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well, i walked down and found that a winding brick path had been laid through the woods between the tennis courts, and there was a sign along it explaining why the work had been done.

this section of the park provided baltimore's "separate but equal" facilities from 1909-1955, and was the only place in the city park system available for use by blacks. "pool number 2" and the tennis courts here were the training grounds for black athletes in the city for the first half of the century.

a short distance from here is the conservatory, which used to have tennis courts on either side of it. one of the earliest demonstrations in the baltimore civil rights movement took place here in 1948 when 500 people assembled to watch a match between black players on these whites-only courts. the police came and put a halt to it, carrying the players off the court when they sat down and refused to leave.