The city of Baltimore leapt into the national consciousness recently over the death of 25 year old Freddie Gray at the hands of the police.  And whether it was rioting or churches walking through the streets singing gospels the mainstream media chose to ignore the obvious.That Baltimore has, and continues to be, a city in need of change.  In need of innovation and a new path forward.

For the last century the city of Baltimore has been the host of some of the most important moments of the Civil Rights Movement and some of the most heartlessly corrupt acts of capitalism this country has ever seen.

In 1938, Donald Gaines Murray applied to University of Maryland’s law school but was rejected because he was black.  Murray sued and upon appeal the University of Maryland was forced by law to fully integrate its student population.  It was a fight that changed minds and made decisions like Brown Vs. The Board Of Education possible.

In 1948 a measure was slipped into the Dewey-Truman election ballot that would prove devastating to the city’s future growth.  It made it nearly impossible for the borders of the city to ever move.  It crippled growth and sent the thriving middle class to the suburbs. Leaving the poorest of Baltimore stuck, with no tax base to support it and development stifled.

By 1954, Brown Vs. the Board of Education, which declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional, was passed and a decade long fight filled with protests and civil action began to implement the law fully.  A fight that still goes on today.

By 1954, Brown Vs. the Board of Education, which declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional, was passed and a decade long fight filled with protests and civil action began to implement the law fully.A fight that still goes on today.

By the time of the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, the people of Baltimore had had enough.  His death, a catalyst for their anger over being treated like second class citizens, fueled over a week of rioting that left the city changed along with much of the country.

Baltimore needed a renaissance.  Instead, throughout the 70s developers and politicians took advantage of each other and the citizens of Baltimore under the guise of “urban renewal”.

By 1980, revitalization efforts did begin like the Inner Harbor Project.  Sadly, corruption and greed meant the development did nothing to truly help anyone except for the developers and the politicians.

Then, in 1984, under the cover of night, the city’s professional football team, the Colts snuck out of the city with everything that wasn’t nailed down stuffed into a fleet of Mayflower moving trucks.

By 1996 the fight to integrate schools had evolved into the fight to quite simply have schools that were remotely functioning.  Fiscal abuse, crumbling buildings and lawsuits had finally led the city to enter into a partnership with the state. A takeover which many say left the schools no better off than they were 20 years ago.

Which brings us to a community that spent 6 million dollars paying out police misconduct cases instead of fixing the streets.  That closed schools, community centers and opportunities in favor of a more aggressive policing policy that has made the school to prison pipeline in Baltimore almost a given for many youth.

Those same youths who were out on Monday rioting in the same neighborhoods that still bare the scars from the 1968 riots and a century of decline. 

Those same youths who were out on Monday rioting in the same neighborhoods that still bare the scars from the 1968 riots and a century of decline.

It is time we stop looking at cities like Baltimore as a “problem.”  And start seeing it as an opportunity. We must stop looking at the citizens of Baltimore as “troubled.”  And truly see their potential.

The people of Baltimore and cities like it across America is that everyone is talking AT them.  It's time we heard what THEY have to say before writing them, and their deaths, off as collateral damage.  We have to stop looking for excuses because their aren't any.  We just need to start being the heroes this country and the world truly needs.  The ones who truly put people first, not classes and races and stereotypes.

It's time we acted like Americans and helped each other out.

Watch Jesse Ventura go head-to-head with Alex Jones on the police state in this episode of Off The Grid: 

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ora Media, LLC its affiliates, or its employees.

More from Jesse Ventura's Off The Grid

Advertisement