Eugene Stanford, 49, originally of Trappe, Maryland, was killed while serving time at the facility around 3:30 p.m. on Friday, police said in a news release. The Eastern Correctional Institution is a medium-security facility in Westover on the lower Eastern Shore.

Stanford’s autopsy showed there was foul play, so his death was ruled a homicide by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, according to the release.

An inmate has been identified as a suspect but has not been charged. The suspect will not be identified until charged.

It was a customer who typically booked striped bass fishing trips on her boat, the Kent Island-based Chasin’ Tail, once or twice per year. But when she told the angler about this year’s regulations, which limit customers to one fish per person, he said he’d have to get back to her.

“That’s what everyone says: ‘We’ll get back to you,’” Shields said. “And then you don’t hear back.”

This year in Maryland, the rules around catching the state fish, known by the nickname rockfish, are among the tightest in recent memory, not counting a moratorium in the late 1980s that spurred a resurgence of the depleted species.

Maryland charter boat crews, who make their living guiding anglers to the prized sportfish, say the catch restrictions have dampened enthusiasm and diminished bookings.

But they come amid troubling population data for the species, including five straight years of below-average tallies of baby rockfish in Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay, the birthplace of the majority of the species’ Atlantic stock. The population is considered overfished.

This year, the one-fish limit applies to all recreational anglers in the bay, whether they fish aboard private boats or on charters, which can cost upward of $125 per person. And every keeper must fit within a narrow size limit from 19 to 24 inches long. Maryland officials also canceled the trophy season, a two-week period that previously opened the spring season, during which anglers targeted the largest striped bass after their arrival in the bay to spawn.

Limits for commercial watermen were slashed 7% in the Chesapeake and the Atlantic Ocean this year. But in Maryland, that quota reduction won’t be enforced until 2025.

In March, two organizations representing charter boat companies and other watermen filed a lawsuit against the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the multistate compact that determines fishing regulations for rockfish and a host of other nearshore species. A federal judge in Baltimore rejected their request for an injunction against the rules; they’ve appealed to a higher court.

Charter captains argue the regulations’ impact on charters is excessive.

“Some people straight up say, ‘Man, I’m not coming for one fish,’” Shields said.

Some captains said they anticipate the season’s bookings could be cut in half, dealing a blow not only to their businesses, but also to the hotels, tackle shops, and bars and restaurants frequented by their customers.

“There was no consideration of the economic impact,” said retired Capt. Robert Newberry, chair of the Delmarva Fisheries Association, which represents local watermen.

Delmarva Fisheries is part of the lawsuit against the Atlantic States commission, alongside the Maryland Charter Boat Association.

“We haven’t lost,” Newberry said. “We haven’t lost until we’re out of gas, and we’ve still got three-quarters of a tank.”

Maryland officials actually fought against the one-fish limit at the Atlantic States commission, said Mike Luisi, associate director of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Fishing and Boating Services. Luisi proposed that charter boats, unlike regular recreational anglers, be eligible to keep two fish per person. But other states nixed the proposal, and Maryland did not appeal.

“We had an objective and it was challenging, to say the least, when we got back, to explain to people that this is what the rules are going to be,” Luisi said.

For some customers, the pull of a day on the bay is still enough. Marc Combs, a resident of Taylorsville in Carroll County, traveled across the Bay Bridge to Kent Island for his charter trip on the second day of the season, with three friends.

“Right now, you’re just doing it for fun — to get away from work — versus coming down here to try and get fish to put in the refrigerator,” he said, pulling four Ziploc bags of pink, freshly fileted stripers from a cooler in the bed of his truck.

“One 19-inch fish isn’t going to do a lot of feeding too many people,” he said.

The story of this year’s limits goes back to a 2019 stock assessment, which found the rockfish in the Atlantic and the Chesapeake to be overfished, said Emilie Franke, fishery management plan coordinator at the Atlantic States commission. That triggered a target: recovering the species by 2029.

A few years in, rockfish seemed on pace for a 10-year recovery. But in 2022, the commission noticed a worrisome jump in recreational harvest, Franke said: an 88% increase relative to 2021’s data. The high mortality slashed the likelihood of a resurgence by 2029.

The likely cause? The coming-of-age of the rockfish born in 2015 — the last time there was a truly robust birth year for stripers in the Chesapeake.

“When more fish become available to the fishery, oftentimes that can lead to increased effort,” Franke said. “However, the unexpected part here is the magnitude of that increase.”

The number of spawning-age females has been mostly declining since about 2010, when it was 230 million pounds, she said. In 2021, the most recent year with data, it was 143 million pounds, compared with a target of 235 million pounds.

Still, “we’re not in the dark days of striped bass depletion that we were in the 1980s,” said Dave Secor, a professor and fisheries scientist at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons Island.

But new hazards have entered the fray against stripers.

Invasive blue catfish could be “a big smoking gun,” Secor said. The ever-hungry predators have taken hold in Maryland’s bay tributaries, arriving from Virginia, where they were introduced, and they have been known to gobble up large quantities of young striped bass.

“I hope I’m wrong. I hope that we get a strong year class. It’s still very feasible to get a strong year class,” Secor said. “It’s just this constant, serial, year-after-year low recruitment is suggestive of the actions of a dominant predator — blue catfish.”

Warming waters in the Chesapeake also could be playing a role. The spring migration of rockfish is driven by water temperature, and with recent warm winters and less snowmelt, adult stripers are arriving earlier for spawning, when juvenile’s food sources such as zooplankton are less abundant.

The availability of prey for older striped bass, such as Atlantic menhaden, a small baitfish that is harvested for fishmeal and oil production, is another critical factor in the species’ survival. And the pollution of the bay, which creates low-oxygen “dead zones” can threaten the beloved fish.

Meanwhile, some watermen and charter captains are skeptical about the data behind the limits. Maryland’s annual “young-of-the-year” survey, which estimates the amount of recently hatched rockfish in the bay, has happened mostly in the same locations since the survey began in 1954.

With fish behaviors potentially changing, some watermen want the survey to expand to new places, where rockfish may be more plentiful than they once were.

“It’s tough, because we know where the fish are and we’re seeing them there,” said Capt. Brandon Moore of Chasin’ Tail charters.

But maintaining the survey’s locations is key to making sound comparisons from year to year, Luisi said. The state could keep the original list intact and survey extra sites, but doing so would come at a cost of time and resources for the department, he said.

Still, aboard the charters, some things haven’t changed. For customers who catch a silvery striped bass within the limits, the thrill remains.

“I cast the rod and then within two minutes I had the first bite,” said Rodolfo “Rudy” Burgos Salazar, who caught three rockfish during a recent trip, though he was new to fishing.

Kneeling down, Burgos Salazar pulled folded dollar bills from his sock.

“I wanted three fish, so I put three dollars in,” he said with a laugh.

Striped bass

But the narrow size window causes plenty of disappointment, particularly for young children or first-time anglers, said Capt. Tilghman Hemsley. It’s a dramatic decline from last year’s, when anglers could keep fish up to 31 inches.

“You’re throwing the big fish,” Hemsley said. “People have never caught a big fish like that before.”

Not all of the released fish survive. As waters warm, the catch-and-release process becomes even more arduous for the rockfish. Maryland has instituted a two-week summer closure this year, as in past years, opting not to extend it further.

When his charter boat reaches its limit, the crew turns its attention to other species, including baitfish such as spot, Hemsley said. When waters warm, crabbing could fill the time, or fishing for Spanish mackerel and bluefish.

Aboard the Breezin’ Thru, a 75-year-old charter, customers are served a menu of fresh Chesapeake fare to pass the time, including crabcakes, steamed crabs and fried fish.

“The real value is, we’re going to take you away from what you do for a whole day,” Hemsley said. “And you don’t have to travel to Mexico to do it. You can do it right here in Maryland.”

Many leaders of the Underground Railroad, the secret network of those escaping slavery and those who assisted them, remained anonymous. But the figures being honored on the stamp include Catharine Coffin, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Garrett, Laura Haviland, Lewis Hayden, Harriet Jacobs, William Lambert, the Rev. Jermain Loguen, William Still and Harriet Tubman.

“The ingenuity and resilience of the freedom seekers and those who bravely assisted them in the face of adversity are truly inspiring and deserve to be commemorated,” the U.S. Postal Service said in an emailed statement to The Baltimore Sun. “Our stamps are miniature works of art that highlight the American experience, an experience the 10 men and women featured on these stamps worked ceaselessly to improve for many throughout their lives.”

Here are the contributions to the Underground Railroad of some of the people honored:

•  Coffin was a white woman who provided food, clothing and shelter to thousands of slaves who came to her home in Indiana.
• Douglass was born into slavery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, escaped north in 1838 and helped hundreds of slaves by hiding them in his home in New York.
• Garrett was a white man dedicated to freeing slaves after rescuing a free African American servant of the Garrett family who was kidnapped by slave traders. He would become a stationmaster, hiding fugitive slaves in his home for more than four decades.
• Tubman was born into slavery in early 1822 near Cambridge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. She repeatedly returned to Maryland to liberate family, friends and neighbors, using the Underground Railroad.

The stamps will feature the faces of the people honored as well as words that embody the essence of the secret network, such as cooperation, trust, danger, faith and courage.

“The Underground Railroad was a collaborative effort involving diverse individuals and communities throughout the country,” the postal service told The Sun in an email. “It demonstrated the power of collective action and solidarity in achieving social change, even when the odds seemed insurmountable.”

Customers may purchase the stamps at usps.com/shopstamps, by calling 844-737-7826, by mail through USA Philatelic or at post offices nationwide.

Each Forever stamp will cost 68 cents, and the multistamp design will be $13.60. Forever stamps, created in 2007, can be used to mail first-class letters no matter the postal rate.

part of the annual commemorative stamp program, meaning”] The postal service will produce one print run of commemorative issuances of the Underground Railroad stamp with the goal of keeping a sales window open for one to two years.

The ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Church Creek. Attendees are asked to register at usps.com/undergroundrailroad.

Ongoing: Maryland Irish Festival

Party like a leprechaun at the 49th annual Maryland Irish Festival at the Maryland State Fairgrounds’ Cow Palace Building, 2200 York Road, Timonium. Enjoy traditional food, drink, dancing and music. Admission is $18 for adults 18 to 64 and $10 for seniors 65 and over on Friday and Sunday. Saturday admission costs $25 for adults and $20 for seniors. Children 17 and under get in free. Date and times are Friday 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday noon to 11 p.m. and Sunday noon to 6 p.m. There will be a Catholic Mass on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. irishfestival.com

Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Ongoing: Peabody Heights Bash

Celebrate 11 years of craft brewing at the Peabody Heights Brewery’s 11 Year Anniversary Bash at 401 E. 30th St. Sample variants of the Astrodon, named for the Maryland state dinosaur. Live music and food trucks will be there. Ticket prices range from $6 to $8. Dates and times are: Friday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday noon to 10 p.m. and Sunday noon to 8 p.m. eventbrite.com

Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Friday: Baltimore City Veterans Day Parade

Honor those who served in this nation’s military at the Baltimore City Veterans Day Parade. The parade marches from the Washington Monument to the War Memorial Plaza. There will be a wreath laying at the Black Soldiers Memorial. The grand marshal this year is Major Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead, the adjutant general of the Maryland National Guard. The event is free. mayor.baltimorecity.gov

Friday noon to 1:30 p.m.

Saturday: Winter on the Waterfront

Celebrate Winter on the Waterfront, a showcase of activities from the Waterfront Partnership, which aims to “transform Baltimore’s promenade into a winter wonderland” from November to January. The transformation begins this weekend with the opening of the Inner Harbor Ice Rink. The first 50 children who attend the ice rink will receive free skating and skate rental along with hot cocoa and treats. Tickets to the ice rink are $12-$15. Also opening is the waterfront Made in Baltimore Holiday Pop-Up, featuring makers from Baltimore offering their wares and products at 301 Light St. waterfrontpartnership.org

Saturday 11 a.m.

Friday 7:30 p.m.

Saturday: Cocktail and Mezcal Popup

Clavel, the Baltimore-based taqueria and mezcaleria, will host a cocktail takeover at Ruse restaurant, 209 N. Talbot St. in St. Michaels. Chef Michael Correll will create a special menu with sea urchin and hamachi tostada, blue crab and scallop tostada, raw Kumiai oysters and more. The event is free. ruserestaurant.com

Saturday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

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After 40 years of effort, the bay and its rivers and streams are improving in many places. The resurgence of underwater grass beds at the mouth of the Susquehanna River and oyster reefs in Harris Creek on the Eastern Shore are sparkling examples of success. Long-term, the bay’s annual dead zone is shrinking. Yet these bright spots are complicated by setbacks elsewhere — losses of heat-sensitive eel grass in the southern bay, struggling striped bass populations, the fact that less than a third of the bay’s waters meet water quality standards while the bay partnership misses another deadline to reduce pollution.

As we reckon with these realities, the movement is also facing enormous challenges. Climate change is making restoration harder through rising water temperatures, extreme storms and sea level rise. With nearly 6 million more people living in the watershed today than in 1980, polluted runoff from urban and suburban areas is growing. Agriculture — the largest remaining source of pollution in the watershed — is intensifying in places like the Delmarva Peninsula.

Even so, I am more energized than ever that this is our chance for a modern environmental awakening. My optimism is rooted in recent studies showing the dead zone would be larger and striped bass habitat smaller without the work we’ve done so far. But moving beyond holding the line demands new approaches.

To succeed in the next chapter of bay-saving, we’re going to have to widen conservation’s historically narrow lens. We can’t focus so pointedly on trying to recreate the past that we neglect to build for the future — a future that recognizes that nature and human communities are intertwined.

We can create a watershed that is resilient and full of life. We can create food systems that pollute less while producing nutritious foods and supporting local economies. We can create cities and homes that have green spaces, use energy efficiently and produce as little waste as possible. We can have air that is safe to breathe and water that is safe to drink. We can do this not only in the face of a changing climate, but in ways that reduce climate change and its impacts. We can do this while honoring the heritage of our past. And we can do it for everyone.

But it is a future we have to actively choose when we design our communities and our infrastructure, manage our farms, run our businesses, educate the next generation and shape policy.

This is the task, and the opportunity, facing Gov. Moore, the executive council, the Bay Program partnership, and all of us who care about the bay.

Thankfully, we also have new science to guide us. In May, dozens of scientists who advise the Chesapeake Bay Program released a landmark report — known by its acronym CESR — that is the most comprehensive evaluation to date of what is working and what needs improvement.

The report underscores an urgent need to reinvent and reinvigorate restoration programs, especially the programs addressing pollution washing off agricultural and urban landscapes. Almost all progress to date has come from reducing pollution at wastewater treatment plants. Nearly all future progress must come from tackling complex, landscape-scale pollution.

The report also highlights opportunities to accelerate benefits for human and wildlife communities by focusing on shallow waters and local streams in addition to the bay’s deepest channel — the primary focus of restoration to date. We must also explicitly address climate change while ensuring efforts are inclusive and equitable. And it is critical that these changes strengthen, not undermine, accountability measures.

Standing on the shoulders of the environmental giants who got us here, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a healthy, resilient watershed in the face of a changing climate for everyone. But only if we act now, and only if we act together. As Gov. Moore said, this isn’t just about one state, one agency, or one organization; this is an “all of the above” situation. We need to use the science and the data. But we also need to use our heart — our passion, our energy, our compassion and our courage.

Hilary Harp Falk (Chesapeake@cbf.org) is president and CEO of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

There was more exciting sports news in the air. On Tuesday, the War Admiral-Seabiscuit match race would open a “Brilliant Meeting,” reported The Sun at Pimlico Race Course, while the glamorous New York debutante Brenda Frazier had attended the Velvet Ball that weekend.

All this was set against troublesome news from abroad as England Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain attempted to “satisfy Germany’s renewed colonial demands,” The Sun reported.

After dinner, settling into comfortable chairs and sofas, Baltimoreans switched on their Atwater Kent, Zenith or RCA radios for an evening’s entertainment and an experience they would remember for the rest of their lives.

At 8 p.m., WFBR broadcast “Edgar Bergen: ventriloquist; Charlie McCarthy; Don Ameche, director,” while a turn of the dial offered “Out West” on WBAL, and “Westminster Presbyterian Church” that aired over WCBM.

At the same hour on WCAO, Orson Welles’ “The Mercury Theatre on the Air” was presenting an hourlong adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel “The War of the Worlds.”

By the time it ended, it would prove to have been a historic hour of radio that delivered a colossal Halloween joke on terrified listeners from coast to coast.

Following a routine weather forecast, the announcer said, “We take you now to the Meridian Room in the Park Plaza in downtown New York for the music of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra.”

As the music began, the announcer broke in with a bulletin.

“We interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News. Twenty minutes before 8, Professor Farrell, of the Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars.”

The announcer continued. An unidentified object was reported “moving toward Earth with enormous velocity, like a jet of blue gas shot from a gun. We return you now to our New York studio.”

Though there was an announcement at the beginning of the broadcast — and repeated four times — during the program that it was an adaptation of Wells’ novel, the panic was on from Manhattan to Los Angeles, from Detroit to Key West.

Dance music was interrupted by more frequent bulletins until an announcer on the scene intoned that a “giant tube of metal” had landed in Grovers Mills, New Jersey, his voice rising in panic, “Look! The damn thing’s unscrewing. Keep back I tell you. Maybe there’s men in it. It’s red-hot. Keep those idiots back.”

Out came Martians toting death-ray guns who killed 200 as “a heavy black fog — of extreme density, nature unknown,” headed toward Manhattan.

“The governor of New Jersey has declared martial law,” and a reporter in New York chimed in, “All communications with New Jersey are closed. Our Army wiped out. Cylinders from Mars falling all over the country. One outside Buffalo, another Chicago — St. Louis. The bells you hear ringing are to warn the people to evacuate the city as Martians approach.”

“Just as the continent was ‘toppling’ onto oblivion, the program’s real CBS announcer cut in to explain they had been listening to the dramatization of Wells’ book.

In a 1957 article in The Sun recalling that night, the Sunpapers’ drama critic, Donald Kirkley, recalled the persistent ringing of his apartment doorbell.

“I was confronted by a white-faced, shaking lady who occupied the next apartment. ‘New Jersey is being attacked by Martians,’ she assured me. “Everybody is being killed. I heard it on the radio — on a newscast. You work for the Sunpapers — please do tell me what to do.'”

“I started shaking, too, and made a beeline for the telephone,” Kirkley wrote.

“A long minute went by before I was connected with The Sun’s operator. She was tired already repeating what was to be repeated for another two hours: ‘It was only a radio play. There’s been no invasion. It was only make-believe,'” he wrote.

Before they stopped counting, the newspaper had received nearly 600 hysterical and panicky calls. Operators abandoned saying “Hello” and simply answered, “It’s a radio show.”

But the hysteria was on. A Mount Pleasant Avenue resident raced into the street screaming the words that ricocheted across the country: “The world is coming to an end! I just heard it on the radio!”

Reports reached The Sun that Preston, on the Eastern Shore, was “gripped by mass hysteria,” while the headline in the next day’s Sun summed up the nation’s jitters: “Thousands Flee, Pray and Weep As Radio Play Panics U.S.”

Baltimore jeweler Samuel Shapiro suffered a heart attack during the program and died two weeks later at Sinai Hospital, his doctor telling The Sun that his patient’s death was precipitated by the news that Martians had invaded New Jersey.

Frank P. McNinch, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, called for an investigation, while Welles said that he was “just stunned by the reaction,” and expressed “deep regret” over what the broadcast had caused.

In a statement, CBS Radio said, “We regret that some listeners to the Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater [on] the Air program last night mistook fantasy for fact.”

Ongoing: Black Choreographers Festival

Celebrate talented Black artists in the field of dance at the Black Choreographers Festival at the Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave. There will be dance performances, dance classes, a panel discussion and more. The event is sponsored by the MSAC, Baltimore Black Dance Collective and Symmetry Arts. Tickets prices range from $10 to $35. blackchoreographersfestival.com

Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Ongoing: USA Lacrosse Fall Classic

Root for the U.S. men’s and women’s teams as they face Canada Friday at the USA Lacrosse Fall Classic at 2 Loveton Circle, Sparks. Other games include Penn State vs. U.S. and Canadian national teams on Saturday. Ticket prices start at $15 for members and $25 for nonmembers. usalacrosse.com

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Ongoing: Disney on Ice

Watch your favorite Disney character come to life and skate at Disney On Ice presents Magic in the Stars at CFG Bank Arena, 201 W. Baltimore St. Show dates and times are as follows: Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday at 7 p.m.; Saturday at 10:30 a.m. 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Ticket prices start at $20. disneyonice.com

Thursday through Sunday

Ongoing: Marley Station Carnival

Watch the Ferris wheel spin in the night sky, smell the aroma of cotton candy and feel the excitement of games of chance at the Marley Station Carnival at Marley Station Mall, 7900 Ritchie Highway, Glen Burnie. Admission and parking are free. Ride tickets are $1.50 each and wristbands start at $35. Carnival hours are Thursday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday, 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 11 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 10 p.m. dreamlandamusements.com

Thursday through Sunday

Thursday: Book Talk — ‘Kin: Rooted in Hope’

Author and Baltimore native Carole Boston Weatherford discusses her latest release, “Kin: Rooted in Hope” at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, 830 E. Pratt St. The book, which explores the painful history of a Black family’s roots on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, is a collaboration between the writer’s words and her son Jeffery Boston Weatherford’s art. The book conversation will be moderated by Dr. Leslie King-Hammond. Admission is $25 for members and $30 for nonmembers and includes a copy of the book and light refreshments. A limited supply of free books will be available. lewismuseum.org

Thursday, Oct. 19, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Ongoing: Sunset Jams

Bring a blanket or chair and listen to local musicians: St. Veronica Steel Orchestra, Irie Watas, Althea’s Almost Famous and Blind Tiger, at the Sunset Jams concert Friday at Rash Field Park, 201 Key Highway. Enjoy performances by local musicians and food and drink from food trucks on Fridays (Oct. 13, 20, 27). The free event is sponsored by the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore. waterfrontpartnership.org/sunset-jams

Fridays through Oct. 27

Events calendar

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There are three standing traditions at Tawes. One is welcoming individuals with a range of political party affiliations, ideologies, public policy positions, race, age, sexual orientation and income levels. Another is engagement in respectful and civil dialogue with all attendees. Last, but not least, is elected officials and candidates meeting face-to-face with voters to listen to their opinions and concerns.

This year, elected officials attending included: Gov. Wes Moore, Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller and state Comptroller Brooke Lierman.

Candidates included Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando, both of whom are running in a primary to be the Democratic candidate to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate. Candidates also included Chris Bruneau who is running in a primary to be the Republican candidate to represent Maryland’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The entire Tawes experience stands in striking contrast to what is now the new normal in politics. This new normal is characterized by intense and often uncivil conflicts over deeply held differences of opinion on a wide range of public policy issues.

Tawes is a great model for politics the way it should be by advancing the following principles. Welcoming and mutual respect for all with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, listen first to understand and commitment to the concept that we can agree to disagree without being disagreeable.

— David Reel, Easton

Add your voice: Respond to this piece or other Sun content by submitting your own letter.

Ryan, who was selected as a Sun Woman to Watch in 2018, has focused on issues that impact Black Americans through five presidencies — including the Donald Trump years, during which she landed in the spotlight herself when Trump told her to sit down, after she had asked a question at a news conference, and called her “nasty” and “a loser.”

With another presidential election approaching, and Trump again a likely candidate, Ryan said she sees extremists hyperfocused on race because they feel their power waning in the “browning of America.”

“The racism is overt. It’s not subtle. It’s in your face,” said Ryan, a Baltimore native who graduated from Morgan State University and now serves as the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for TheGrio, a free, digital media network. “The older I get, the more I see and the more I hear in this unique perch that I’ve been in, the more pain I feel, because I’m like, ‘When will this — when will it get better?'”

Ryan is among the many women with close ties to Maryland who have helped bring social justice issues involving race, gender, identity, equity and representation to the forefront of discussion in the public sphere.

Many of those influential women have been featured in The Baltimore Sun’s Women to Watch magazine over its decade of publication.

There have been shining and even historic moments in those 10 years: Calls have rung out for representation and accountability via social media pushes like #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo and through protests demanding justice for lives lost to police brutality that have led to criminal convictions and new laws.

Ryan noted that more people from marginalized communities who understand the needs of the underserved are in political offices. A little over a decade after America elected its first Black president, the country seated its first Black, Asian American and female vice president, Kamala Harris.

Representation has come to Maryland, too, with the election of Wes Moore, the state’s first Black governor, and Aruna Miller, the first woman of color to serve as lieutenant governor and one of this year’s Women to Watch. In the state, progressive advocates have secured victories through the passage of legislation like this year’s Trans Health Equity Act, which requires equitable access to gender-affirming care, and measures to strengthen abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

Longtime delegate Adrienne A. Jones became the first woman and first African American speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates in 2019, the same year she was named a Woman to Watch. The whiter, more male House she joined 26 years ago would not have made issues like abortion and domestic violence legislative priorities as its current membership has, she said.

While racism may have become more overt in recent years, so too has the pushback from activists, Ryan said. She pointed to the killing of two Black men in 2020 — George Floyd, who was murdered in Minneapolis by police; and Ahmaud Arbery, who was murdered by three white men who chased him through their South Georgia neighborhood — as moments where onlookers said “this is not going to happen” without accountability.

In what many see as a chilling prequel to Floyd’s death, a young African American man named Anton Black died on the Eastern Shore in 2018 after police chased, tased and cuffed him, laying their body weight on top of him for almost six minutes. One of the officers in Black’s death had multiple use-of-force complaints against him from a previous job.

When the General Assembly passed a sweeping criminal justice reform bill in 2021, among the components was Anton’s Law, which increases public access to police disciplinary files.

The law was sponsored by 2017 Woman to Watch honoree Sen. Jill P. Carter, who had long championed other measures included in the bill, which requires independent review of police-involved deaths and a focus on treatment over incarceration.

Carter said she is pleased to see progress amid the continuing fight for police accountability and against mass incarceration. She points to how she was mentioned in the February 2022 apology by The Sun’s editorial board for the paper’s history of racial prejudice, in which writers noted that she had “raised alarms” for years about police brutality and the need for reform.

“Society,” Carter said, “caught up with me.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences caught up with concerns about lack of diversity in its award recipients after the #OscarsSoWhite campaign April Reign launched on Twitter, the website now called X, went viral in 2015.

That year, the academy had not nominated a single actor of color in its best acting categories. In response, Reign posted “#OscarsSoWhite they asked to touch my hair.”

By lunch of that day, the former Howard County resident’s sarcastic jab at the academy was trending worldwide, and it soon spurred serious ruminations in Hollywood.

“Over the years, #OscarsSoWhite has now turned into a conversation about the importance of representation of traditionally underrepresented communities in entertainment as a whole,” Reign said. “It’s taken on a life of its own.”

Reign left a career in law to have conversations about diversity and inclusion around the world. In her new chapter, which includes working as a senior adviser for the market research platform Gauge and as an adviser for the Black and queer-focused social media app Spill, Reign keeps a close eye on tides that are starting to turn.

“Especially in the last year or so, I think we’ve seen quite a bit of backlash against diversity and inclusion,” Reign said.

Corey Shdaimah, a professor of social justice at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, said activists have long faced pushback. She points to the Stonewall uprising that followed a 1969 police raid of a gay nightclub in New York, a defining moment in the fight for LGBTQ rights.

“There’s a backlash, particularly in states where people are being asked not to be who they are,” Shdaimah said.

As other states pass anti-LGBTQ bills affecting schools, sports, health care and public accommodations, activist and artist Jamie Grace Alexander (Women to Watch 2020) said she tries to work close to home.

“One of the biggest things that I do is focus locally instead of nationally,” the Black trans activist said.

Even if Maryland is a more liberal state, she said, it still has a wide range of perspectives and wealth inequities, leaving many trans people “feeling isolated and scared” and unable to fully access services. That is why she lauds the Trans Health Care Equity Act, which expanded the type of gender-affirming care covered by Maryland Medicaid, and which she helped get through the General Assembly this year.

“The overwhelming positive of getting a win legislatively is it affects the entire state of Maryland,” she said. “Rural places need this just as much.”

For 2017 Women to Watch honoree Keisha Allen, even neighborhood-level activism is set against the backdrop of historic neglect of predominantly Black communities.

As president of the Westport Neighborhood Association, she is vigilant about issues of gentrification. Located on the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River, Westport is home to one of the city’s last undeveloped stretches of waterfront — making it attractive to developers but raising the fears that longtime residents will get pushed, or priced, out.

Neighborhood residents have been working through programs, including a community land trust, to help keep housing affordable.

“It’s saving a community,” Allen said, “that deserves to meet its future.”

But Allen says activism itself can have its costs, especially for women of color whose volunteer work can be taken for granted.

“There is an attitude in Baltimore City that women, but especially Black women, are considered a zero-dollar line-item in budgets,” she said. “We’re expected to provide all this labor for free. I’m worried about our Latina sisters, who are now gaining more prominence, falling into that trap.”

While still getting an undergraduate education, Marí Perales Sánchez (Women to Watch 2020) joined her school, Princeton University, in a lawsuit against efforts to cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program. The plaintiffs won their case in 2020 but challenges to the law persist. In September, a federal judge in Texas ruled the Biden administration’s version of DACA was illegal; however, the decision allowed the program to continue for now.

Sánchez, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico at 8 years old and now studies law at Yale University, said immigrants need concrete and permanent solutions when pursuing asylum and residency that don’t rely explicitly on cases like hers.

Change, she said, is going to “come from the people, not from the courts.”

The power of the people, especially of the rising Gen Z, keeps Reign “cautiously optimistic” about the country’s future, despite the backlash she’s witnessed.

“Hopefully, that type of a more inclusive society will come sooner rather than later,” Reign said. “But I think we all have a responsibility to do what we can to make this place better for our community.”

The election — in this hamlet near the Delaware state line where nearly half the 2,800 residents are Black — capped off a year of negotiations and a federal lawsuit in which residents argued the previous system had been diluting minority residents’ votes.

It also marked the latest case in a long, fraught history of Maryland’s Eastern Shore communities switching local voting systems and then electing minority candidates for the first time after being faced with a legal challenge to align with the Voting Rights Act.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Sherone Lewis, a Federalsburg resident who was involved in the lawsuit and helped organize candidate forums in recent weeks.

“It’s not about us right now,” she said. “It’s about literally standing up for righteousness, and doing what’s right, and for our children and grandchildren.”

Brandy James, one of two Black women elected to the four-member town council Tuesday, said she ran in part because of the historic lack of representation for the town’s Black residents and to counter the long-standing belief that their participation in the process wouldn’t make a difference.

“I’ve heard over and over again that ‘my vote doesn’t matter,’ and, ‘I don’t want to vote,'” James said. “I want to combat that stigma.”

Experts and activists who’ve worked to change voting systems across the Eastern Shore since the mid-1980’s say it can take years to help residents learn about the political process and get them to vote after being unable to participate in that process historically.

Federalsburg — as ACLU of Maryland lawyers argued in the lawsuit on behalf of the Caroline County NAACP and local residents — was one such town where residents were locked out.

Under the previous system, all four council members were elected at-large, giving the larger white population more sway. The elections also were staggered in a way that made it impossible for minority residents to put their collective weight behind any single candidate at one time, they argued.

A U.S. District judge agreed the system violated the Voting Rights Act and, in June, accepted the town’s proposal to create two new voting districts with two members each.

District 1 has a 64% Black population and a 30% white population. District 2 has a 23% Black population and a 67% white population.

James, a crisis intervention expert who conducts trainings for police agencies, and Darlene Hammond, a pharmacy technician who is active in the community, were elected to represent District 1 with 52 votes and 70 votes, respectively. Scott Phillips, an incumbent council member who is white, also was running in the district and received 49 votes.

Hammond, who previously lost a race for council under the old system and became a plaintiff in the lawsuit, was unable to be reached for comment.

James, meanwhile, was not involved directly in the lawsuit but described herself in an interview as an outspoken resident who wanted to “become part of the change” she wished to see.

For her, that meant addressing some of the issues other residents had said in the lawsuit were neglected without representation on the council — like poor road conditions in the majority-Black neighborhoods, high water bills and a lack of communication between town officials and residents.

James said the dearth of communication around when local elections were held had been a personal frustration of hers for years.

She gave credit to Kimberly Abner, the incumbent mayor, for being open after the two of them met during a campaign season a few years ago. But other residents still didn’t have that personal connection to keep them in the know, James said.

“There should be some level of transparency in government with things as important as an election,” James said.

James said it was well known that the election this week was happening; campaign signs were “everywhere” and the races were “the chatter around town.”

Caroline County election officials also mailed every household a note about when the election was happening and in which of the new districts voters lived.

Still, in the week before the election, the Federalsburg town website didn’t prominently note that an election was imminent. On Wednesday, the results were not posted, though a post on the town’s Facebook page indicated the results. (A law passed by the Maryland General Assembly earlier this year and going into effect Oct. 1 will require local election results to be posted on the Maryland State Board of Elections website).

Both James and Jeffrey Stevenson, who lost a race for mayor Tuesday, said inspiring a new generation of candidates was a top priority.

“Win, lose or draw, my goal was just to inspire,” said Stevenson, a 34-year-old real estate broker who was running his first campaign.

Stevenson, who is Black, won 83 votes Tuesday. The incumbent Abner, who is white, won 191.

He said fixing roads, attracting new businesses and building a recreational center for kids were the highlights of his platform.

“I will still be active in the community,” said Stevenson, speaking before election day about the possibility of coming up short. “It will not stop my plans for the town. I’m definitely excited for the change.”