10 years later: Leaders speak on death of Freddie Gray and Baltimore’s struggle for change

Explore Our Galleries

An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Some Exhibits to Come – One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

Bibliography – One Hundred Years Of Jim Crow

Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

Freedom’s Heroes During Jim Crow: Flossie Bailey and the Deeters

Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.

An Iconic Lynching in the North

Claxton Dekle – Prosperous Farmer, Husband & Father of Two

Ancient manuscripts about mathematics and astronomy from Timbuktu, Mali

Some Exhibits to Come – African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles for Adults & Children from the Henrietta Marie

Some Exhibits to Come – The Middle Passage

What I Saw Aboard a Slave Ship in 1829

Life After Hate: A Former White Power Leader Redeems Himself

Breaking News!

Today's news and culture by Black and other reporters in the Black and mainstream media.

Click Here

Ways to Support ABHM?

Click Here

April 12, 2025

From Megan Sayles AFRO Business Writer

A protester holds a sign during a rally for Freddie Gray outside of the Baltimore Police Department’s Western District station on April 22, 2015. Gray’s death sparked citywide unrest and calls for police accountability. (Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

It’s been 10 years since 25-year-old Freddie Gray was arrested on April 12 by Baltimore police and suffered a fatal spinal cord injury while in custody. His April 19, 2015 death cast a national spotlight on Baltimore, sparking citywide protests. On the day of his funeral, April 27, riots broke out. The movement fueled a growing call for police accountability.

Today, faith and community leaders are still grappling with the tragedy and what’s changed— and what hasn’t— in Baltimore since Gray’s life ended shortly after coming into contact with Baltimore police officers.

Pastor Harold Carter Jr., of New Shiloh Baptist Church, recalled hearing about the “rough ride” Gray was subjected to. Though Gray was handcuffed and shackled, the police officers who arrested him did not secure him with a seatbelt, a violation of the Baltimore Police Department’s (BPD) policy.

Carter remembers hearing that some BPD members had a pattern of engaging in this behavior.

“There was a certain group of police officers who, when they picked up people, put them in the back of the paddy wagon. Even though they were restrained, they were not seat-belted,” said Carter. “They were driven through the city, and there were certain curves where they got slammed around.”

Read more on AFRO.

More Breaking News.

Learn more about Freddie Gray.

Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.