Untold Stories: Baltimore's Harlem Theatre

I recently visited my grandparents in their hometown of South Carolina. Our family of five jumped in the truck before the sun rose, and drove more than eight hours from Baltimore to the rural back roads of Georgetown, S.C..

There’s history in the South. In 1950, Lizzie Joyner-Canteen, my great-grandmother, built a home and purchased land on Rosehill Road. It’s the same tin roof home where I spent every summer night wedged between my granny’s back and the bedroom wall. There weren’t enough rooms so I always sleep with her. And, let me tell you, “Granny didn’t like a lot of squirming.” Luckily, South Carolina heat cools quickly with night air. 

Growing up, I could have sworn my great-grandmother was Ella Fitzgerald. Her voice was just as heavenly, and everyone from the small unincorporated town of Dunbar to Choopee, knew it. She was a force, spiritually anointed, wise, thick in the hips, sharp with the tongue, and her hands were as strong as two four-by-fours.

I’d like to think that I’m a little bit like her (except for the hips, unfortunately).

My great-grandmother passed at the age of 92 and her home still stands on the land that my grandparents now own. She was an extraordinary woman. And, I am blessed to be able to share my family's history with my children.

It is my connection to my past that has given me the strength to forge my future. But how different would I be if I were not aware of the people I come from?

That is the pain I felt on Saturday, when I stood in Harlem Park with my family and saw the most strikingly beautiful building that I had never noticed before.

I was born and raised in West Baltimore. I’ve walked the streets of Gilmore more times than I care to remember, but I never knew that I was walking past black history.

Harlem Park had been for four decades the home of Black Baltimoreans who settled in the area when white residents fled further west and to the suburbs.

In its early days, this building was a church. In 1928, the title was officially transferred for the purpose of building a 1,500-seat motion picture theatre for Negroes to be known as Harlem Theatre.

The theatre was promoted as “the best illuminated building in Baltimore.” 

After a successful opening, the theatre remained open for nearly 40 years. 

Baltimore citizens remember the theatre with “cavernous three-story-high ceilings, a balcony, carpeted floors and thick cushioned seats” and a “celestial ceiling with twinkling electrical stars and projected clouds that floated over movie-goers’ heads.” 

Legendary black artists and entertainers graced the threshold of the Harlem Theatre, and yet, no one I knew had ever spoken of it. 

There are old records of community events, such as a free “Movie Jamboree” in 1968 for the children of Baltimore workers, donated by the theatre’s then-manager Edward Grot, and midnight shows to raise money for the local YMCA.

The Harlem Theatre was once a cultural hub for black greatness in my freaking backyard and I had no clue. How could this happen?

Well, for one reason, the urban renewal launched in 1961 doomed this black neighborhood from day one.

The powers that be were callous in their approach. An archived document clearly states that, while more than 5,000 people were expected to be displaced by the renewal projects, the city had no plan for new housing in Harlem Park and no plan to relocate its residents elsewhere, not even into what officials in those days of segregation, discrimination and redlining called “negro housing.”

Black people in America cannot afford to not know our history. It’s our connection to our past that reminders us of our greatness. 

My great-grandmother, who had my grandfather at the age of 14 years old, purchased land with the intention to pass it to her children. It was a conscious decision that changed the trajectory of generations to come including my own.

The Harlem Theatre will do the same for West Baltimore.

Today, powered by the people, the Harlem Theatre is pushing back the threat of displacement, and holding close to Baltimore’s black history and heritage. 

Thanks to community activists and socially conscious developers, there are plans to honor the church and its history as a theatre by fusing spirituality, art, culture, and entertainment. 

The urban renewal of the Harlem Theatre will illuminate a great renaissance for West Baltimore and blaze new pathways for a younger generation to follow. 

Credit:

Elise Hoffman, Baltimore Heritage

Dan Rodricks, The Baltimore Sun

Website, Baltimore’s Coalition for Positive Change