The Heart of Your Brand
At first, it seemed like another story of "progress meets obstacle." A plan to tear down old buildings to pave the way for a $150 million development project in Baltimore's re-emerging west side hit a roadblock when preservationists came out in force to protect—a former drug store. Really? Then I read further. In 1955, African-American college students staged a sit-in at that Read's Drug Store lunch counter—five years before Greensboro's more famous event at Woolworth's. The sit-in movement began in Baltimore. This is "not an African-American story, it's a Baltimore story," said David Terry, executive director of Maryland's Reginald F. Lewis Museum. That sentence caught my eye. A Baltimore story. A seminal event for a movement that changed millions of lives and an entire country. The massive development project slated for the area is certainly important for the city's continued growth. But Baltimore—like a business—grew upon a foun...