BALTIMORE — The year is 1986 and you're a freshman at Morgan State University.
You're walking to class and you notice a large brick wall separating Northwood Plaza from the Northwood community, but you don't think anything of it.
You brush it off as nothing more than an out of place wall covered in graffiti.
Fast forward to 2023 when the wall got torn down, and it turns out it was known as the "spite wall."
Watch as the wall gets torn down:
It was constructed in the 1930s as a barrier of residential segregation for African Americans.
Dr. Damon Freeman, director of the History and African American Studies program at the University of Maryland Global Campus, says the wall is an important part of Baltimore's history.
Adding he was shocked, much like many Baltimoreans when they discovered the true meaning of the wall.
"I think my first reaction was, they built a wall? Like, who does that," Freeman explained. "This was a symbol of racial apartheid, which is the structures that are intentionally being built to politically, economically, culturally, socially separate one people from another group, and to endow characteristics of this one group."
As time passed, the wall became something accepted as part of Baltimore's landscape, much like the notorious "Highway to Nowhere."
"Take this neighborhood that was seen as expendable, and build a highway through it that was going to be seen as something that economically beneficial. And so now, it's just part of the landscape," Freeman said. "There was a very conscious level decision to build these things."
Built on hate, the wall underscores the importance of not just Baltimore's history, but African American history.
Freeman was torn when the wall was torn down last year, because of that very point.
"On the one hand, you can think of it as something like the Confederate memorials, for example. On the other hand, it is a reminder of why this history is important and what this history meant," Freeman said.
"Having the entire wall there really drives home the point of what this meant. It was a very conscious, deliberate attempt to keep out an entire community, so that they wouldn't have to see more of it," Freeman added.
When the wall came down, Northwood Plaza store owner, Megan Lathan, called it "poetic justice."
"It’s a full circle moment for the community and for the University," Lathan said.
Freeman wants his students to know that African American history is American history.
"It's global history, it's not something to be segregated, or put off into a corner somewhere or celebrated in a month. It's a reflection of who we are as Americans," he said. "If we don't acknowledge this history, we are essentially cutting off half our identity, who we really are."
It shows history for what it is he adds.
"You begin to walk around and look at the wall. And now suddenly, the wall takes on a different symbolism, it's much more significant now... So it helps you to begin to see layers. You begin to think differently about everything. So it helps you be a better thinker."
