Marie and Albert Kawalski, 615 S. Bond St., Baltimore, MD (1905)

Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine (Library of Congress, 7/1909)

Marie and Albert Kawalski

Marie and Albert Kawalski. 615 S. Bond St., Baltimore, Md. Albert is 10 and Marie 11 years old. They worked, with mother, last winter, shucking oysters for Varn & Beard Packing Co., Young Island, S.C. (near Charleston). Mrs. Kawalski did not have things represented to her correctly and she found that all the children that had fare paid were compelled to work for the company. Other smaller children worked some and went to school some. Marie and Albert have worked several summers in the berry, beans and tomato fields packing houses near Baltimore.

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Five Years after The Wire… Baltimore is still Poverty-Plagued City

Five years after The Wire left screens, the TV set remains… how the real Baltimore is still poverty-plagued city of series

By Katie Davies (The Daily Mail, 4/10/2013)

They are images which wouldn’t be out of place in the opening sequences of the ubiquitous Baltimore crime show The Wire.
Vacant rows of houses; children hanging around on street corners with nowhere to go and homeless people telling stories of disease and crime.
But rather than a fictionalized view of the Maryland city, these pictures reveal real-life scenes from an urban area hit hard by the recession and still stumbling dangerously into poverty.

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Homeless: There are approximately 4,000 homeless people in Baltimore. Angelo, who lives in a vacant property, points out a pin he had to have placed in his jaw after being attacked on the streets.

The number of Americans living in poverty today hasn’t been seen since Lyndon Johnson was in the White House.

And Baltimore is among the urban areas said to be suffering the most.

Continue reading “Five years after The Wire left screens, the TV set remains… how the real Baltimore is still poverty-plagued city of series” at The Daily Mail.

Posted in 2000s, Inner City | Tagged | 1 Comment

“Black Babies”: Candy With Odious Title Made Here, Baltimore, 1947

(The Baltimore Afro- American, 8/2/1947)

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Candy With Odious Title Made Here

“Oh we’ve been making them for years and years,” said the woman manager at Fred Foos’ local candy concern Thursday, concerning the “Black Babies” delicacy the company circulates in Baltimore and Washington.

Informed that certain segments of the population heartily deplore the advertisement of such derogatory titles on candy, the woman then hastily explained that Mr. Foos was on vacation, and she really could not comment upon the matter.

Quickly Loses Authority

A moment before, she hod insisted that Mr. Foos had left her in complete charge of the business during his absence.

The candy company, which has its plant in Baltimore, is located at 1505 W. Baltimore St.

On the cover of the “Black Babies” box are eight nude statues of ebony dolls with dots of white for eyes, noses and mouths.

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Stein’s Hotel, Essex/Middle River, MD Postcard

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Stein’s Hotel. Later to become the Sea Gull Inn, then the River Watch Restaurant.

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