Baltimore, 1866
In 1865, white caulkers on the Baltimore docks struck to push Black caulkers out of the shipyards. Isaac Myers, a caulker himself, answered by organizing. Early the next year he and his fellow workers raised $10,000 from Black Baltimoreans, bought a shipyard and railway of their own, and named it the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company. Within months it employed 300 Black caulkers. The yard ran until 1884. Its site is now part of the Frederick Douglass–Isaac Myers Maritime Park in Fells Point.
One story from these waters. More are coming.