Image above was taken at Carr Beach and sourced from the Chesapeake Heartland Project's Digital Archive. Picture courtesy of Airlee Ringgold Johnson. 

Join us for guest speaker Vince Leggett, “Admiral of the Chesapeake” and Founder and President of Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation, as he discusses the era of segregated vacation spots on the Chesapeake Bay. Award-winning recording artist Karen Somerville and acclaimed pianist and composer Shajid McMillan will join Leggett in paying tribute to the musicians who performed at those resorts.

Leggett will focus on Annapolis’s Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches, which served as respite resorts for Black vacationers from both the Eastern Shore and Western Shore 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. 

View on April 15 at 5 p.m. on Facebook LIVE @ Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.   

  
BACK TO STARR EVENTS