By Megan SaylesAFRO Employees Writermsayles@afro.com
The late Vincent Leggett, named admiral of the Chesapeake by former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening in 2003, devoted his life to preserving and amplifying the tales of free and enslaved African Individuals who have been the spine of Maryland’s seafood and maritime industries. His group, Blacks of the Chesapeake, has been documenting the affect and contributions of Black sailors, oystermen, crabbers, longshoreman, sailmakers, boat builders and extra since 1984.
In 2023, Leggett and different Marylanders devoted to carrying on the legacy of those unsung trailblazers turned topics of Alexis Aggrey’s documentary movie, “Water’s Edge: Black Watermen of the Chesapeake.” On Feb. 1, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African-American Historical past and Tradition and the Institute of Marine and Environmental Know-how (IMET) held a screening and panel dialogue for the movie, inviting the general public to be taught extra about these untold tales.
“I wish to be clear, not solely have been we pioneers in operating boats and selecting homes– we have been leaders. We have been house owners in these areas— proudly owning boats, constructing boats, making sails, proudly owning selecting homes and the like,” mentioned Drew Hawkins, chair of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum’s board of administrators. “We crafted phrases which can be popularly used in the present day after we discuss crab meat. Our affect has actually been far and broad.”
A number of the pioneers coated within the movie included Captain George Brown, the Turner household of Talbot County and Downes Curtis. Underneath the segregation of Jim Crow America, Brown amassed sufficient capital to accumulate a steamboat, the “Starlight,” and a seaside, which he named Brown’s Grove. In 1914, he started transporting African-American households to the Anne Arundel County seaside for day journeys throughout a time after they weren’t welcome at well-liked seashores, just like the Tolchester Seaside Amusement Park.
The Turner household, seafood legends of Bellevue, Md., have been property house owners, crab and oyster merchants and boat builders. They ran two notable seafood processing homes, W.A. Turner and Sons and Bellevue Seafood Firm, from the mid to the late 1900s. The success of the enterprises, which employed lots of the city’s residents, made the predominantly Black neighborhood self-sufficient.
Curtis, of Oxford, Md., and his brother, Albert, realized sailmaking from Englishman Dave Pritchett. Following Pritchett’s dying in 1936, the brothers carried on his work operating a sail loft. The Curtises turned famend for his or her sails, slicing them for noteworthy figures just like the Kennedy household and actor Jackie Gleason.
As we speak, watermen, like Captain Tyrone Meredith, have made careers out of operating constitution boats for folks all for fishing. The fifth era fisherman operates the longest headboat within the Kent Narrows fishing fleet, the “Island Queen.”
The screening of “Waters Edge: Black Waterman of the Chesapeake” was held in reminiscence of Leggett, who died in 2024 at age 71. A Baltimore native, Leggett penned two books to show readers to the contributions of African Individuals within the seafood and maritime industries, “Blacks of the Chesapeake: An Integral A part of Maritime Historical past,” and “The Chesapeake Bay By means of Ebony Eyes.”
One in all his biggest achievements was a 17-year marketing campaign to protect the final 5 acres of the as soon as 180-acre Elktonia Seaside, an Annapolis property bought by previously enslaved man Frederick Carr in 1902. The spot turned a flourishing resort for Black beachgoers. Leggett led an effort to save lots of the seaside from growth, and it was as an alternative was a public park.
“Vince would have been over the moon,” mentioned Aldena Legget, his spouse, on the screening. Vincent Leggett died on Nov. 23, 2024. “That is what he liked. He liked historical past. He liked Black historical past.”
Dee Dee Strum, interim CEO for Blacks of the Chesapeake, described Leggett as a humanitarian and boundary crosser.
“He felt that the story of African Individuals as main contributors to establishing Maryland as a worldwide powerhouse for crusing, the seafood trade and the maritime trade wanted to be informed. All of that was fueled initially by enslaved Africans who truly have been introduced right here by written orders,” mentioned Strum. “They needed individuals from African tribes introduced right here to this area who had experiences in working the waterways in Africa.”
Contemplating the substandard well being of the Chesapeake Bay in the present day, Strum mentioned the group’s high precedence this 12 months is pushing environmental justice, the bigger umbrella of Leggett’s work. She desires to make sure there’s a pipeline for youth of shade to turn out to be environmentalists and restore the bay.
This turns into much more essential because the historic denial of entry to public swimming pools and seashores for African Individuals has perpetuated a stereotype that Black folks don’t just like the water, in response to Strum.
“We have now to make approach for them to really feel welcomed on the waterways,” mentioned Strum “That is their bay. It’s our bay. It’s everybody’s bay.”
