Baltimore Weekend: Freddie Gray

Baltimore, Maryland.
April 19, 2015 - Spring

His name, Freddie Gray

Baltimore, Maryland
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
July 31st, August 1st, August 2nd
2015 - Summer

I came to Baltimore this weekend, intending to stay only one night to attend one night of a church convocation (and I did) and to visit sites significant to Black History (and I did that too) the next morning before heading back to Philly.

I ended up staying a night longer than planned in order to fulfill that second desire so as not to rush. My second stop, since the first was church, was to The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum (again). Read about that experience here.

I did intend to visit other historically significant sites, but those plans fell through.

Then, like a ton bricks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Huh? Wha?

Just read on...

You'd have to be from another galaxy if you are unaware of the events that unfolded in Baltimore this past April, the zenith of which was the arrest and death of Freddie Gray while in police custody and the violent unrest that followed.

Google it.

CVS stores and others establishments, along with police cars were on the receiving end of young Baltimorean (and undoubtedly opportunistic out-of-towners') frustrations and were ultimately looted and set ablaze.

So, after visiting The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, I set out to visit sites that have become historical sites since they have come to represent symbols of what some called the Baltimore Uprising. First up, the two CVS locations.

Interestingly enough, as I was walking around the CVS at Pennsylvania Ave and North Ave, snapping pictures, not one, not two, not three but four police cars pulled up on a car. The occupant, a black man. I snapped a pic of him getting out and video taped the rest of the encounter.

I couldn't set my camera fast enough to catch the brother incontrovertibly reaching toward the sky as he exited the car or fast enough to capture the eye contact and inaudible gratitude that his eyes made with every camera phone that was out and focused on him and the police at this exceptionally busy intersection! This, right across the street from one of the CVS stores! I don't know what he did or didn't do and I'm not at all in a position to give my opinion on that. All I now know to do is to take out my phone and start recording and getting pictures. (Oh, they let him go, by the way, after searching his car including the trunk.)

The CVS on Franklin Street, not given as much press during the unrest 

Snapped a pic from the car when I didn't know if I'd be able to park or not...just in case!

No, that's not food or anything on my mustache, it's the sun...

This was across from where I snapped the two pics just before this pic!

This post isn't dedicated to my opining over the unrest itself or the acts themselves, but simply to recall my feelings of having visited these sites, these epicenters where tensions finally boiled over.

Surreal.

'Surreal' about sums up how I felt after visiting the two CVS stores and ESPECIALLY having visited the site where the police took Freddie Gray into custody.

The spot where Eddie Gray was arrested. I confirmed that with a few brothers sitting nearby.

That visit, especially, left an indelible mark on me. A mark on my heart, on my mind, on my attitude. A mark.

As I walked through the housing development, a mark.
As I approached a group of brothers and chatted with them for a couple a minutes, a mark.
As one of the brothers pointed out one of Freddie Gray's closest friends from the cradle, a mark.
As I shook his hand and extended my condolences, a mark.
As I drove through the neighborhood, a mark.
As I made my way back up I-95.....a mark.

That mark caused me to whisper words of prayer and to ruminate on the roles that institutions like churches, schools, and community organizations can play to make changes that can breathe life and hope into our communities; institutions that can help bridge the relational disconnect between the police and the African American community at large.

A mark.

Freddie Gray mural and a snapshot of his neighborhood in my mirror