Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
They told Frederick Douglass's son he couldn't sit at their table. So he bought the land next door and built a resort they couldn't touch.
In 1893, Charles Douglass was denied entry to the restaurant at the Bay Ridge resort in Maryland. He didn't protest. He didn't march. He checked the land records.
Discovering that the beachfront property immediately adjacent to the segregated resort was for sale, he quietly purchased 40 acres of prime Chesapeake Bay real estate. He turned that land into Highland Beach—the first African American municipality in Maryland and a summer haven where the Black elite (from Langston Hughes to Paul Robeson) could exist without the white gaze.
This isn't a story about segregation. It’s a story about Revenge.
The Land Was Ours: by Andrew W. Kahrl.
Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters: by Victoria W. Wolcott.
Black AF History by Michael Harriot
JOIN THE NEWSLETTER Get the full "Agency" breakdown and the archival maps from this episode in my weekly newsletter: onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com
Audio Onemichistory.com
Follow me on Instagram: @onemic_history
Follow me on Substack: onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com
Follow me on Threads: threads.net/@onemic_history
Please support our Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=25697914
Buy me a Coffee buymeacoffee.com/Countryboi2m
They told Frederick Douglass's son he couldn't sit at their table. So he bought the land next door and built a resort they couldn't touch.
In 1893, Charles Douglass was denied entry to the restaurant at the Bay Ridge resort in Maryland. He didn't protest. He didn't march. He checked the land records.
Discovering that the beachfront property immediately adjacent to the segregated resort was for sale, he quietly purchased 40 acres of prime Chesapeake Bay real estate. He turned that land into Highland Beach—the first African American municipality in Maryland and a summer haven where the Black elite (from Langston Hughes to Paul Robeson) could exist without the white gaze.
This isn't a story about segregation. It’s a story about Revenge.
The Land Was Ours: by Andrew W. Kahrl.
Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters: by Victoria W. Wolcott.
Black AF History by Michael Harriot
JOIN THE NEWSLETTER Get the full "Agency" breakdown and the archival maps from this episode in my weekly newsletter: onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com
Audio Onemichistory.com
Follow me on Instagram: @onemic_history
Follow me on Substack: onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com
Follow me on Threads: threads.net/@onemic_history
Please support our Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=25697914
Buy me a Coffee buymeacoffee.com/Countryboi2m
