Allegany County Maryland--African Americans

William Peck, one of the first black students to graduate from Fort Hill High School, Cumberland, in 1956, was honored by the Allegany County Board of Education, in February 2023.

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William Peck honored by ACPS
Fort Hill graduate was part of county’s 1st integrated class
Teresa McMinn

Tekesha Martinez, Hagerstown’s First Black Mayor

During a special session and by a unanimous vote of the City Council on February 7, 2023, Tekesha Martinez was appointed the first African-American mayor of the City of Hagerstown (Washington County), Maryland. She succeeds Emily Keller who resigned the office to serve as Maryland Special Secretary of Opioid Response for newly elected Governor Wes Moore. Keller had also become the first woman to serve as Mayor in the city’s history.

On Tuesday evening, February 14, 2023 a ceremony was held at the Allegany County Board of Education noting the history of African American education within the county as well as commemorating the first African American students to graduate from an integrated Allegany County high school, this being Fort Hill in May 1956 with the students being Harold Hilton, William Peck and Judy Leath. This was following the 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

The following is excerpted from a newspaper article entitled, “The Railroad Lost Money” appearing in the August 6, 1904 edition of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper. It describes a picnic and reunion traveled to and attended by numerous “colored people” that was held in Frostburg, Maryland on July 26, 1904 by the Knights of Pythias of Cumberland and Frostburg There were also a large number of Afro-Americans” from Keyser, West Virginia and Meyersdale, Pennsylvania. The newspaper reports:

Sarah W. Bromery, 1880 - 1980

The Metropolitan A.M.E. Church was first organized and a board of trustees elected in 1837. Sarah W. Bromery, a prominent leader in the African-American community, served in 1937 as Chairwoman of the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Cumberland.