Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum
Dr. Lillie May Carroll Jackson, born in Baltimore on May 25, 1889, was a tireless freedom fighter. As an “American of African descent, “she endured the humiliation of Jim Crow segregation, but did not take this plight sitting down. Using her abiding faith nurtured at Sharp Street United Methodist Church, she believed that “with God, all things are possible.”
As president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP from 1935 to 1970, Jackson---along with Afro-American Newspaper publisher Carl J. Murphy---organized the community to protest Eastern Shore lynchings, segregated schools, residential restrictive covenants, discriminatory practices of Baltimore retailers and public accommodations establishments, and police brutality.
Jackson made common cause with legal scholars Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall to make the U.S. Constitution a reality. Her leadership resulted in successful litigation of several Supreme Court decisions, including the striking down of racially restrictive covenants in property deeds (1948) and finding segregated public schools unconstitutional (1954).
Jackson was the matriarch of the politically-active Jackson-Mitchell clan that included her son-in-law Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. (known as “the 101st Senator); her daughter Juanita Jackson Mitchell, the first black woman to practice law in Maryland; her grandson Clarence M. Mitchell III (who at age 21 was the youngest person in the nation to be elected to a state legislature); and U.S. Representative Parren J. Mitchell, the first black U.S. Representative from Maryland.
“The successful struggle for civil rights in Maryland was a defining achievement of this century,” the Baltimore Sun wrote. “Lillie May Carroll Jackson was a key general in that battle.” She died on July 5, 1975.
(Inscription under the image on the right)
Lillie Carroll Jackson “ It is somehow fitting that Lillie May Carroll Jackson, a direct descendant of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, would confront an unjust government asking it to fulfill its creed that all men are created equal.”—Baltimore Sun, August 1999--
Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum, Sponsor-Rededicated 2015-Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Mayor
Erected 2015
this page online
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans • Civil Rights • Government & Politics • Women. A significant historical date for this entry is July 5, 1975.
Location. 39° 18.268′ N, 76° 37.614′ W. Marker is in Baltimore, Maryland. It is in Madison Park. It is on Eutaw Place. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1320 Eutaw Place, Baltimore MD 21217, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Central Maryland. It is also in the American Mid-Atlantic, in the Chesapeake Bay Region, and on the Eastern Seaboard. Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region, North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once one of the original Thirteen Colonies and also the Antebellum South.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Early Civil Rights Era (a few steps from this marker); St. James Court (a few steps from this marker); Sidney Lanier (within shouting distance of this marker); Howard A. Kelly, M.D.
Another marker is no longer nearby. Lillie Carroll Jackson Museum (was a few steps from this marker but has been confirmed missing).
Credits. This page was last revised on February 16, 2021. It was originally submitted on February 27, 2017, by Don Morfe of Baltimore, Maryland. This page has been viewed 596 times since then and 28 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on February 27, 2017, by Don Morfe of Baltimore, Maryland. • Bill Pfingsten was the editor who published this page.
