Thanks to a grant from the 32nd Street Farmers Market to Waverly Main
Street, School 115 and Roberta B. Sheridan will be recognized on
historic Merryman Lane. Save the date! Saturday March 17, 2012.
A new historic marker will be unveiled along Merryman Lane at a brief
ceremony on Merryman Lane Green Space at a time to be announced that is
during market hours on that very green St. Patrick's Day!
> From Maryland State Archives:
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/6050/html/1238500.html
Roberta Sheridan
Roberta Sheridan was the first African American teacher in Baltimore
City, and indeed in the State of Maryland. In a time when most women
were expected to stay meekly at home and keep house, Sheridan was an
independent career woman. She was not afraid to challenge the status
quo. She took risks and made her own decisions, sometimes suffering
because of them.
White teachers completely dominated black education after the Civil
War. When African Americans applied for positions as teachers, they were
told that they were not qualified. Leaders in the African American
community were outraged, and waged an ultimately successful campaign to
install African American teachers in the black public schools. The fight
was led by prominent community leaders, including Frederick Douglass,
John Locks, and Reverend J. W. Beckett, pastor of the Bethel African
Methodist Episcopal Church. They achieved success in 1888, with the
appointment of Roberta B. Sheridan.
Sheridan began her public teaching career at the Waverly School on
Merryman's Lane, near York Road. She was instrumental in bridging the
color gap in public education and ending the domination of black
education by white teachers. Her appointment was the culmination of a
long and arduous struggle to gain admittance for African Americans as
public school teachers.
Roberta Sheridan was a professional woman; she worked as a teacher most
of her life and was dedicated to public education. Although she was a
working woman, ties to her family remained very strong. She lived with
her parents throughout her life, even when she was married. After her
marriage ended, Roberta, her parents, and her daughter continued to live
in one household until Roberta's death in 1918, bringing three
generations together under one roof.
Few permanent records document Sheridan's life. The available
information is often incomplete and contradictory. She was part of the
African American community, an understudied population for which few
records exist. For the most part, this community did not have money or
influence, the two factors which guarantee that records will be
maintained about a group. Secondarily, Sheridan was female. Information
was almost always recorded under men's names, so any documentation of a
marriage, a divorce, or a child's birth was registered by the husband's
name. This can cause difficulty if a woman's married name is not known.
An example of the scarcity of information available is illustrated by
Sheridan's birth date. There is no definitive information concerning her
date of birth. She was probably born between the years of 1864 and 1872,
but various original sources suggest different dates. Her marriage
license in 1892 lists her age as 28, which would place her date of birth
in 1864. In the 1910 Census, however, Sheridan gives her age as 38,
which would put her birth date in 1872. Perhaps the most accurate, but
still unconfirmed, birth date is the one recorded on her death
certificate: 20 March 1873. Unfortunately, Baltimore City did not keep
birth records until 1875, so there is no way to determine her exact date
of birth because the necessary records do not exist.
Roberta Sheridan was the only surviving child of Daniel and Arietta
Sheridan. Daniel was a laborer for much of his life, and Arietta kept
house. Her parents were lifelong residents of Baltimore City, and
Roberta grew up on Chestnut Street, which is now known as Colvin Street.
In 1890, her family moved to Pine Street, where they lived for over
twenty years.
Sheridan was able to attend school as a child and was "a graduate of
the colored high and grammar school, and colored normal school." Her
education served her well. In 1888, she became the first African
American to become a teacher in Baltimore City.
Many aspects of Sheridan's personal life revolved around her
involvement in education. For example, her husband, George W. Biddle,
was the principal of No. 9 Primary School (colored) on Carrolton and
Riggs Avenues. Sheridan was a teacher at this school when it was built
in 1889. They married on 26 July 1892 and lived with Daniel and Arietta
Sheridan after their marriage. They had one daughter, Hester Maud, born
24 June 1893. Roberta and George's marriage was very short-lived. They
separated almost exactly two years after they met; Roberta asked George
to leave in June of 1894. She claimed he abused her, and sued for
divorce twice. She was denied both times. Finally, George sued, claiming
she deserted him, and was granted the divorce in 1903.
Daniel Sheridan did not live to see the finalization of George and
Roberta's divorce. He died of heart disease in 1899, and was buried in
Laurel Cemetary on Christmas Day, 1899.
Religion played a large role in Roberta Sheridan's life. She was
married in the Sharpe Street African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church by
the Reverend E. W. S. Peck. She and her parents were members of the
Bethel AME Church, where Roberta taught Sunday School. After a
falling-out with the leaders at the Bethel Church in the late 1890s, she
left and began teaching Sunday School at St. John's, another AME church.
She became very active in Sunday School at St. John's, and was elected
Superintendent of the Juvenile Department in 1902.
Sheridan was offered the position of assistant superintendent of Sunday
School at the Bethel Church in the late 1890s. She declined immediately
because her immediate supervisor fought with a former pastor, who was a
very good friend of hers. Consequently, she was not reappointed as a
Sunday School teacher "on the grounds that if her affections for the
former pastor were so deep . . . she could not serve under a brother who
had fought him in one capacity, she could not consistently be expected
to serve under the same brother even though in a different capacity."
Soon thereafter, she began teaching at St. John's. This was one of her
many decisions in which she asserted her independence. The Bethel Church
leaders were offended by her choice, and charged her with violating the
Discipline, or the rules of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She appeared
before a committee of church leaders, but "walked away without further
ceremony" after a heated disagreement with the chairman of the
committee.
Roberta Sheridan continued to live with her mother after the death of
her father and divorce from her husband. In 1914, Roberta, her mother
Arietta, and her daughter Hester moved into a house at 1441 North Carey
Street.
Sheridan was living at this address when she died on 24 June 1918. She
died of "Natural Insufficiency" and "Shock" and was only forty-five
years old. She was buried in Laurel Cemetary, the same place her father
was buried almost twenty years earlier. Her obituary ran in the
Afro-American and described her as "one of the first colored teachers in
the local public schools."
Roberta Sheridan played an incredibly pivotal role in Maryland
education. In 1888, she became the first African American to teach in
the Baltimore City School System; she taught at the Waverly School on
Merryman's Lane. Despite this monumental achievement, little is known
about her career. According to her obituary, she taught at Public School
No. 9 on Carrolton and Riggs Avenues and at School No. 108 on South
Caroline St. There is no evidence that suggests what grade she taught,
how long she taught at each school, or what subjects she taught.
The information that does exist about her professional career is not
very detailed. She is listed as "teacher" in the 1890 Baltimore City
Directory. In her 1903 divorce case, she gave her occupation as a
teacher in the county. The 1910 Census cites her occupation as a teacher
in a public school. Finally, she is recorded as a public school teacher
on her death certificate in 1918.
Many influential black citizens, including Frederick Douglass,
campaigned for African American teachers in public schools. In the early
1880s, a committee formed to present the school board with a petition
demanding that African Americans be allowed to teach in black schools.
This committee had many distinguished members, including Reverend J. W.
Beckett, the pastor of the Bethel AME Church, where Sheridan and her
family were members. Indeed, Beckett may have known Sheridan through her
capacities as a Sunday School teacher and eventually recommended her to
the city's public school system. Finally, the years of petitioning ended
in 1888, when the City made the historic decision to let African
Americans teach in black public schools. Roberta Sheridan was selected
to be the first African American to teach in a city public school.
Sheridan was already an experienced teacher. She taught Sunday School
at the Bethel AME Church. Well after she established her career as a
public school teacher, she left the Bethel AME Sunday School and taught
at the Saint John's AME Sunday School.
The Waverly School (School 115)
The Waverly School, or Annex School No. 1, was located on Merryman's
Lane, near York Road. This location was not yet in Baltimore City when
the school was prepared in 1888. The school was, however, in the
Baltimore City School System because the city annexed the schools before
the annexing the land surrounding them. Baltimore City expanded its
borders in 1918, encompassing the land on which the Waverly School
stood. The land between the old and new borders of the city was known as
the Belt.
The Sanborn map (1945) shows a school occupying the block formed by
Merryman's Lane, Greenmount Avenue (York Road), 32nd Street, and
Brentwood Avenue. Unfortunately, this block is now a parking lot.
Baltimore City has lost forever a landmark that once stood as a reminder
of the struggle for education by African Americans.
Merryman Lane
Merryman Lane gets its name from a 1688 land grant by Lord Baltimore to
Charles Merryman, whose son John built a house and started a farm on an
estate called Clover Hill, near today's Episcopal Cathedral.
According to a Baltimore Sun account by William Stump dated October 23,
1949:
Merryman's lane, running past the house (Clover Hill), came into being
in 1801 or 1802 when Joseph Merryman sold part of his land to Charles
Carroll of Carrollton, who built Homewood as a wedding present for his
son. The lane was cut through, another family letter explains, in order
to give the Carrolls access to their new property.
Today a single block remains as Merryman Lane while the rest of that
old road is now called University Parkway.
