Things I've Learned, with Professor Matthew Crenson
MC: Absolutely. This is significant of Baltimore. Mobilization of African Americans in a city is usually instigated by something - here it was instigated by Martin Luther King's assassination. There were several after-effects. Although whites had been moving out for a long time, the riots really sped up the exodus. The school population in Baltimore now is 88 percent African American.
Before the Civil War, Baltimore had the biggest concentration of free black people in the United States. That meant that they had a long head start toward building a separate set of institutions. While it was an asset for some, different social organizations created leaders who competed with each other. African Americans became the majority [in Baltimore], but it took them 15 years to elect one as mayor.
N-L: What helped Baltimore transition and recover?
MC: William Donald Schaefer was a good mayor for that time - he had the kind of energy and was demanding on city government. He was upbeat about the city's future and became a kind of cheerleader for Baltimore. He made people think things were changing in Baltimore when they weren't. Manufacturing jobs were leaving - it's only now that city is beginning to recover.
N-L: Do you think students were aware of what was going on at the time?
MC: They were aware. That's why they showed up to class, and I used to teach a whole section on riots. But this was still a pretty insular campus, maybe more than it is today. I began to teach neighborhood politics, where I sent students out to be researchers in neighborhoods around campus. I ended up writing a book about it. I did a survey of 21 neighborhoods in Baltimore.
I began of a lot of efforts to get students off the campus. It was around this time that someone funded an internship program that I was the director of. We would send students out to be interns to members of the Baltimore City Council, which evolved into [a program] that's run by Institute for Policy Studies.
Before the Civil War, Baltimore had the biggest concentration of free black people in the United States. That meant that they had a long head start toward building a separate set of institutions. While it was an asset for some, different social organizations created leaders who competed with each other. African Americans became the majority [in Baltimore], but it took them 15 years to elect one as mayor.
N-L: What helped Baltimore transition and recover?
MC: William Donald Schaefer was a good mayor for that time - he had the kind of energy and was demanding on city government. He was upbeat about the city's future and became a kind of cheerleader for Baltimore. He made people think things were changing in Baltimore when they weren't. Manufacturing jobs were leaving - it's only now that city is beginning to recover.
N-L: Do you think students were aware of what was going on at the time?
MC: They were aware. That's why they showed up to class, and I used to teach a whole section on riots. But this was still a pretty insular campus, maybe more than it is today. I began to teach neighborhood politics, where I sent students out to be researchers in neighborhoods around campus. I ended up writing a book about it. I did a survey of 21 neighborhoods in Baltimore.
I began of a lot of efforts to get students off the campus. It was around this time that someone funded an internship program that I was the director of. We would send students out to be interns to members of the Baltimore City Council, which evolved into [a program] that's run by Institute for Policy Studies.
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