Photos by Lafon Porter (SPARROWS POINT – May 12, 2026) – When the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards came to Sparrows Point on May 9 at the Pleasant Yacht Club, most people came to celebrate the honorees — the community titans, entrepreneurs, pastors, public servants, and living legends of Turner Station who have quietly held Black Baltimore together for generations. And rightfully so. Every honoree deserved every moment of recognition they received that evening. But somewhere between the applause, the fellowship, and the stories being shared across the room, something else became undeniable. The real gem at Sparrows Point had been hiding in plain sight for more than 60 years. The Pleasant Yacht Club itself. This hand-built monument sitting quietly along Jones Creek is Black Wall Street. It always has been. They Said No. So Black Men Said Watch. In the 1950s, six Black steelworkers walked over to Bethlehem Steel management and asked a simple question: could they have a place on the water like their white coworkers? The answer was no. Bethlehem Steel had already built the North Point Yacht Club for white employees. Black workers were excluded. But here is where the story changes. These men did not walk away defeated. They walked away determined. The company offered them a small parcel of land and some leftover materials. Nothing more. From that rejection, those Black steelworkers built something extraordinary with their own hands — a floating pier, a boat ramp, a clubhouse, and eventually a legacy that would outlive the steel mill itself. After working long shifts in the heat of the mill, they came back to the waterfront and built. Board by board. Beam by beam. Not just a structure — a statement. That is Black Wall Street. Not simply commerce, but self-determination. Not merely ownership, but imagination in the face of exclusion. The last surviving founding member, 97-year-old Capt. Johnnie Mathis, never forgot what drove them. Speaking about Bethlehem Steel’s refusal to include Black workers in the white yacht club, Mathis said plainly: “What they really wanted to do was keep us separated.” Separated by race. Separated from the water. Separated from opportunity. Instead, those men separated themselves into something magnificent. More Than a Yacht Club Today, Pleasant Yacht Club remains the only historically Black yacht club in Baltimore County. But calling it merely a yacht club almost misses the point. This is a living institution. Families gather there after church. Elders are taken onto the water for peace and healing. Crab feasts, fish fries, Safe Boating Classes, and Senior Citizen Day celebrations continue traditions started generations ago. Portraits of past commodores line the walls inside the social hall, preserving the memory of the men who built the place from nothing. And recently, all of it nearly disappeared. Plans tied to Tradepoint Atlantic’s massive port expansion project threatened both Pleasant Yacht Club and neighboring North Point Yacht Club. For many in the community, it felt like history was once again being sacrificed in the name…
Special thanks to Fulton Bank, R.E. Harrington, Pleasant Yacht Club’s Lafon Porter, Esquire, Constellation Energy, and Derrick Jones Funeral Home…
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