century. During the 19th century, the Port of Baltimore was the second-leading port of entry for immigrants, after Ellis Island in New York City. Many Germans immigrated to Baltimore during this time.
The history of Greeks in Baltimore dates back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Baltimore is home to one of the largest Greek American communities in the United States. The community is centered in the Greektown and Highlandtown neighborhoods of East Baltimore.
The history of Czechs in Baltimore dates back to the mid-19th century. Thousands of Czechs immigrated to East Baltimore during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, becoming an important component of Baltimore's ethnic and cultural heritage. The Czech community has founded a number of cultural institutions to preserve the city's Czech heritage, including a Roman Catholic church, a heritage association, a gymnastics association, an annual festival, a language school, and a cemetery. During the height of the Czech community in the late 19th century and early 20th century, Baltimore was home to 12,000 to 15,000 people of Czech birth or heritage. The population began to decline during the mid-to-late 20th century, as the community assimilated and aged, while many Czech Americans moved to the suburbs of Baltimore. By the 1980s and early 1990s, the former Czech community in East Baltimore had been almost entirely dispersed, though a few remnants of the city's Czech cultural legacy still remain.
The history of Poles in Baltimore dates back to the late 19th century. The Polish community is largely centered in the neighborhoods of Canton, Fell's Point, Locust Point, and Highlandtown. Poles are the largest Slavic ethnic group in the city and one of the largest European ethnic groups.
There have been a variety of ethnic groups in Baltimore, Maryland and its surrounding area for 12,000 years. Prior to European colonization, various Native American nations have lived in the Baltimore area for nearly 3 millennia, with the earliest known Native inhabitants dating to the 10th millennium BCE. Following Baltimore's foundation as a subdivision of the Province of Maryland by British colonial authorities in 1661, the city became home to numerous European settlers and immigrants and their African slaves. Since the first English settlers arrived, substantial immigration from all over Europe, the presence of a deeply rooted community of free black people that was the largest in the pre-Civil War United States, out-migration of African-Americans from the Deep South, out-migration of White Southerners from Appalachia, out-migration of Native Americans from the Southeast such as the Lumbee and the Cherokee, and new waves of more recent immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa have added layers of complexity to the workforce and culture of Baltimore, as well as the religious and ethnic fabric of the city. Baltimore's culture has been described as "the blending of Southern culture and [African-American] migration, Northern industry, and the influx of European immigrants—first mixing at the port and its neighborhoods...Baltimore’s character, it’s uniqueness, the dialect, all of it, is a kind of amalgamation of these very different things coming together—with a little Appalachia thrown in...It’s all threaded through these neighborhoods", according to the American studies academic Mary Rizzo.
The history of Russians in Baltimore dates back to the mid-19th century. The Russian community is a growing population and constitutes a major source of new immigrants to the city. Historically the Russian community was centered in East Baltimore, but most Russians now live in Northwest Baltimore's Arlington neighborhood and in Baltimore's suburb of Pikesville.
The history of Lithuanians in Baltimore dates back to the mid-19th century. Thousands of Lithuanians immigrated to Baltimore between the 1880s and 1920s. The Lithuanian American community was mainly centered in what is now the Hollins–Roundhouse Historic District. Baltimore's Lithuanian community has founded several institutions to preserve the Lithuanian heritage of the city, including a Roman Catholic parish, a cultural festival, a dance hall, and a yeshiva.
The history of Hispanics and Latinos in Baltimore dates back to the mid-20th century. The Hispanic and Latino community of Baltimore is the fastest growing ethnic group in the city. There is a significant Hispanic/Latino presence in many Southeast Baltimore neighborhoods, particularly Highlandtown, Upper Fell's Point, and Greektown. Overall Baltimore has a small but growing Hispanic population, primarily in the Southeast portion of the area from Fells Point to Dundalk.
The history of Native Americans in Baltimore and what is now Baltimore dates back at least 12,000 years. As of 2014, Baltimore is home to a small Native American population, centered in East Baltimore. The majority of Native Americans now living in Baltimore belong to the Lumbee, Piscataway, and Cherokee peoples. The Piscataway people live in Southern Maryland and are recognized by the state of Maryland. The Lumbee and Cherokee are Indigenous to North Carolina and neighboring states of the Southeastern United States. Many of the Lumbee and Cherokee migrated to Baltimore during the mid-20th century along with other migrants from the Southern United States, such as African-Americans and white Appalachians. The Lumbee are state recognized in North Carolina as the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, but have no state recognition in Maryland. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina are a federally recognized tribe. There are three state recognized tribes in Maryland; the Piscataway-Conoy Tribe of Maryland, the Piscataway Indian Nation and Tayac Territory, and the Accohannock Indian Tribe. Maryland has no federally recognized tribes.
The city of Baltimore, Maryland includes a significant Appalachian population. The Appalachian community has historically been centered in the neighborhoods of Hampden, Pigtown, Remington, Woodberry, Lower Charles Village, Highlandtown, and Druid Hill Park, as well as the Baltimore inner suburbs of Dundalk, Essex, and Middle River. The culture of Baltimore has been profoundly influenced by Appalachian culture, dialect, folk traditions, and music. People of Appalachian heritage may be of any race or religion. Most Appalachian people in Baltimore are white or African-American, though some are Native American or from other ethnic backgrounds. White Appalachian people in Baltimore are typically descendants of early English, Irish, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh settlers. A migration of White Southerners from Appalachia occurred from the 1920s to the 1960s, alongside a large-scale migration of African-Americans from the Deep South and migration of Native Americans from the Southeast such as the Lumbee and the Cherokee. These out-migrations caused the heritage of Baltimore to be deeply influenced by Appalachian and Southern cultures.
The history of African Americans in Baltimore dates back to the 17th century when the first African slaves were being brought to the Province of Maryland. Majority white for most of its history, Baltimore transitioned to having a black majority in the 1970s. As of the 2010 Census, African Americans are the majority population of Baltimore at 63% of the population. As a majority black city for the last several decades with the 5th largest population of African Americans of any city in the United States, African Americans have had an enormous impact on the culture, dialect, history, politics, and music of the city. Unlike many other Northern cities whose African-American populations first became well-established during the Great Migration, Baltimore has a deeply rooted African-American heritage, being home to the largest population of free black people half a century before the Emancipation Proclamation. The migrations of Southern and Appalachian African Americans between 1910 and 1970 brought thousands of African Americans to Baltimore, transforming the city into the second northernmost majority-black city in the United States after Detroit. The city's African-American community is centered in West Baltimore and East Baltimore. The distribution of African Americans on both the West and the East sides of Baltimore is sometimes called "The Black Butterfly", while the distribution of white Americans in Central and Southeast Baltimore is called "The White L."
The city of Baltimore, Maryland includes a large and growing Caribbean-American population. The Caribbean-American community is centered in West Baltimore. The largest non-Hispanic Caribbean populations in Baltimore are Jamaicans, Trinidadians and Tobagonians, and Haitians. Baltimore also has significant Hispanic populations from the Spanish West Indies, particularly Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Cubans. Northwest Baltimore is the center of the West Indian population of Baltimore, while Caribbean Hispanics in the city tend to live among other Latinos in neighborhoods such as Greektown, Upper Fell's Point, and Highlandtown. Jamaicans and Trinidadians are the first and second largest West Indian groups in the city, respectively. The neighborhoods of Park Heights and Pimlico in northwest Baltimore are home to large West Indian populations, particularly Jamaican-Americans.
Jews have settled in Maryland since the 17th century. As of 2018, Maryland's population was 3.9% Jewish at 201,600 people. The largest Jewish populations in Maryland are in Montgomery County, particularly Kemp Mill and Potomac, and the Baltimore metropolitan area, particularly Pikesville and northwest Baltimore. As of 2010, Baltimore and Baltimore County was home to a Jewish community of around 100,000 people. The Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. have a Jewish population of around 116,700 as of 2017, with the majority residing in lower Montgomery County. The Rockville/Potomac area is the center of Montgomery County's Jewish population, while sizable communities also exist in the Bethesda/Chevy Chase area and in Silver Spring's Kemp Mill neighborhood. Smaller Jewish communities exist in Gaithersburg, Germantown, White Oak, Olney, and Takoma Park. Columbia, Frederick, Annapolis, Cumberland, and Easton are also home to smaller but significant Jewish populations.