Largest Parade in Celebration of the Ratification of the 15th Amendment in Baltimore, MD

As Baltimoreans and Marylanders continue to organize and participate in demonstrations and actions in support of the Black Lives Matter movement locally, nationally and around the world, it is important to remember and recognize the historic demonstrations and contributions of Baltimoreans that helped pave the way for those occurring today, and continuing to the future.

Just over 150 years ago, on May 19, 1870, Baltimore City was the site of our nation’s largest parade to commemorate and celebrate the ratification of the 15th Amendment, the Constitutional Amendment granting newly emancipated African American men the right to vote. The 15th Amendment had been ratified in March 1870, despite our state legislature’s unanimous opposition to it. The 19th Amendment, granting women’s suffrage, was ratified 50 years later in August 1920. Not until more than 100 years later, in 1973, did Maryland’s legislature vote to officially recognize the 15th Amendment.

In Baltimore City’s historic 1870 parade, more than 10,000 African American schoolchildren, policemen, firemen, military bands, and individuals from various fraternal associations and business and trade groups, marched and over 20,000 spectators followed and participated in the celebration. The parade started in Fells Point at 11 AM, and over the next five hours traversed parts of downtown Baltimore and our historic Mt. Vernon neighborhood, including Mt. Vernon Place, before reaching Monument Square for the planned speeches and ceremony.

The event continued despite the collapse of the wooden platform stage intended to hold the speakers and dignitaries gathered for the ceremony at Monument Square. They recovered, regrouped, and spoke from the gallery of the nearby Gilmore House. The spectators, a diverse mix of African Americans and White Americans, stayed for the entire event, and all dispersed peacefully at the end. Isaac Myers, the pioneering, Baltimore-born African American trade unionist and organizer who presided over the Monument Square ceremony, reportedly said he felt “proud to have the honor of presiding over the greatest, grandest and most important gathering of colored men in Maryland or in the whole country.”

One of several large commemorative prints, above, captures a scene in which the parade wound its way down Monument Street from Baltimore’s Washington Monument, with the spire of the First Presbyterian Church in the left distance. More information about the print is available through the Library of Congress’ Prints & Photographs Online catalogue. Some additional sources of information about the historic parade include the Maryland State Archives’ reference page; the National Park Service’s article “Voting Rights: Celebrations of Success”; Frederick Rasmussen’s 2/20/1999 article in the Baltimore Sun; and Brad Alston’s article in the Fall 2018 edition of the Baltimore Gaslight, Newsletter of the Baltimore City Historical Society.

Written by Lois Tuttle