A Key to Baltimore's Broken Heart
Camden Yards, a beautiful brick ode to old baseball parks of lore, led the way back to cities for a generation of baseball clubs.
The city is a mosaic of ethnic enclaves: Italian, Greek, Polish and Ukrainian all have their parts. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi grew up in Little Italy as the Baltimore mayor's daughter. Baltimore was second only to New York as a destination for Ellis Island arrivals. The Black majority is tight-knit over time.
Back to Key. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald was named after his ancestor and lived in Baltimore for a troubled spell.
The aging Key hated the budding abolitionist movement and prosecuted leaders as Washington's U.S. attorney. Worse, he got President Andrew Jackson to name his brother-in-law Roger Taney chief justice.
Taney ruled Black people could never be citizens. His 1857 Dred Scott opinion enraged the North and helped set off the Civil War.
An avowed racist must be "gone" from bridge-building in the 21st century.
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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit Creators.com.
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