The doldrums come and go in life, don’t they? Too much work and drudgery, too little adventure and discovery. No worries: The perfect pick-me-up getaway awaits on Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore, where you can follow in the footsteps of a bevy of inspiring American heroes while wandering a landscape graced with winding backroads, glorious parks, quaint small towns, and off-season beach bliss.
The folks at the nonprofit Beach to Bay Heritage Area dub this trip through three centuries of African-American history, “Story Ways: A Journey of Faith & Freedom.” The itinerary they’ve put together runs to more than two dozen sites in nine towns and three counties in the heart of Chesapeake Bay country. At every turn, you’ll meet men and women who faced up to daunting obstacles by living lives marked by grit, bravery, faith, and generosity.
One case in point, to give you a taste of what’s in store: In downtown Berlin, along Commerce Street, you’ll gaze up into the eyes of Rev. Charles Albert Tindley as he surveys his onetime home turf from a vibrant, larger-than-life mural. Born in slavery times, Tindley led an up-by-the-bootstraps life, lifting himself out of a poverty-stricken childhood and into the Methodist ministry. He went on to build one of America’s first megachurches. He won renown as a champion of faith, justice, and equal opportunity. Somehow, amid all that work, he also found a way to help invent a cherished American art form, gospel music. One of his songs inspired the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.” Others you might know by way of Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, the Staple Singers, Bob Dylan, or Emmylou Harris.
The folks at the nonprofit Beach to Bay Heritage Area dub this trip through three centuries of African-American history, “Story Ways: A Journey of Faith & Freedom.” The itinerary they’ve put together runs to more than two dozen sites in nine towns and three counties in the heart of Chesapeake Bay country. At every turn, you’ll meet men and women who faced up to daunting obstacles by living lives marked by grit, bravery, faith, and generosity.
One case in point, to give you a taste of what’s in store: In downtown Berlin, along Commerce Street, you’ll gaze up into the eyes of Rev. Charles Albert Tindley as he surveys his onetime home turf from a vibrant, larger-than-life mural. Born in slavery times, Tindley led an up-by-the-bootstraps life, lifting himself out of a poverty-stricken childhood and into the Methodist ministry. He went on to build one of America’s first megachurches. He won renown as a champion of faith, justice, and equal opportunity. Somehow, amid all that work, he also found a way to help invent a cherished American art form, gospel music. One of his songs inspired the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.” Others you might know by way of Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, the Staple Singers, Bob Dylan, or Emmylou Harris.
The downtown blocks around this mural are chock full of old-school architectural gems. If you wander around, you’ll be able to browse stylish boutiques, discover regional artists, and go treasure hunting for antiques. Berlin’s vibrant restaurant scene is known far and wide for its creativity with fine-dining and down-home dishes alike. This is how your Story Ways journey will unfold, hopping from site to site in lily-pad fashion while exploring small towns, crossing winding rivers, and taking in vistas of ocean and bay. In the riverside gem of Snow Hill, you’ll meet Negro Leagues legend and baseball Hall of Famer Judy Johnson. Inside a historic one-room schoolhouse in Pocomoke City, you’ll soak in the determination of educator Stephen Long to make a difference for young people in his community. The stately campus of the historically black University of Maryland Eastern Shore stands in Princess Anne. Students there played brave, vital roles in the civil rights movement.
You’ll ride through glorious Chesapeake marshland along Deal Island Road to reach the spot where Lorraine Henry opened Henry’s Beach to give black families a resort-style destination in segregation times. The hotels in the more famous resort town of Ocean City were mostly off-limits to African Americans in those days. A rare exception was the 1926 Henry Hotel (founded by a different family with that name), which still stands today on Baltimore Street. The likes of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong stayed there while in that segregated town to perform for white audiences in an elegant oceanfront ballroom.
The downtown blocks around this mural are chock full of old-school architectural gems. If you wander around, you’ll be able to browse stylish boutiques, discover regional artists, and go treasure hunting for antiques. Berlin’s vibrant restaurant scene is known far and wide for its creativity with fine-dining and down-home dishes alike. This is how your Story Ways journey will unfold, hopping from site to site in lily-pad fashion while exploring small towns, crossing winding rivers, and taking in vistas of ocean and bay. In the riverside gem of Snow Hill, you’ll meet Negro Leagues legend and baseball Hall of Famer Judy Johnson. Inside a historic one-room schoolhouse in Pocomoke City, you’ll soak in the determination of educator Stephen Long to make a difference for young people in his community. The stately campus of the historically black University of Maryland Eastern Shore stands in Princess Anne. Students there played brave, vital roles in the civil rights movement.
You’ll ride through glorious Chesapeake marshland along Deal Island Road to reach the spot where Lorraine Henry opened Henry’s Beach to give black families a resort-style destination in segregation times. The hotels in the more famous resort town of Ocean City were mostly off-limits to African Americans in those days. A rare exception was the 1926 Henry Hotel (founded by a different family with that name), which still stands today on Baltimore Street. The likes of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong stayed there while in that segregated town to perform for white audiences in an elegant oceanfront ballroom.
These stories of faith, community, and entrepreneurship will become all the more inspiring as you come to grips with just how daunting the obstacles to African-American success have been over the centuries. An interpretive sign in Salisbury marks the spot of a brutal lynching. Enslaved men and women toiled in bondage at stately looking Pemberton Plantation. The career of that pioneering educator in Pocomoke City, Stephen Long, ended in his murder. Heart-wrenching turns like these are a key part of the African-American story, too.
The story of Charles Tindley looms large across the Beach to Bay Heritage Area. As a young minister he pastored churches in Pocomoke City and in Upper Fairmount. While preaching and singing in itinerant fashion at old-time “camp meetings” in the countryside, he became a heroic figure to local blacks and whites alike.
Another stop you’ll make in Berlin is the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum, which began life as the Federal-style home of a prominent white family. Today, it’s devoted to telling engaging stories about Berlin and its people, including a permanent exhibit devoted to Tindley. There, you’ll get to soak up some of the grit and resourcefulness that marked his character.
Among the remarkable tales you’ll encounter is one about how Tindley learned to read. He didn’t attend school as a boy. He was too busy working. Starting at age nine or 10 he toiled as a live-in laborer with various different white families. Later, Tindley would recall how he was “no stranger to kicks and blows” in this period. He owned a grand total of one shirt. When he washed it, he had to stand around bare-chested, waiting as it dried on a line.
Somewhere in this difficult period, he befriended a young white boy, and that boy showed Charles the bare-bones rudiments of the alphabet, its letters and sounds. Something in those encounters sparked a passion for learning in Charles, but he didn’t have access to any books. So instead, he started gathering up discarded bits of newspaper from the sides of roads. Many white folks didn’t like the idea of blacks learning how to read, so young Charles would hide those bits of litter in the folds of his clothes. Late at night, in secret, he would light a makeshift candle made of pine knot, and then commence poring over articles on crumpled paper to try and figure out how letters and sounds become words and sentences.
“I continued this way, and without any teacher,” he recalled later, “until I could read the Bible almost without stopping to spell the words.”
Tindley made his way to Philadelphia as a young adult. In the decades that followed, he parlayed his passion for learning, his talent for preaching, and his gifts in music into what historian Anthony Heilbut has called “one of the great chapters” in all of American popular music. It seems impossible, doesn’t it? How could a young boy facing such odds in life end up rising to such heights and making such a difference in the world?
Tindley’s life is a perfect example of how and why a journey through African-American history can be so inspiring, and he’s just one of the many heroes you’ll meet along your Story Ways journey across Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Information about the Beach to Bay Heritage Area:
https://www.beachesbayswaterways.org/
Download the itinerary for StoryWays: A Journey of Faith & Freedom on Maryland’s Eastern Shore:
https://www.beachesbayswaterways.org/uploads/2/3/5/1/23510836/african_american_story_ways_cover_of_driving_tour.pdf
