The Effort to Desegregate Ocean City's Workforce

Article by Andre Nieto Jaime

Boardwalk view to south, Ocean City, Maryland
1985
Photographed by John Margolies
Library of Congress - John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive

In the early 20th century Ocean City was once known as a “bastion of white supremacy” by some. The activities of Black visitors were severely limited, with few hotels or establishments willing to accept them as guests. However, African Americans were unwilling to tolerate these restrictions to their leisure and demanded that they be able to not just work in the resort, but also be able to enjoy it just as much as White visitors. The Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 provided the town with an opportunity to rebuild as an integrated tourist destination and Black activists successfully seized the moment to pressure the town for change. While strides in desegregating accommodations were being made, there was still the issue of a segregated work force in the town. Black employment in Ocean City in the second half of the century was still, for the most part, hindered by discriminatory hiring practices that left Black workers in menial positions. African Americans in the community opposed such practices and demanded an end to them. Through sustained pressure brought by press publicity and demonstrations, the African American community was able to challenge and bring change to employment practices in the resort, bringing more equitable employment in Ocean City.

In the 19th and 20th century, discriminatory hiring practices and stereotypes restricted the type of labor available to Black Americans seeking work in all parts of America. Often times, they were only hired for domestic, agricultural, and manual labor. Limiting Black employment to low-wage jobs, reminiscent of the labor that the enslaved were forced to endure, prevented social and economic mobility for African Americans during the days of Jim Crow. In Ocean City, Black Americans also found that their employment options were limited. Census data reflects this, showing many Black residents of the resort working as domestic servants, cooks, and day laborers. While some African Americans were employed in other fields such as the railroads and fishing, many others were stuck doing menial labor due to societal stigmas and pressure. However, African Americans were unwilling to accept the status quo.

Rapid Transit in Ocean City, Md.
A photo of a postcard of two steers hooked up to a two wheeled cart.
Walter Thurston Photograph Collection (2016.096)
The Edward H. Nabb Research Center at Salisbury University

​In the early 20th century, Ocean City’s strict Jim Crow practices threatened to leave the city with a worker shortage, forcing the resort to make changes in its policies. However, hiring practices were still far from fair. It was not until the 1980s that significant strides were made. This movement gained momentum in 1983, when a report by the NAACP, spanning 46 detailed pages, found that African Americans were being subtly excluded from public and civic life in Worcester County. Dr. Emmett C. Burns described the situation as “deplorable” and said that Black fears to “stir up trouble” were partly to blame for the situation. Dr. Burns’ statement was a call to action directed at the Black community. His words and presence in a Snow Hill rally was intended to drive the local community to create their own change. 

Dr. Emmett C. Burns (1940 - 2022)
​AFRO American Newspapers

The NAACP report, titled “Worcester County – A Dream Deferred,” highlighted six areas in need of improvement including: paving of roads, affirmative action for fire companies, housing codes for rural areas, employment of Black government workers, jury selection through the use of postal codes and census data, and changes to the town and county voting systems. The report combined with Dr. Burns’ affirmation that these changes would be pursued through the courts if needed, agitated a few people on the Shore, including Roland E. Powell, the president of the Worcester County Commissioners at the time. Powell felt that the report only caused a commotion and that it would have been better to discuss the issue with the county commissioners first. He and the commissioners also dismissed the issues raised, claiming that there was no such bias against the Black residents of the community. 

However, Dr. Burns’ intention was to, in a sense, stir up the trouble that the community had been hesitant to do in a calculated effort in order to force people and local governments to address racial inequality on the Eastern Shore.  By attracting attention to Worcester County, a major tourist destination, Dr. Burns and the NAACP were forcing the county commissioners to take a stance on the issue of racial inequality and make a comment on the report. Dr. Burns was well aware of this and Ocean City’s reputation as a tourist destination guided his decision. By tackling racial inequality in Worcester County, Dr. Burns intended to create a ripple effect that was to spread across the Eastern Shore and inspire other communities to make similar demands for change. Ocean City was to serve as a model of change for other communities.

Three years after the NAACP report on Worcester County, the NAACP released a new report. This time, their eyes were set on Ocean City, where six members surveyed 278 businesses over the course of a week during the summer. Several issues were raised in this report including the fact that tourism to the resort was mainly White. Only 2% of tourists to Ocean City were found to be White despite Shore communities being up to 25% Black and being in close proximity to Black populations in Washington D.C. and Baltimore. This discrepancy stems from African Americans still not feeling welcome even with the resort being desegregated. The memories of segregation lingered, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of many.

Apart from the lack of Black tourism, the report also found a more glaring problem; evidence of employment discrimination. Out of the 914 non-menial positions counted in the survey, only 30 (3.3%) of those positions were filled by African Americans. This is a stark contrast to the number of African Americans found working in menial positions. Out of the 289 menial jobs, those that tend to have little interaction with the public and are more labor intensive, 215 (74.4%) of those were held by Black workers. This study also showed that out of the twenty hotels surveyed, none of them had any Black desk clerks. Similar to the 1983 report, the new 1986 report revealed a pattern of discrimination against African Americans. By going public with their findings, the surveyors followed Dr. Burns’ example of drawing attention to a popular resort town to force action to be taken on the matter in the community. Of course, this negative exposure irritated officials and businesses, but again, that was the intention.

Initially, local officials, like before, tried to down play the findings of the NAACP. Roland Powell, now Ocean City's mayor, was quoted saying “A lot of feeling is in the blacks’ own heads,” and that “Some [blacks] won’t even try to get a job,” when confronted by the press about racial discrimination. The president of the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce also reportedly shifted the blame on to African Americans, claiming it to be an “attitude problem,” as opposed to discrimination. Employers were just as quick to rid themselves of any guilt by claiming that they simply have not had any qualified Black applicants. One T-shirt shop owner stated that they had not “seen a good black” apply, but that they would hire a Black employee should a qualified one apply. The shop owner shrugs off the employment disparities, claiming “that’s the way its been,” reflecting the sentiment of the time. There was little desire by employers to challenge the status quo that has been in place since the creation of the resort. What it takes to be a qualified cashier or clerk can be debated, but being a job held by many high schoolers and high school graduates, one would imagine that the standard is not terribly high for an entry level job.

African Americans were quick to disprove that the hiring practices were the result of a lack of qualified applicants. The NAACP made that much clear at the end their report, explaining that the patterns were not caused by barriers such as skill or knowledge requirements, transportation, or job competition. Additionally, Ocean City’s proximity to The University of Maryland Eastern Shore, a historically Black university in Princess Anne, meant that there were plenty of qualified and college educated African Americans nearby looking to make extra money. In fact, UMES had started a work study program not long after the resort was called out for its hiring practices. As part of this program, UMES offered a bus service to shuttle students to and from Ocean City. Through this program, 150 students found employment in Ocean City and of those, 65% (roughly 97 students) were Black. 

University of Maryland Eastern Shore

However, as many members of the community pointed out, it should not have taken a Black person with a formal college education to work the same job that a White person with a high school education can. Ocean City’s “surplus of summer jobs,” proximity to a HBCU, and high cost of living that deters seasonal workers, should have led employers to source local Black workers living nearby. Jamila Honig, who ran the job bank formed by the Worcester NAACP, was angered by the “Help Wanted” signs they saw in businesses with all white staff, noting that they could be hiring people living nearby. Instead, they chose to hire off of the basis of color and claim that there was a lack of qualified workers when confronted about it. 

Even when met with push back from employers and local officials the local community did not simply wait for the resort to make changes. They began to make their own changes. UMES had created its work study program that helped employ students in the resort within a year of the 1986 report. Additionally, the Worcester County branch of the NAACP established a job bank to help connect African Americans seeking work to jobs in Ocean City. The Ocean City Chamber of Commerce even agreed to promote this job bank in their newsletter. Perhaps the most important step they took after the report was the staging of a protest in Ocean City just days after the report was made public. 

On July 5, 1986, over 70 members of the NAACP took part in Ocean City’s March for Jobs and Freedom which gathered over 70 members to protest the unfair hiring practices of the town’s employers. Holding the protest over Fourth of July weekend, a notoriously busy holiday in Ocean City, was a surefire way to ensure Ocean City was put under pressure. One business owner on the boardwalk said that the march “was a good thing” and that “people paid attention” to the demonstration. The protest also caught the eye of the mayor who, despite trying to downplay the situation, admitted that Ocean City could not afford another public demonstration. The NAACP plan to pull attention to Ocean City and the employment situation worked.

NAACP President Enolia P. McMillan and the Rev. John Wright begin their journey to Ocean City's Boardwalk
The Baltimore Sun
1986​

The following year, the Ocean City Opportunity Council (OCOC) was established in 1987 as a more permanent solution to the job bank. Like the job bank, the goal of the OCOC was to increase Black employment in Ocean City by connecting applicants with employers. Shortly after opening, Mrs. Brown, OCOC’s executive director, said that she expected support from Ocean City’s mayor and that large employers have already supported. Smaller businesses, as seen by the T-Shirt shop owner earlier, were not as supportive of the change. Nonetheless many in the community were hopeful, including Gabriel Purnell who called the move “the most historic and profound event in recent history of blacks on the Lower Shore,” and a “new chapter” in a historically segregated town.

While the OCOC was hailed as a step in the right direction, work was far from over. The OCOC was connecting people with jobs, but was struggling to change employers’ perceptions about Black workers. The case with Lisa Denise Harris illustrates this well. Harris had applied and was hired for a sales clerk position in Ocean City. However, upon showing up for work, Harris was told that the position was only for a month until exchange students arrived. Harris was determined to work so she accepted this, but was handed a vacuum and cleaning cloth. Needless to say, Harris quit the job. Interactions like this emphasized the attitude of “that’s the way its been,” in regards to Black employment. Employers were struggling to see Black people in roles outside of servitude. 

The OCOC did see initial support and some limited success in its first year. To start, the Worcester County Commissioners, who were all white at the time, put up $15,000 to launch this new job counseling office. Advertisements appealing to both job seekers and employers could be seen in the papers including the Baltimore Sun. After operating for a year, it helped secure work for over 120 African Americans in non-menial positions. This number alone may not sound like much, but when compared to the 30 African Americans counted in non-menial positions, it was an improvement.

However, the OCOC was short lived. After becoming the Worcester County Opportunity Council, the organization was defunded after a vote by the Worcester County Commissioners in May of 1988. Our community was quick to organize a response, proposing that the county fund $4,250 that would be matched by local churches and businesses. Some commissioners argued that the council was redundant, stating that similar services were already being offered. Gabriel Purnell refuted this by explaining that the council gave the community autonomy, rather than leaving the problem in the hands of a state agency. In the eyes of Purnell a local effort, led by local leaders who truly understood what the community needed, was needed to secure local jobs.

When the county commissioners rejected the funding request for the WCOC, the community launched a new plan. The state NAACP began planning for a boycott of Ocean City, giving a deadline of July 31st for town officials to come to an agreement over the employment issue. Included in a NAACP letter to the mayor was a three year plan for improvement. Several goals were outlined in this letter's comprehensive plan including: the revival of the Opportunity Council, to have 300 African Americans employed in non-menial jobs by 1989, 350 by 1990, and 400 by 1991. Before the deadline was reached, the state NAACP called off its boycott. David Honig, an attorney for the NAACP, cited “no evidence that we are being dealt with in bad faith,” as the reason for halting their planned boycott. This suggests that Ocean City was making a genuine effort to combat hiring discrimination in the resort. While Ocean City officials were relieved and willing to work on improvements, they were not off the hook completely. Other organizations including teacher and state unions, were watching the situation in Ocean City to assess whether or not to hold their conventions in the resort.

A few weeks later, the NAACP sponsored a visit for state officials to Ocean City. The intention of this was to spread awareness about the lack of proper infrastructure in Black communities and the employment concern in the resort. Several proposals came from this meeting including that the state could provide assistance in the form of training to employers and town officials. There was also interest in establishing a bus service in Worcester County to encourage more Black job applicants in Ocean City. Town officials were welcoming of the suggestions. The City Council president, Granville Trimper, said that the state should be more involved and has “an obligation to help us with this,” “this” being their employment troubles. Trimper's response was a big change in the tone of the town’s officials who only a few years prior, were quick to deny that there was a problem in the first place. Ocean City officials were showing a positive change in attitude and were no longer dismissing the topic.

By sponsoring this state visit to Ocean City, activists continued Dr. Burn’s strategy of placing Ocean City in the spotlight. They also cleverly played off of William Donald Schaefer's (the governor of Maryland) reported love of the resort and aversion to negative publicity about Maryland. Activists were relentless in their pressure on the resort, and they had to be in order to hold Ocean City’s employers and officials accountable.

In 1989, improvements to Black life and Black employment were still being ironed out between the town and activists. In February, councilmen stated that they were taking steps to increase Black employment in Ocean City, mainly through a state employment office inside town. Jim Purnell, president of the Worcester County NAACP, and Saunders Marshall were hesitant of this plan. Purnell preferred to establish a separate job office like the Opportunity Council, but admitted that if the state office was managed properly it could resolve the long standing concerns held by the community. Employers have also made steps to address transportation in the community by purchasing vans to bring workers into town. Improvements were being made, but pressure had to be maintained on the resort to ensure the situation continued to improve. There was always room for improvement and to pick up to pace at which improvements were made.

James Lee Purnell Jr. (1937 - 2021)
First Black Member and President of the Worcester County Commissioners
Former President of the Worcester NAACP (1986 - 1995)

In August of 1989, the NAACP held its Silent March on Washington DC, inspired by their 1917 Silent March in New York, in protest against recent Supreme Court reversals regarding civil rights. Over 100,000 people participated in the March, including the Maryland NAACP. According to the state branch’s president, Reverend James Wright, 200 activists from the Lower Eastern Shore were expected to participate in the national protest. Reverend Wright spoke at a press conference before the march where he stated the march was directed at Ocean City and Worcester County officials and that a boycott was still not entirely off the table for 1990. While James Purnell refused to comment on the boycott, he did say that “The only way they seem to understand us is to get out and march” since negotiations were proving to be less effective in soliciting change.
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By the 1990s there was still work to be done in the town to ensure greater equality for both African American visitors and workers. The NAACP had been continuing to encourage not only equal employment by employers, but also the support of Black owned businesses in Ocean City. Additionally, when the lack of Black individuals in advertising was brought to attention, the town responded with changes to be more inclusive in its commercials. Local activists were not going to yield until they accomplished what they had set out to accomplish, even if they had been going back and fourth for decades on the same issues. 

Pamphlet, The NAACP Silent March on Washington, DC
August 26, 1989
Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston, NAACP

The final decades of the 20th century, especially the 1980s, saw an immense amount of effort from local activists to continue the changes made by their predecessors. Individuals like Diana Purnell, Gabriel Purnell, and many others, through their ceaseless efforts, were able to bring more equitable hiring practices to Ocean City through economic and political pressure. The two reports on the conditions of Black living and employment in Worcester County brought to light systematic issues present in the community for years. While they were well known within the Black community, little was being done to address them until they were brought to the attention of those outside the Black community. 

The negative press irritated Ocean City and Worcester County officials of the time, but it was a necessary step to get the ball rolling for changes and was essential in the strategies used by activists like Dr. Burns. While officials claim to have preferred more “low-key” methods, fewer eyes on them would have made them likely to do anything. It was the publicity that activism brought that kept officials accountable. If not for the uproar, it is unlikely that any steps towards meaningful change would have been taken. Without the agitation sparked by decades of activism, Ocean City would have taken much longer to address these social issues, highlighting the importance of sustained effort encapsulated by Frederick Douglass’s famous words “Agitate, agitate.”

References