Home // Notable People

Notable People

The objective of gathering these 88 stories is not to focus on the well-known individuals, but to include those people who in their everyday lives exemplified the strength and resilience of the Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color of Southern Maryland.  Appreciating their stories provides a view into the history of Southern Maryland like no other.

  • Counties:

  • Time Period

  • Theme

  • Gender:

  • Reset
Notable People History
| Tenny Merritt exercised resistance and agency by participating in the largest emancipation in the United States until the Civil War almost half a century
Notable People History Photo Gallery
| Wilson Parren was one of the first students to integrate Calvert High School, in 1967. He has used this experience to become a community
Notable People History
| Joseph Christopher Parks made education possible for “colored” students in the segregated Charles County Schools during the Jim Crow era and segregated schools.
Notable People History Photo Gallery
| Theodore Newkirk was a key player in the desegregation of St. Mary’s County Schools and the fight against workplace discrimination at the Patuxent River
Notable People History
| Grace Munroe trusted the British so her family could live free in Canada.
Notable People History Photo Gallery
| Enolia Pettie McMillan was an educator, civil rights activist, community leader and the first female national president of the NAACP.
Notable People History
| April 12, 1666, three representatives from different Indigenous nations delivered speeches to the Upper House of the General Assembly of the colony of Maryland.
Notable People History
| Mark Caesar and William Wheeler - why days following July 4th would a Charles County freeman lead enslaved people in a flight to freedom?
Notable People History
| Annette Funn a microbiologist with the FDA, used her many talents to empower people in Southern Maryland and beyond.
Notable People
| First African American County Commissioner for St. Mary’s County.