Highland Beach Resort is one of the most prominent resort towns in Highland Beach in Maryland. Charles and Laura Douglass established the town in 1893, originally naming it Arundel-on-the-Bay.
Charles was a son of Frederick Douglass and a Civil War veteran who had bought the Highland land after another Maryland resort denied him entry. In 1922, Highland became the first Black town incorporated in the state. It became the first African American municipality in Maryland.
References:
- Little, B. (November 16, 2018). Before the Green Book, These Resorts Offered Hidden Safe Havens for Black Americans. History.
- Kahrl, W. Andrew. 2012. The Land Was Ours: African American Beaches from Jim Crow to the Sunbelt South. Harvard University Press. April 16, 2012. ISBN 978-0674050471.
Photo:
- Sketch of Charles Remond Douglass via The Colored American (Washington, D.C.). 25 November 1899. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.