But Not Next Door:
Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc.: The First Forty Years
by Michael L. Mark

This book documents the fascinating history of housing integration in the Baltimore Metropolitan area from the 50's to the 90's.

The following excerpt illuminates the courage and conviction required of individual citizens to bring integration to Baltimore in the years before the passage of fair housing law:

Mal Sherman's rabbi, Morris Lieberman, had been arrested during a demonstration to desegregate Gwynn Oak Amusement park. Soon after, he presented a sermon about integration. Sherman was so inspired, he went to see him the next day to ask what he, as a real estate professional, could do to help integrate housing. Lieberman said "What do you mean what can you do? You're more powerful than any priest or rabbi. You can open up neighborhoods and make it possible for everybody to live where they want to live." Sherman said, "Rabbi, if I do that, I'll be run out of town. People don't want it. They just don't want to do this." The Rabbi said, "Well, you asked me what you could do." Sherman said, "So I went home and went over this with my wife and she said to me 'we came here in 1949 without anything and if this is what you want to do go ahead and do it' So I talked to Ed Holmgren and we decided what I needed to do was to start an education process to educate Realtors to work on open housing on a volunteer basis." Sherman spoke in public often about the subject and testified at legislative hearings. He became widely recognized and was rewarded with an appointment to President Kennedy's Committee for Equal Opportunity in Housing, headed by Governor Lawrence Lyons of Pennsylvania (who was later appointed head of President Lyndon Johnson's Civil Rights Commission).

Sherman and Holmgren wanted to place black families in housing developments throughout the suburban area so there would be no place for whites to run from the city. Sherman instructed his sales force to tell suburban homeowners that the company was willing to sell to anybody, regardless of race, creed or color. A family in the Scott's Hill development in Pikesville agreed to make an open occupancy sale, and John Mackey, a black player for the Baltimore Colts, and his wife bought the house. Mr. and Mrs. Mackey's move to a formerly all-white suburban neighborhood encouraged Sherman and Holmgren in their plan to integrate suburban neighborhoods on a voluntary basis, but other real estate companies would no longer deal with Sherman because he opposed their lucrative practices. They shunned him, forcing him out of his business. He then went to work for James Rouse as sales manager in the new integrated community of Columbia, MD.

About the Author

Michael L. Mark, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of music and former Dean of the Graduate School at Towson University in Baltimore. He is the author of several books on music education history and of chapters in other books, and numerous articles in a variety of music journals. Mark has served on the editorial committees of several research journals, is a Fulbright scholar, and a consultant to arts education organizations. A former member of the BNI Board of Directors, he spent his first year of retirement researching and writing this book in honor of the organization's fortieth anniversary.

Purchasing Information:

$5.00 per copy purchased at the BNI office (address listed below).

$7.50 per shipped copy, postage paid.
Send check or money order payable to BNI to the following address:

BNI History
2217 St. Paul Street
Baltimore MD 21218

Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc., 2217 Saint Paul St., Baltimore, MD 21218
Administration:410-243-4468     Fair Housing: 410-243-4400
Tenant/Landlord Hotline: 410-243-6007 (Baltimore region) or 1-800-487-6007 (Maryland only)