Baltimore’s Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood was one of the centers of the Baltimore Uprising ten years ago this week following the death of Freddie Gray.
Gray was arrested on April 12, 2015. Police said he had an illegal switchblade on him. The young man, originally from Sandtown-Winchester, had his hands and feet shackled before being thrown lying on his stomach into a police van. There was no seatbelt. Gray would die days later from injuries sustained during that ride.
In the weeks that followed, frustrated and hurting residents turned to property destruction and lighting fires. After those events, now called the Baltimore Uprising, politicians and community leaders made dozens of promises and swore millions of dollars to help the community. With vacant buildings and a third of the community still living below the poverty rate, it is not clear what differences those promises have made, if any.
For its residents, it’s also a place of beauty and community too - then and now.
I met Ryeheen Watson at a panel remembering Gray in early April. When I ask the 17 year-old if he can show me the Sandtown of today, through his eyes, he’s eager to give me a tour.
“We at 1706 Laurens Street. I just say we a community center,” he says proudly gesturing behind him where the purple door of the Family Survivor Network building stands open to the street.
It’s a social spot with homework help and a community clothes closet. During “power hour” kids can get homework help and when they’re done, they can do calming activities like build their own aromatherapy kit. Watson has been coming here since his pre-teen days.
“It was initially through bus tokens,” he explains, saying that some friends told him he could go to the building for free bus tokens, something he needed to get around Baltimore.
Inside he found a world of art projects and computer games. It’s a vital space after the Lillian S. Jones Recreation Center closed in 2021. Otherwise, Watson says kids find other entertainment.
“I found myself in that, like, destructiveness is cool. Like, honestly, the only– it's not cool– but that's how, that's how we had and made our little fun, like, just maybe even throwing rocks at stuff,” he begins to laugh. “Boy, like, don't give us a lighter, bro, or don't let it be Fall and give us a lighter! Because I definitely lit all of the leaves on the side of Gilmore Street.”
The recreation center is slated for renovation - but the empty building stands as a reminder for many of the broken or delayed promises made to residents after the Baltimore Uprising.
Picture of closed Rec Center
Only two nearby buildings have been built in the last ten years: a police station and a funeral home. When Freddie Gray died from injuries sustained in police custody, a federal investigation resulted in a consent decree with the police department - and a huge component of that includes building trust with the community.
Watson was just seven when Gray died, and for him, the police have a steep climb to build that trust.
“We never dialed a nine before 11. Like, definitely never did,” he says. “It was, like, we're gonna handle it the way we gotta handle it.”
He walks me to his next favorite place, the pristine Bruce Street Garden. A painted brick pathway snakes through picnic tables, a few grills, even a small stage. Aside from one or two empty Taki bags, it’s pristinely clean.
The community works together to make sure the park stays beautiful and safe.
“And nobody is doing nothing illegal or anything like that, we're not allowing that,” says one neighbor who identifies himself as Mr. Green.
We walk past several murals, including a mosaic dedicated to neighbors killed by gun violence before we end at our tour’s final destination: Gilmor Homes, the housing project where both Watson and Freddie Gray grew up.
William “Uncle Willie” Tyler, who joins us in the courtyard and remembers the Uprising that followed Gray’s death.
“My nephews and them, they’re the ones that started the CVS riots and the burning and stuff because they felt disrespected,” Tyler recalls, noting the CVS at the intersection of North and Pennsylvania Avenue that burned during the Uprising. “I told this to CNN– you can only shake a Pepsi bottle so much before it bursts, right?”
The cops who arrested Freddie Gray were charged but acquitted. Meanwhile, over a hundred protesters involved in the Uprising were arrested and some were sent to prison.
Tyler doesn’t condone the violence but he says he’s also proud of what he saw young people doing.
“They got something on them that we didn't have back in the day. They had the grit saying, like, we not gonna take this no more. So they did what they did.”
While we talk, a teenage boy, donned in his ski mask comes over with a giant plastic bag. Inside are free hot meals from the school food pantry that he offers to anyone in the courtyard. Watson goes for the meatball option.
“Most people see the ski mask and get scared. He came over there to get n***** some food,” says Watson. “Most people would have run from that – you just gotta lighten up sometimes.”
“Yeah,” Tyler says, joining in. “Everything ain't bad. Everybody ain't bad in what you call, what you might call ‘the Hood.’ We don't call it the Hood. We call it Hollywood.”
And with that, it’s time for dinner.
