A Key to Baltimore's Broken Heart
I'll come back to why it would be wrong to name a new bridge after Key. We're starting to see him in antebellum light, not a pretty sight.
Unlucky Baltimore did not need this tragedy.
It was shaking off a recent spate of mayors sent to prison, stretches of empty rowhouses and a high murder rate. The HBO series set there, "The Wire," painted a dark Dickensian canvas. It's often seen as a country cousin to Washington, an hour south on I-95.
But there's much more to its story, I found on the beat.
I met the city griot, a storyteller in the African tradition. The museum of art has the country's largest collection of Henri Matisse paintings, thanks to a pair of sisters who knew the artist. Johns Hopkins' family invited me over to discuss Quaker history.
Baltimore has a surprising store of literary talent.
On assignment, I visited the tiny house where Edgar Allan Poe lived. From poet Ogden Nash to novelist Anne Tyler to filmmaker John Waters, unconventional creators roam there. The curmudgeon columnist, H.L. Mencken, was called the Sage of Baltimore.
The nation's first Catholic Basilica is perched downtown near the harbor. The vibrant Jewish community's mark is just as clear. I think of Terry, the interior painter who listened to opera while working.
Maryland was a slave state, so Baltimore has a stain on its soul. The Civil War's first blood was spilled there, when a mob attacked a Massachusetts regiment.
Gov. Wes Moore and Mayor Scott are both Black, charismatic new leaders.
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