To mark an important history month, the Fairview Branch of Calvert Library played host to an oral presentation Monday evening. March is Women’s History Month, and the presentation by Michael Kent was entitled “Unsung Achievements of African American Women of Calvert County.”
Kent is the author of “Mulatto:The Black History of Calvert County.” After a brief introduction by four local members of the Institute for Cultural Communicators — Noah Foster, Christian Fierro, Jacob Foster and Connor Fierro — Kent delved into the writings of Charles Ball, an African American slave born during the late 1700s in Calvert County. Ball was one of the first slaves to write a narrative about his experiences.
One of those experiences involved African American women who disguised themselves as men in order to serve on work ships.
Prior to the Civil War, Kent said African-American women played a key role in the Underground Railroad in forging documents and serving as midwives, delivering babies in the stead of doctors.
One of Calvert’s more prominent African American women during the late 1800s and early 20th century was Christiana Parran, who was able to purchase a large amount of land near what today is Chesapeake Beach.
“She had her hands in everything,” Kent said, adding that Parran “was a loan shark.”
Historic accounts of Parran indicate much of her wealth came from collecting money from people who had used credit.
Kent said many of Calvert’s prominent Black women of the 20th century came to the county from other parts of the country to teach school.
Among that group was Harriet Elizabeth Brown, a Virginia native, who in the 1930s successfully sued Calvert’s school board in order to obtain pay parity for the county’s Black teachers, who were paid less than their white counterparts. The case led to other Maryland jurisdictions reforming their pay policies, which had a ripple effect throughout the country.
Kent said during the 1960s, with some white school bus drivers still refusing to pick up and transport Black children to and from school despite school desegregation, local African American women became bus contractors. Some of the families continue their contracting businesses today.
One of the discussions from the floor after Kent completed his formal presentation involved Myrtle Patten, whose story is included in the book “Inspiring African American Women in Calvert County.”
Darlene Harrod provided Southern Maryland News with an excerpt of what she wrote in the book regarding Patten, a Georgia native who was a nurse.
“Nurse Patten arrived in Calvert County in 1927,” Harrod wrote. “It is virtually impossible to measure the impact she made on the lives of African Americans in the county. She could be described as a nurse, midwife, dental assistant, emergency management technician worker and counselor.”
As a public health nurse with the local health department, Patten, according to Harrod, visited the homes of Black families, checking on newborns, talking to their mothers and giving vaccinations to 6-year-olds. She also gave tenant farmers and laborers inoculations for smallpox and tuberculosis.
“Once she retired, her position ended,” Harrod wrote. “No one ever took her place.”
When asked why Calvert’s African American women retained their resilience in the face of society’s challenges, Kent replied that the focused on “making things better for the next generation.”
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