Facts about Frederick Malkus clear, indisputable

My father always said that there are two reasons for everything. The reason you give and the real reason.

Carl Snowden’s timing gives me the real reason for his demanding a name change for the Malkus Bridge. He decided the day the legislative session ended was the perfect time to request action. He knows that the legislature cannot address his complaint until the second Wednesday in January of next year. That gives him over nine months to fundraise before it can be taken up. The Francis Scott Key Bridge’s demise would appear to have given him the idea. In non-profit lingo, adding the Malkus Bridge to the Key Bridge looks like a “two-fer.”

These facts about my father, Sen. Frederick C. Malkus Jr., are clear and indisputable.

The 1985 bill he sponsored, mandating the funding for the three Choptank River bridges was passed with 100% approval from the Maryland Legislature. Every single member of the Maryland House and Senate voted in favor, all 188, which included all 24 members of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus. Snowden’s Caucus of African American Leaders of Anne Arundel County is clearly not statewide, and they are not elected officials. Whereas they may have good intentions, their clout doesn’t compare to the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus. I do wish them well in other pursuits.

When Gov. Harry Hughes vetoed the bill, it was left to the legislature to override the veto. Hughes, an Eastern Shoreman, had appropriated all transportation tax dollars across the state in order to build two subways at the same time, which no other state had been foolish enough to attempt. As a result, no county outside of the metro areas was able to have any road or bridge repair for 10 years.

After nearly a decade of waiting, my father got frustrated and said, “If Harry Hughes is going to forget where he came from, then, ‘where he came from’ is going to forget him. Harry who?” Hughes had remained furious about the joke, which was believed to be the reason for his political suicide. Vetoing a unanimous bill, at the very least, is an exercise in futility.

As the bill processed back through, an amendment was added to name it for my father, to our great surprise. He had absolutely dictated in the beginning that a bridge should not be named for a living person and famously retorted, “I’m not going to die so that you can make it a memorial bridge.” He was shocked but honored as the bill passed unanimously a second time.

Dr. Edward Papenfuse, legendary archivist for the state of Maryland, came to my father to say that after a thorough study, he could not find a single other bill that had ever passed unanimously in both houses. This was the only 100% vote in Maryland history. Many of these elected officials, these men and women, had worked with my father for decades.

Certainly, Mr. Snowden would appreciate how difficult it can be to be elected if you are not representing your entire constituency equally. In my father’s case, it was 48 years in the General Assembly. He was the longest serving state legislator in the entire country when he retired.

I have a photo of my father’s retirement and standing next to him, beaming, is Sen. Clarence Blount D-Baltimore City. He was a close personal friend and had been leader of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus. It was he who had offered to come to Cambridge as a voice of reason during “the troubles” in the late 1960s. He and my father walked through the troubled 2nd Ward together, speaking to anyone who would listen. This point is often conveniently forgotten.

For during this time, three or four Black businessmen came into my father’s law office to request his help. They related that “Gloria Richardson said that she is coming into town with H. Rap Brown and the Black Panthers. They are going to burn our businesses to the ground and blame the white people.” These men came to my father because they trusted him. The storeowners hoped to have them arrested, but all that could be done at that time was to notify the governor of a possible riot and call out the National Guard.

It was widely reported that H. Rap Brown had said, “Cambridge needs to explode,” and he was “going to burn America down.” This was no secret. It is known that the fire started at the elementary school for Black children. I could never understand why a group of extreme segregationists would burn that down. Why would they do something that could guarantee that your children would be immediately integrated? The students from the burned school had to go somewhere.

Historically speaking, the Reichstag fire concept is more plausible, especially with what my father had learned from local store owners. Burn something important down and blame your political enemies. Worked great for Hitler.

I cannot claim to have been present during the fire that was set after Gloria Richardson brought arsonists into town, but I certainly saw the aftermath. Those businessmen’s livelihoods, indeed, whole blocks of Cambridge were burned to the ground. Fire trucks had been blocked from reaching the conflagration. A policeman had been shot. The result was exactly as predicted. Even as a child, I could see that those businessmen had spoken the truth.

Gloria Richardson then moved out of town, along with most of our factories and industry. Stores relocated to safer places, and they never came back. Our county is still recovering from that economic downfall. Whatever good Ms. Richardson may have done here was eclipsed by her violent exit. For the majority in Cambridge, that riot is her legacy. Mr. Snowden, too, is helping to keep Dorchester from recovering. Words have consequences.

Certainly, free speech is a pillar of our country’s legal system. I served as a paratrooper and then as a Huey pilot along the communist Czech border supporting the 1st Armored Division as my contribution to free speech. Arson isn’t a form of free expression any more than slander is. I believe I have earned my right to have my say on both.

Snowden’s complaints quote 1963, when I was 4 years old. I cannot speak to that. The other things I lived through in 1967, including all of the violent vitriol that caused me to be shoved around the elementary school cloakroom and my brother to be beaten up, were personal.

I remember one night when my mother told me to take my younger brother and sister and hide, locking ourselves in an upstairs interior closet. Four vigilantes had come into our yard, miles out of town. They were drunk, had guns and they called my father out. I remember waiting in the dark for a gunshot. I can’t help but remember that.

As far as I’m concerned, the only part of Gloria Richardson’s time in Cambridge that I know about personally was her role as a domestic terrorist. If Mr. Snowden wants the local population to know more about her, I assure you, those burned-out families know all they need to know.

Those calling for the Malkus Bridge to be named anything else are suggesting they know better than those actually elected by the constituency of the entire state. They believe they are smarter than his peers, who worked with my father to make the state better for all. To disparage him in this way is not only disrespectful to his memory but also to everyone who voted for him or for his bridge bill.

I find Mr. Snowden is being disrespectful to every member of the 1985 Maryland Legislature.

My father never needed the credit, which is why so many respected him. He wouldn’t want to be called a hero, but his people and his peers found him worthy. He stuck around to work to repair what Ms. Richardson, H. Rap Brown and the Black Panthers had destroyed. One of his last projects was to have the Hyatt built on the shores of the Choptank. Up to the end, he worked to bring jobs to his district.

As he retired, Senate President Mike Miller created an award for my father that he believed truly described his demonstrated public service across nearly five decades. The First Citizen Award plaque can be found at the old Senate office building interior entrance. “To be a First Citizen is to be a dedicated and effective participant in the process of making government work for the benefit of all.”

When it came to naming that bridge, that’s the real reason.

Gloria Richardson chose to burn her bridges in Cambridge; Fred Malkus labored to build them back. You be the judge.

Betsy Malkus is the daughter of Frederick C. Malkus Jr. She lives in Cambridge.