First Frederick Douglass Unity Day held to raise money for cultural center

EASTON — As DJ Mercury played music outside the Easton Veterans of Foreign Wars post during the first Frederick Douglass Unity Day celebration on Saturday, people danced and feasted on crabs and corn on the cob.

The event, sponsored by the Bailey-Groce Family Foundation, brought multiple vendors and somewhere around 100 people out to the VFW Saturday. It was put on to raise awareness for and money to create an African American cultural center in Easton.

Tarence Bailey, who helped organize the event, said Talbot County should be one of the first places people think of when it comes to African American history. He called the Eastern Shore a “holy ground” for Black history and said the county should have a facility to preserve that history.

“There’s no getting around it,” he said. “It’s got to be preserved.”

Bailey said it’s important that the cultural center goes in The Hill Community in Easton, which is a free African American community that has been around for over 200 years.

“Because how do you preserve a community if you’re not in it?” he said.

Once created, the center would showcase African American culture and history. Plans for the center include lecture halls, small business incubators and a trade department. Bailey said he wants it to be an epicenter for Black history and culture.

There are also plans to restore a property in The Hill on South Street.

“We want to do an agreement where we’re going to restore the house back to period and then it can be a part of the Hill tour,” he said.

Bailey thinks the the South Street property would compliment a cultural center.

“So when you go in the cultural center you see the history,” he said. “(And then) there be an actual place where you can go and look at the house that was back to period of when the Hill first started.”

Ashley Chenault, who owns the property, said Bailey brought the idea to her.

“But I was looking for a way to restore the home and provide community access and something for the community,” she said. “So (I) really found it to be a great partnership.”

Chenault, who was at the event on Saturday, said she was having a great time. She said she enjoyed eating crabs, socializing and listening to good music.

India Thomas of Thomas Family Catering, who catered the event, said it was a good day.

Thomas and her crew made fish, chicken and barbecue chicken at the event on Saturday. She said that events like these bring everyone together.

“There’s enough separation in the world,” she said.

Bailey, who called the event “a lot of hard work,” said the people who came out made the day a special one.

“Seeing people actually enjoying the hard work and supporting the Eastern Shore family of Frederick Douglass,” he said is what he enjoyed most.

Bailey hopes to make the event, which fell on the weekend between Juneteenth and Fourth of July, a bigger one next year.

“This is a good event to bring people together,” he said. “This is a great middle ground.”