Medicine as Resistance: The First Black-Owned Pharmacy in Maryland and Its Fight for Racial Justice in Segregated Baltimore

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Existing accounts of Baltimore City, particularly Old West Baltimore during Jim Crow, tend to emphasize the effects of urban blight, systemic segregation, and urban renewal, often portraying Black-owned businesses as passive victims. In contrast, Dr. Howard E. Young’s Pharmacy at 1140 Druid Hill Avenue—Maryland’s first Black-owned pharmacy—demonstrates how such institutions actively resisted injustice. More than a healthcare provider, the pharmacy functioned as a hub of resilience, economic empowerment, and grassroots advocacy, forging a localized economy alongside other Black-owned enterprises in a context where white-owned healthcare facilities excluded Black residents. By examining the intertwined histories of the Young family’s home and pharmacy, this study critiques reductive urban renewal narratives that cast such businesses as under-resourced, revealing their critical role in challenging inequality, nurturing community solidarity, and preserving spaces integral to the fight for racial justice.

KEYWORDS: History of Baltimore, medical humanities, Jim Crow era, urban renewal, public health, community resilience, civil rights, racial justice