Pennsylvania Avenue: Where Black art and entertainment was celebrated in Baltimore

BALTIMORE — In the early-to-mid 20th century, Pennsylvania Avenue was the Broadway of old West Baltimore. 

People came from around the country to celebrate Black art and entertainment.

“Whether it was Louis Armstrong, whether it was the Temptations, the Miracles, whether it was Patti LaBelle, all of those folks played the Royal Theatre,” Baltimore resident James Hamlin said.

Hamlin grew up in Baltimore and owns the Avenue Bakery on Pennsylvania Avenue. 

He said if you wanted to make it in showbiz back then, the Royal Theatre was the place you had to be at your best.

“If you did not do well at the Royal Theatre in Baltimore, you were not going to make it in the entertainment business,” Hamlin said.

The Chitlin’ Circuit was a Black theatre circuit.

It was a group of venues throughout the United States that allowed Black artists to perform during the era of racial segregation. 

“In New York, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Chicago, even some parts of Boston, African-American entertainers would find places owned by and operated by African-Americans where they could actually express their art form without the Jim Crow glare,” said Dr. Ida Jones, a Baltimore historian.

Back in the day, Pennsylvania Avenue was the center of the Black entertainment world.

That all changed in 1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.

“Riots took place in cities across the country, and it happened right here on Pennsylvania Avenue as well,” Hamlin said. “The problem is that someone made the decision that Pennsylvania was not worth revitalization. It has been abandoned, really neglected, for over 50-some years.”

Pennsylvania Avenue hasn’t looked the same since.

“When you talk about the crime and what’s going on, you talk about the culture,” Hamlin said. “We’ve got to change the culture. In order to change the culture, we have to educate our folks on our history and our legacy. We have to change this environment that our young people are living in. They have no sense of how they are living in the most historic African-American community in the country. They have no sense of the history and therefore they don’t have that sense of pride and dignity that we have growing up here.”