Baltimore City Bicentennial

Introduction Elizabeth Clovis Lange Violet Hill Whyte Angela Bambace Elizabeth Murphy Moss Comments

Introduction

The purpose of this page is provide historical narratives and materials of general interest in keeping with the bicentennial theme - "Baltimore 200 - America's City of Firsts." You can begin by browsing the History of Early Government Page maintained by the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Elizabeth Clovis Lange (c. 1784-1882) Founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence.

Baltimore City is the home of the first African-American Roman Catholic Religious Order in the United States, The Oblate Sisters of Providence, founded by Elizabeth Clovis Lange (c. 1784-1882). Mother Lange also founded the earliest Catholic school for the education of African -Americans in Baltimore and the first teacher-training for African- American women in the United States. More information on Mother Lange and her role in Baltimore history will be added.

Violet Hill Whyte - Baltimore's First African-American Police Officer

In fact, Miss Violent Hill Whyte , hired in 1937, was the first African-American police officer for the City of Baltimore. Her oral history interview with Christine Hall gives interesting insights to her view of police methods and her relationship with members of the community in which she served over thirty years.

Angela Bambace (1898-1975) - First Woman Vice-President of the ILGWU

Each year the Baltimore City Community College announces the winner of the Angela Bambace Memorial Award given in honor of this former member of the College's Board of Trustees. The award, sponsored by Local #1980 of the AFL-CIO, is granted to the graduating student who best exemplifies the humanitarian ideals represented by the life-work of "Maryland's First Lady of the Labor Movement," Angela Bambace.

Elizabeth Murphy Moss (1917- ) - First African-American Woman War Correspondent

With a ten-year record of service as a member of the College's Board of Trustees, Elizabeth Murphy Moss, in May, 1974 also completed thirteen years of service as the first woman in Baltimore with children in public schools to serve on the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners. Earlier in her trail-blazing career, Mrs. Moss was a war correspondent for the Afro-American in World War II, which made her the first African-American woman war-correspondent in the European Theatre of the war.

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