Two for the road: Exploring the DMV and Maryland in fall

A recent trip revealed just how much the DMV has to offer. No, not the Deparment of Motor Vehicle, but the D.C., Maryland and Virginia areas.
Readers may know that European locales are not high on the bucket list for this column, but Black history is. And while some Americans paid for tours to view the beautiful fall foliage that graces the northeastern states just before Halloween, this writer was visiting relatives and taking in the same autumnal sights, along with a few, more interesting side trips.
A visit to Annapolis, Md. reveals a wealth of African-American heritage.
Just last April, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed bills into law which actualized an historic name change to the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum. All three of these well-known African-Amerians were born in Maryland: Benjamin Banneker (a free Black who assisted in surveying Washington D.C.); Frederick Douglass (who escaped slavery to become a prominent abolitionist); and fellow abolitionist and suffragist Harriet Tubman (who escaped slavery and returned 13 times to free her family and friends).
A tall likeness of Harriet Tubman was recently repaired by artist Dr. Joyce J. Scott. Some vandals had taken the veve, a religious symbol commonly used in different branches of worship throughout the African Diaspora. Thanks to community concerns, it was returned and is now secured in the statue.
The fiberglass coated styrofoam sculpture proudly stands tall at the museum’s entrance.
As Maryland’s official museum of African American history and culture, the site occupies the former Mount Moriah AME Church that has stood since 1874, when the free African American community built it there. The Victorian-Gothic landmark was restored in the 1970s, when local activists, along with the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture, launched the “Save Mt. Moriah” campaign to transform the brick church into a museum.
Operated by the Commission, the museum features history exhibits, dynamic art, and special events throughout the year. There’s a box visitors can climb in, replicating a shipping box some slaves used, mailing themselves to freedom.
There is also a copy of the 1849 runaway advertisement for Harriet “Minty” Tubman and her brothers Ben and Harry; an engraved commemorative spoon with Fredrick Douglass’ likeness from his 1895 funeral obsequies; and photos of uniformed Black union soldiers who took up arms during the Civil War.
“Deep Roots, Rising Waters” is an exhibit there that celebrates African-American life in Maryland, from the state’s founding through the Civil Rights movement, to present. For more information on the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum, visit bdmuseum.maryland.gov.
A short walk from the museum is the Alex Haley Memorial/Kunta Kinte Plaque. A life-size bronze statue of Haley, the author of “Roots,” portrays him sitting, talking to children about his ancestor there on the sidewalk at the city dock where Kunta Kinte first touched the American shore in 1767.
“The farthest-back person they ever talked about was a man they called ‘the African.’” Haley’s words from “Roots” are inscribed on the plaque there. The wall alongside the port bears additional plaques dedicated to other nameless Africans, “brought to the New World against their will, who struggled against terrible odds to maintain family, culture, identity and above all, hope.”
The memorial strives to be “an educational, inspiration and healing place” in Annapolis. According to the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation In 1981, Mayor Richard Hillman approved the project and before the year was out, thousands of people observed the dedication of the first plaque. Haley himself was in attendance.
But that was not the end of the story. Within 48 hours of the plaque’s dedication, it was stolen, allegedly, by the Ku Klux Klan. The news of the theft made international headlines. The plaque was never recovered.
“The theft of the plaque spoke volumes about the people who stole it,” Haley said. Within two months local citizens had raised enough funds to replace the stolen plaque, which in part reads: “Take time to share heritage stories with children so they can pass on their proud heritage and learn respect for the heritage of others.”