Our Legacy: African-American aldermen have long served the city

Last Nov. 1 marked 145 years since slavery was abolished in Maryland. It has been two years since the City of Annapolis wrote its version of an apology for slavery.

According to that resolution, the week prior to Nov. 1 is set aside for activities that are to reflect the African experience. This year the City Council invited me to provide reflections on one of its own, the former slave and alderman Wiley H. Bates.

As I looked around the room, I saw nothing there to honor the legacy of all the African Americans who have served this city. So, although I had been asked to speak about Bates, I also took a minute to reflect on them, beginning with the first: William Butler Sr., a Republican who served from 1873 to 1875. Butler was also born into slavery.

What about Thomas Arrington Thompson, born in St. Croix in the Danish West Indies, who came to Annapolis with his parents? The son of a pastor at Mount Moriah Church, Thompson graduated from Alcorn University in Mississippi and received a law degree from Howard University in 1892. He serve from 1887 to 1891, then returned to the City Council from 1901 to 1907. Thompson was a principal at the Stanton Colored School. By 1910 he was listed as an attorney at 64 Cathedral St.

Does anyone remember the son of the first African-American alderman? William Henry Butler Jr., a teacher at the Stanton Colored School, became the third alderman of color when he served one term, from 1893 to 1899. Butler lived in one of the properties built by his father on Market Street.

Butler was replaced by Wiley H. Bates, who also served only one term. Bates was part of a delegation to the legislature to lobby for funding to rebuild the Stanton Colored School, which was condemned during his term. Bates sub-sequently left city politics to become one of the wealthiest landowners in the Annapolis; the school was rebuilt in 1900.

In 1899, there was no African-American alderman elected. But Thomas Arrington Thompson returned in 1901 for his second stint on the council.

Thompson was followed by James Albert Adams, the undertaker and saloonkeeper. Adams took office in 1907, was removed when African Americans were disenfranchised in 1908, but returned in 1915 after the grandfather clause was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Adams was the first man of color to own property on Murray Hill, where he lived a short time before purchasing Adams Park. He served until 1921.

John Stepney, who lived at 12 Clay St., was elected in 1912. He was a steward who died suddenly at the home of a friend on New Year's Day.

He was replaced in the election of 1923 by two African Americans from Ward 4, Charles Henry Bell and Dorsey Garvey. Bell, who lived at Northwest Street with his family, was listed in the city directory as a cook. Garvey was listed in the 1924-25 city directory as owning a restaurant.

By 1925, the two African Americans elected to serve Ward 4 were Charles A. Oliver and Charles H. Spriggs. They seemed to dominate Ward 4 for quite some time.

Oliver, a graduate of Howard University, became the manager of the Annapolis Housing Authority's College Creek Terrace. Spriggs lived at West Street and was listed in the 1924-25 city directory as a waiter. At the time of his death, he was an employee of the Naval Academy athletic department. Oliver and Spriggs were elected to the council every two years from 1923 to 1937, when four-year terms began.

In 1941, Ward 4 residents re-elected Spriggs and elected a newcomer, Annapolis-born Alphonse G. Addison. Addison was educated at St. Mary's School and Bowie State Normal School. Prior to his election, he had been a teacher before taking a job with the Consolidated Gas and Electric Co. Addison was a Catholic and the grandfather of Greg Conley, the current exalted ruler at the Elks Lodge uptown on Northwest Street.

Spriggs died in 1942. Walter Adams, at that time a steward with the Annapolis Yacht Club, was appointed to serve out his term.

In 1949, Ward 4 dentist Oliver W.H. McNeill campaigned successfully for alderman. He served only one term before being defeated by Roscoe J. Parker. Parker, an Annapolis native and graduate of Virginia Union University, was a self-employed accountant and income tax consultant. He was also in real estate and owned Roscoe's Employment Agency.

During this same period, African-American alderman came on the scene from Ward 7 - Parole. The first was Thomas Norwood Brown, the Camp Parole postmaster, who was elected in 1951. Brown resigned from the City Council to take a position with the city Urban Renewal Authority.

Appointed to fill his seat was John T. Chambers of Chambers Barbershop. In 1973, Chambers ran successfully for a second term. He served as acting mayor in 1981.

In 1981, Samuel Gilmer - former president of the NAACP, former payroll supervisor for the Naval Ship Research and Development Center, and a part-time salesman - was elected.

If you go to the Banneker-Douglass Museum, you'll find a plaque with the names of all of these African-American aldermen. It was prepared through the research of historian Jean Russo, which I've used here.

Their names are also at Freedom Garden at Adams Park. And the names of the aldermen and alderwomen who have served adorn the walls of City Hall, the place where they served. This is all Annapolis - and American - history.

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The author is a member of the board of directors of the Charles Carroll House.