By Megan Sayles,
AFRO Business Writer,
msayles@afro.com
Nonprofit East Baltimore Development Initiative (EBDI), in partnership with BmoreNews.com, recently awarded 18 East Baltimore leaders with the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Award for Community Impact. AFRO publisher, Frances “Toni” Draper, was one of the honorees and was recognized for her service to the faith community in the Eager Park neighborhood, where she previously pastored a church.
The celebration took place during one of EBDI’s Stay and Play events at the Residence Inn by Marriott at the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, which donated the space for the gathering.
“I was really surprised. I do work in community to do work in community not– for recognition, ” said Draper.
Doni Glover, award-winning journalist at BmoreNews.com, is the creator of the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Award. He established them to uplift Black-owned businesses and organizations who sparked positive change around the country.
For this particular event, EBDI put their own spin on the award to highlight East Baltimore community and business leaders, like Draper. This was the first time EBDI held this ceremony, and it plans to continue it annually.
The awardees comprised small business owners, community advocates and long-time residents in the Eager Park neighborhood.
Local contractor Mark Hunter, affectionately known as “Mr. Hood Clean-up,” won for organizing community clean-up days across the city and his efforts to empty illegal dumping sites.
East Baltimorean Todd Scott won for his work with We Rise, a nonprofit organization that he founded to rehabilitate dilapidated and vacant homes and to provide wealth-building education.
Cynthia Brooks, executive director of Bea Gaddy’s Women and Children Center, was honored for carrying on the legacy of her mother, Bea Gaddy, in providing job training, tutoring programs and shelter to unhoused women and children.
Benjamin Baylor, co-owner of East End Garage, also received an award. His family-owned auto repair shop has been in business for more than 70 years and was started by his father.
“Anything connected with Black Wall Street, I’m interested in—from what was going on back then and still to this day. I accepted that award on behalf of my father and my brother, and my father passed away about three years ago,” said Baylor. “Just to give him some acknowledgment of the fact that he got this thing going in 1945, and we’re still here standing—that’s a tribute to him.”
The event also included a holiday toy and clothing drive, in which local nonprofit Sisters Together and Reaching, Inc. (STAR) donated nearly 40 bags of toys and gifts.
EBDI was created by the City of Baltimore, State of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University and Health System, as well as several other Baltimore organizations, in 2002. Its mission is to revitalize the Eager Park neighborhood, which suffered from significant disinvestment.
Once EBDI’s project is complete, the neighborhood will include nearly 1,600 units of mixed-income housing, 1.7 million square feet of life sciences research and office space, a 7-acre community learning campus, a child care center, green spaces and a grocery store.
EBDI has already helped to construct and open Henderson-Hopkins in Eager Park. It’s the first new public elementary and middle school in East Baltimore in 20 years.
The organization began its Stay and Play events in 2019 as part of its ongoing efforts to support minority- and women-owned businesses, which have the opportunity to work on EBDI’s real estate projects, and to introduce prospective residents to the ever-transforming neighborhood.
EBDI CEO and president Cheryl Washington said she was honored to recognize Draper with the award, adding that it was paramount to celebrate Draper’s legacy as publisher of one of the longest-operated, Black-owned newspapers in the country.
“I just respect Pastor Draper so much. She is one of our legacy residents, if you will, because her church was located in our project area when we started, and the amount of positive impact that she had on our community when she was there needed to be honored,” said Cheryl Washington, president and CEO of EBDI. “The fact that she is also my sorority sister, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., it just was a privilege and an honor for me to be able to recognize her.”
Megan Sayles is a Report for America corps member.
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