Maryland
Historic Route 40 in Maryland was the setting for some civil rights struggles of the early 1960s
Route 40 spans the nation from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean off Atlantic City, New Jersey, through parts of Maryland, to those of the Pacific off San Francisco, some 3,000-plus miles across the country’s midsection like a great macadam belt.
Its origins date to 1806, when an act of Congress signed into law by President Thomas Jefferson established what locals still call the National Road or Baltimore Pike. Its eastern leg stretched 750 miles from Baltimore, through Cumberland, to Vandalia, then the capital of Illinois, making it the country’s first interstate road.
Often compared to Rome’s ancient road Appian Way, it quickly became the major route over the Alleghenies and throbbed with traffic on horseback, stagecoaches and Conestoga wagons piled high with freight bound for eastern markets, passing dream-filled visionary pioneers heading westward.
But it was the sound of the steam whistle that sounded the death knell for the National Road. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad built its line westward in the 1850s, and its freight and passengers quickly were diverted to trains that could travel between Baltimore and Wheeling, West Virginia, in just 16 hours, rather than days over a frequently mud-clogged road in spring and winter that often was frequented by drunken drivers and highwaymen.
As the old road fell into a weed-choked highway, a victim of the rise of railroads, it was the invention and accessibility of the automobile 50 years later that revived it.
But as a main artery of commerce, the segment of Route 40 that passes through Maryland, was also the setting for a dark and ugly past in the early 1960s.
African Americans traveling by car in the state, especially north of Baltimore, were not welcome at diners, restaurants, hotels or motels.
In those days, before Interstate 95 was completed and segregation was still the law of the land, Route 40 was the major route for diplomats and people of color traveling between New York and Washington.
Early in the spring of 1961, William Fitzjohn, charge d’affaires for Sierre Leone in Washington, en route to Pittsburgh, stopped with his driver at a Howard Johnson’s near Hagerstown for dinner and because both men were Black, they were denied service.
This American snub, and others like it, caused an international furor.
President John F. Kennedy was outraged by what had transpired and received Fitzjohn in the White House while the president of Howard Johnson’s apologized.
In June 1961, Adam Malick Sow, Chad’s ambassador to the United States was on his way to Washington to present his credentials to the president and was refused service when he stopped for a meal in Edgewood.
In September of that year, President Kennedy sent a telegram to 200 Maryland civic leaders seeking “voluntary cooperation for an immediate end to segregation in restaurants and other places of public service on U.S. Route 40 in Maryland.”
Maryland Gov. J. Millard Tawes also apologized for the incidents and supported the president’s position, while suggesting that African diplomats should select restaurants with an open-door policy.
“It is a terrible reflection on this state that this thing [rebuffs to diplomats] should be repeated time and time again after the president urged us to correct this condition,” said former Gov. Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin.
The Rev. Douglas B. Sands, a civil rights activist, who retired as pastor of White Rock Independent Methodist Episcopal Church in Sykesville, was at the time executive secretary of the state Commission on Interracial Problems and Relations.
One day he and a fellow protester, Caroline Ramsay, found themselves in the uncomfortable position of staring down the barrel of a gun held by Anthony J. “Tony” Konstant, owner of the Redwood Inn in Aberdeen, as they attempted to enter the restaurant.
“It was a very busy time along the road in those days,” Sands, 89, who retired from his church in 2019, recalled recently.
“He told us we weren’t wanted and to get out and he came to us with the gun raised,” Sands said. “And he was so infuriated because my companion Caroline was a white woman. This was unique for us because no one had done that before, and we left.”
Then the racist changed and became a supporter of desegregation.
“Tony had a change of heart later and he believed in what we were trying to do in getting a state accommodation law that would allow service to be given to everyone,” Sands said. “And I never had a reason to be fearful.”
Konstant became a leader in the effort to get restauranteurs along the highway to integrate.
“It is not an easy thing to go up to a Negro and tell him you won’t serve him,” Konstant told The Evening Sun in 1961. “It is morally wrong and Christianly wrong. There is a new Negro emerging, and we have to recognize him. … I’m not bitter about CORE’s role in the thing. Let’s face it, we never would have done it if they had not applied pressure. They were fighting for a principle.”
He had visited more than 35 restaurants and told the newspaper: “What I found was a softening attitude. But at most places the operators said integrating was the only decent, moral thing to do, and that they were willing if everyone else was.”
He added: “If I had to do it all over again I would have quietly desegregated and that would have been that. It’s the only sensible thing to do.”
For his efforts in playing a major role in integrating Route 40 and his civil rights activism, Konstant received a letter of thanks from U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
Freedom Riders targeted Route 40 establishments, and 47 restaurants between the Delaware Memorial Bridge and Baltimore agreed to desegregate by November 1961.
Janice E. Grant, 90, a retired Harford County public school teacher and civil rights activist, held planning meetings in the living room of her home at 430 S. Law St. in Aberdeen. “A group of Freedom Riders came down from New York and we used to hold meetings in a church on Thorn Creek, but then the Klan started burning Black churches, and I said we couldn’t meet there, so they came to my house at 11:30 the first night.”
Grant was arrested after trying to integrate a restaurant in Edgewood. She was joined in her protests by her husband, Woodrow Benjamin Grant, a former serviceman.
“We sat everywhere we could along Route 40,” she said. “Afraid? I was never afraid. I had driven alone in Mississippi when they were killing people and I had been beaten badly.”
Additional pressure was applied when James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality, better known as CORE, told the newspaper the restaurants that were balking at serving Black citizens were facing a Dec. 15 deadline.
“If not, we shall feel free to take necessary action,” he said in a statement.
CORE had published a list of more than 30 businesses between Maryland and Delaware that continued to refuse service to African Americans.
In early December 1961, more than 500 Freedom Riders staged an anti-discrimination demonstration along the highway, with 14 protesters being arrested, including James Peck, one of the original Freedom Riders.
The activism of the Route 40 protesters finally led to the passage of the state Public Accommodation Act in 1963 — the first such law passed by a state below the Mason-Dixon Line — that went into effect that year and effectively outlawed segregation in Maryland. The act was upheld by a referendum in November 1964.
It went into effect weeks before President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In 1963, Sands resigned from the commission and accepted a job as special protocol officer with the U.S. State Department under Angier Biddle Duke, and later held posts during the 1970s with the Howard County chapter of the NAACP. In the 1980s he served in the cabinet of Maryland Gov. Harry R. Hughes.
Konstant, who was 87 when he died in 2011, later became the co-owner of the landmark Williamsburg Inn in White Marsh — located where else, but along historic Route 40.
Baltimore Sun photographer Amy Davis and Sun researcher Paul McCardell contributed to this article.
Gov. Wes Moore is touting his “fiscal responsibility” along with a balanced budget proposal, which some lawmakers and economists say ignores Maryland’s most pressing issue ahead: billions of dollars in structural debt.
Moore has boasted that his administration balanced the budget this year without new taxes or fees — a reality possible in large part by a series of tax and fee hikes last year.
Meanwhile, the Maryland Department of Legislative Services projects a nearly $3 billion structural deficit in fiscal year 2028, growing to roughly $4 billion by fiscal year 2030. State lawmakers will likely have to make cuts, raise taxes or both next year.
Dr. Daraius Irani, the vice president of business and public engagement at Towson University, said Maryland leaders are running behind on long-term budget solutions and should get ahead of the issue this legislative session.
“Four years ago really would have been the time to really … look into some of the efficiencies,” he told Spotlight on Maryland. “They ignored some of these structural deficits.”
Irani said state leaders need to pursue structural reforms instead of short-term budget patches.
“The Maryland State Government really needs to look at sort of what it does, what its mission is. One of the challenges that it faces is its revenues aren’t growing as fast as expenditures,” he said. “Collectively, we really have done a poor job of managing Maryland’s finances writ large I really think that Maryland needs to use this crisis to focus.”
Will taxes go up next year?
Del. Matt Morgan, R-St. Mary’s County, said Maryland Democrats prioritized avoiding tax increases in an election year. He said Marylanders should not be surprised if their elected officials raise taxes next year to counter the increasing deficit.
“They’re kicking the can down the road, and they’ve been kicking the can down this entire term,” Morgan told Spotlight on Maryland. “This is an election budget. No one’s told us what we’re going to do next year.”
Maryland leaders raised a series of taxes and fees last year to address the state’s deficit, including a new tax on IT and data services, tax hikes on high-income earners, and increased tax rates on vehicles, cannabis and sports betting.
Two key factors in the deficit spike next year include scheduled spending increases for Medicaid and the Blueprint education plan. Morgan said his colleagues may have no choice but to reassess these programs and restructure the state government.
“You can make the necessary cuts in the hard choices. Unfortunately, that is probably revolving around the Blueprint front and around the Medicaid expansion,” Morgan told Spotlight on Maryland. “I think when you look down deep inside the budget, you’re finding a lot of programs that are duplicated. You could get rid of a lot of expansion in government.”
Spotlight on Maryland asked Moore’s office what his plan is to address the state’s structural deficits, and whether he would commit to no new taxes and fees in a potential second term. The office did not make that commitment.
His spokeswoman emailed the following statement: “Governor Moore inherited a structural deficit after years of Maryland’s spending outpacing its revenue.Despite that, he has balanced the budget each year in office while focusing on growing Maryland’s economy. Since Day One, he’s been clear that Maryland must break our economy’s dependence on Washington to address the state’s long-standing fiscal issues. That’s why the Governor has been so diligent about growing our state’s private sector and has ushered in major job-creating economic investments from companies like AstraZeneca, Samsung Biologics, and Sphere Entertainment Co. While we appreciate the sentiment about him earning a second term, right now, his focus is passing yet another responsible, balanced budget.”
Doug Mayer, who previously worked as a spokesman for then-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, said that Moore has no one to blame for the structural deficit but his political allies. Mayer emphasized that Hogan vetoed the $30 billion Blueprint education plan over budget concerns and wanted to restructure state government to save money in the long term. Both efforts, he said, were shut down by the Democratic supermajority in the legislature.
“Moore is a political coward,” Mayer told Spotlight on Maryland. “The budget situation is never going to get better. They’re just going to raise taxes. They won’t do it this year because they’re playing games.”
Another factor in Maryland’s fiscal woes is the loss of revenue from residents leaving for other states. A report last year from the Maryland Comptroller found that from 2022 to 2024, Maryland ranked among the top 10 in the nation for the largest net loss of residents to domestic migration. This included an increase in the number of young adults fleeing amid concerns about housing costs.
‘Next year is very concerning’
Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey said Moore’s proposed budget does not address future deficits. He said state leaders need to lead with urgency and prove that Maryland is affordable for residents and fruitful for businesses.
“Next year is very concerning and should be concerning for Marylanders,” Hershey told Spotlight on Maryland. “We would like to send market signals out to businesses to tell them that we have a way to address these deficits, that we’re going to scale back the Blueprint, that we’re not going to have to raise taxes. Because as we saw last year, they raised taxes on businesses, and businesses are making decisions every day on whether to stay in Maryland, whether to expand in Maryland, or maybe even come to Maryland. And they need to know what this legislature is looking at with respect to how the budget is going to be here for the next couple of years.”
Spotlight on Maryland sent the following questions to Sen. Guy Guzzone, D-Howard County, chair of the Budget and Taxation Committee; and Del. Ben Barnes, D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties, chair of the Appropriations Committee.
How do you plan to address Maryland’s pending structural deficits?
Are you committed to avoiding any new taxes or fees?
Guzzone and Barnes did not respond.
Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by The Baltimore Sun, FOX45 News and WJLA in Washington, D.C. Have a news tip? Call 410-467-4670 or email SpotlightOnMaryland@sbgtv.com. Contact Patrick Hauf at pjhauf@sbgtv.com and @PatrickHauf on X.
MARYLAND (WBFF) — Maryland drivers frustrated by rising costs at the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) are watching a push in Annapolis to roll back recent vehicle registration fee hikes.
At the MVA on Reisterstown Road, motorists said the cost of driving has become too high.
“It’s too expensive to drive,” one driver said.
Another driver said, “The cost is ridiculous. They want me to pay almost $400 (for my vehicle registration).”
ALSO READ | Maryland residents react to soaring vehicle registration fees, rank fifth highest in U.S.
Delores Howell, a Maryland motorist at the MVA, said the increases are hitting her hard.
“I think it’s awful. Who can afford it? It’s too much money,” Howell said.
She added, “I’m a senior citizen, and I’m on social security. I’m one person, live by myself. I can’t afford all this stuff. They keep going up, up, up, how high are they gonna go?”
Senate Republicans in Annapolis are pushing legislation this week to roll back the vehicle registration fee increases that were implemented in 2024. Those increases raised registration costs by about 60% to 70%, adding between $70 and $162 a year for many drivers.
The bill’s sponsor, Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey, said the higher fees are hitting families as the cost of gas, insurance and everyday essentials continues to climb.
Critics have warned the fees help fund transportation projects across Maryland and argue that reducing them could create new budget challenges for road maintenance and infrastructure.
During a recent hearing, Sen. Mary-Dulany James, D-Harford County, questioned how the state would meet transportation needs with less revenue.
“I’ve never had a hearing with the transportation department where we don’t have extraordinary demands and inadequate revenue,” James said. “So, that’s what I’m wondering about with this bill. How would you respond to that?”
Hershey responded by arguing there are competing views of what transportation funding should prioritize.
“There’s two different opinions on what transportation is in the state of Maryland,” Hershey said. “Many of us believe that it’s roads and highways, many of us believe that it’s transit.
The problem is transit is not sustainable on itself.”
James replied, “Well that’s true we should have a separate transportation trust fund for transit.”
“And that’s what’s important to get that conversation going… because the reality is you’re funding mass transit on the backs of motorists,” Hershey said.
ALSO READ | Maryland Judiciary warns of parking violation scam, directs recipients to Baltimore court
Back at the MVA, Howell said she hopes the proposed legislation could bring relief.
“Every time you look around, it’s not taxes. They put fees. Fees is a tax. So what can we do?” Howell said.
For now, the bill remains up for debate as lawmakers continue discussing the potential impacts on transportation funding.
Follow FOX45 reporter Keith Daniels on X and Facebook. Send tips to Kdaniels@sbgtv.com.
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