MARYLAND STATE HOUSE HONORS VERDA FREEMAN WELCOME, A CIVIL RIGHTS FIGHTER

Welcome becomes the first black person to have her portrait hung in a State House chamber. Her portrait (above) replaced a 115-year-old canvas of a white former governor born when slavery was legal.

In 1962, Welcome was the first black woman in US elected to a state senate. Representing Baltimore, she fought for making interracial marriage legal, equal pay for woman, outlawing the harassment of welfare recipients, and forbidding racial discrimination in public places.

Before her political service, Welcome had been a teacher in the Baltimore public schools for 11 years. A Democrat, she was elected to the House of Delegates in 1958. She served until she retired in 1982.

Read the January 19, 2020 Washington Post article.

Read the Maryland General Services article.

Read Welcome's April 25, 1990 New York Times obituary.