the underground volume ii

TheUNDERGROUND

Integration’s Rocky Road

4The Dark Side of

Adderall Page 8

City of InkPage 18

Wall-E Takes the Plunge

Page 12

April 18, 2010The Johns Hopkins News-Letter

Volume II

2

Take a trip Underground

Welcome to our second edition of The Underground, the official magazine of The Johns Hopkins News-Letter. Our goal is to take you down the road less-traveled, the one that leads to the depths

of the bizarre and eccentric.

The city of Baltimore is a character unto itself, with its own eclectic mix of music, culture and history. You might bemoan the strange orange haze on the horizon or the unrelenting summer heat, but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find there’s no question that Charm City has earned its name. Its avenues are rich with culture and history, from the strange and hidden home for lost artwork to the streets that house some of Baltimore’s most talented tattoo artists.

In this issue, we also explore the ongoing issue of Adderall abuse at Hopkins. A small yet growing problem, rogue Adderall use is evolving into a serious issue on campus, raising the question: is achievement worth the cost?

We hope that you will take the time to dig through The Underground with us, to explore the weird and unknown that lie beneath Baltimore’s surface.

Who knows, you may like what you find.

The UndergroundThe Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010

— Husain Danish and Rebecca FishbeinMagazine Editors

The Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010

Take a trip UndergroundThe Yabba Pot ........................4This vegan soul food cafe is a hidden treasure on North Charles.

Art Underground .................6A Hampden gallery owner finds a home for abandoned art.

The Dark Side of Adderall ................8Use of this prescription stimulant is on the rise, and it can have some nasty side effects.

Marine Robotics Lab ........................ 12Under Krieger lies a factory manufacturing robotic ocean explorers.

Black History at JHU ......................14The University’s road to integration and equality was more than rocky.

Baltimore Tattoo Scene ......................18Local tattoo artists make real masterpieces out of skin and ink.

The Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010The Underground 3The Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010

Yabba Dabba Do

How the Yabba Pot does the Best

Vegan food in the City - it’s enough

to covert even the biggest meat head

AS A FAITHFULreader and be-liever in City Paper’s “Best of Baltimore” an-

nual edition, I have wanted to venture to The Yabba Pot since it won “Best Vegan Restaurant” in 2008.

Located between 24th and 25th St. and St. Paul St, The Yabba Pot is in a convenient, but easy-to-miss location. Stuck unassumingly between a thrift store and what seems to be run-down storefront, the one-room vegetarian restaurant would be completely overlooked if it were not for its bright green coat of paint.

The interior is just as vibrant as the storefront. The walls are a deep, vivid coral. The tables, mostly seating only two, are decorated with natural settings: ocean scenes, a bright, sunny sky and a rainforest.

The Yabba Pot’s façade has signs that read “Vegetarian” and “Juice Bar.” The inside is adorned with comparable mes-sages. One sign (clearly printed from the owner’s home) reads, “Fast food, fast death.” Anoth-er says, “Let our food be your medicine.” Make sure you bring a jacket or sweater if you are dining in the winter months, as the restaurant was quite drafty.

They’re serious about healthy eating. But rather than eating the standard vegan/vegetarian fare you get at One World Café, The Yabba Pot spices things up, literally, through its Caribbean and Island cuisine.

The restaurant’s menu is an array of foreign dishes featur-ing a variety of beans, vegeta-bles, tofu and soy proteins. All are supposedly or originally cooked in a clay pot called a yabba pot.

Picking from recipes such as chana masala, queen greens, butternut drummies, coco-cur-ry shrooms and mash sweets is difficult, so luckily all of the foods are out on display.

Ordering is somewhat of an ordeal of cafeteria-style point-ing and decision-making. Do not expect a full-service res-taurant. The most service you get is maybe getting your drink delivered to your table. You choose your meal, pay at the cash register, pick out your own table and get your own silver-ware and water.

This all somehow fits with the laidback atmosphere of the restaurant though. The staff is exceedingly nice and help-ful if you are completely lost as to what to choose. They are knowledgeable and explain ex-actly what is in a four-bean stew

or how the curry is prepared. My dining friends and I or-

dered the sample platter, which was a little bit of everything on that day’s menu and some rice. This was a perfect way to famil-iarize myself with the restau-rant’s cuisine.

The best of all were the mash sweets. A dish of mashed sweet potatoes, made extra-sweet with a combination of brown sugar and a second mysterious ingredient, was definitely a hit. I thoroughly enjoyed the four-bean stew and the chickpea curry.

If you are not into spicy foods, taste test carefully as many of the dishes (including the chick-pea curry) are quite spicy.

Though a few dishes tempted me back for seconds, I found many of the flavors easily blend-ed together so that I was unable

to distinguish between them. I honestly cannot tell the differ-ence between the chana masala, queen greens, cabbage stir fry and coco curry shrooms. And the only distinguishing charac-teristic of the butternut drum-mies was the hunks of soy pro-tein in the shape of drumsticks. Perhaps this melding of flavors was due in part to the sample platter being squished all on to one plate.

The Yabba Pot’s next biggest selling point is its variety of fresh juices. The restaurant of-fers a range of freshly squeezed juices from orange to carrot. You can even combine juices to make something more ex-citing.

One diner ordered the apple juice, which took about five minutes to prepare (it really was freshly pressed) and came

By Alexandra Byer

Underground Eats

4 The UndergroundThe Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010 The Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010

Yabba Dabba Do

How the Yabba Pot does the Best

Vegan food in the City - it’s enough

to covert even the biggest meat head

to distinguish between them. I honestly cannot tell the differ-ence between the chana masala, queen greens, cabbage stir fry and coco curry shrooms. And the only distinguishing charac-teristic of the butternut drum-mies was the hunks of soy pro-tein in the shape of drumsticks. Perhaps this melding of flavors was due in part to the sample platter being squished all on to one plate.

The Yabba Pot’s next biggest selling point is its variety of fresh juices. The restaurant of-fers a range of freshly squeezed juices from orange to carrot. You can even combine juices to make something more ex-citing.

One diner ordered the apple juice, which took about five minutes to prepare (it really was freshly pressed) and came

COURTESY OF SOUL OF AMERICA.COM


out in apple’s naturally cloudy form. I, on the other hand, was a bit more

adventurous and ordered the ginger tea, which my server recommended. It should have come with a warning label. Drink-ing this tea was comparable to drinking pureed ginger. The “tea” was so strong

and spicy that cleared my sinuses com-pletely. I sipped it throughout the dinner but each sip was a shock. I never finished the cup.

Bottom line: The Yabba Pot is an inter-esting experience, to say the least, espe-cially if you have adventurous tastes. n

The Underground 5The Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010

WIRE SCULPTURES FORMING THE OUTLINES OF HANDS AND FACES HANG IN ONE CORNER, and on the far side of the studio are spray-painted LPs depicting the iconic pout of Marilyn Monroe and the one-eyed stare of Mr. Boh. On the floor sits a canvas covered in strips of green and pink wallpaper.

The eclectic mixture of works are arranged, as owner Rick Santiago explained, in the salon style, where pieces of different styles are placed side-by-side and cover the wall, as opposed to the streamlined gallery style of only a single row of works, which is seen in contemporary museums.

Art

Un

der G

roun

d

How one man is giving “orphaned” art a home

By PHYLLIS ZHUPhoto by WILL SHEPHERDSON


Besides being literally, if partially, un-derground, the studio also rose from modest roots. The space, only about 150 square feet, was offered to Santiago by a friend and was originally intended to be used for storage.

Santiago, a Charm City native, discovered his talent for woodworking as a finance ma-jor at George Washington University, when he began piecing together and painting scraps of wood to make furniture.

However, as he continued to produce art through the years, working with wood, digital photog-raphy and mixed media, he found that he was doing well enough to open his own studio.

The basement room was cleaned, painted and transformed into a functioning two-room studio, with exhibi-tions displayed in the main room and with an area in the back where artists come to work on their projects.

Art Under Ground has held 25 exhibitions since it opened four years ago. It features works from a half-dozen artists, both from Baltimore and other parts of the country, on rotation when there is no exhibition on dis-play.

While some of the artists shown hail from places like Connecticut, Rochester, NY and Seattle, most are locals who are current stu-dents or graduates from UMBC, Towson University, MICA and University of Mary-land College Park.

Santiago describes Art Under Ground as

“an experiment with space.” He is proud of the eccentricity of the space and said that setting up a studio in such an unconven-tional manner reflects a kind of artistic flexibility, in terms of creating a place for art.

Though the ceiling is awkwardly low — a little higher than six feet — most people who visit, according to Santiago, appreciate the quirkiness of Art Under Ground.

However, when it comes to the quality of the art itself, Santiago admitted that it un-

dercut the importance of the physical space of the gallery. “The space doesn’t do anything for you. You either fail or succeed on your own.”

The owner has also ad-opted a kind of democratic, anything-goes approach in selecting works to display. “I will probably never turn you away, “ San-tiago said about artists who ask to show their work at Art Under Ground.

On several occasions, Santiago has found pieces of anonymous artwork that had been left on his doorstep. He calls them “orphans“ and has kept them in the studio. One of the unclaimed works, a wire sculpture in the shape of a horseshoe crab, hangs outside above the entrance.

While Santiago is content with the cur-rent location of the studio, he has plans to move up, literally, to the back room of the Pearl Gallery. He hopes to construct a black and white darkroom, so photographers can work in the studio as well. n

Art Under Ground Gallery

826 W. 36th St., (410) 929-3280

Hours: Fridays 4-7 p.m. Saturdays 11 a.m.-6 p.m.



How far would you

go to get ahead?

HJUBy REBECCA FISHBEIN

The Underground 9The Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010

AT THE END OF every se-mester, Hopkins students flood the underground lev-els of the the library in a desperate attempt to cram

four months of information into a final exam hell week of epic proportions.

They lament skipped lectures and half-skimmed readings, second-guess classes, majors and future careers and work day and night in order to secure that GPA which proves being worthy of a spot at one of the world’s most presti-gious universities.

Many turn to caffeine to keep from falling asleep on our keyboards and textbooks, and Café Q’s special round-the-clock coffee service becomes a sav-ior in the time of struggle.

But for some students, café-au-laits are not enough. Instead, they turn to special stimulants to keep focused.

Prescription drugs like Adderall and Ritalin that work to keep the brain sharp and the body alert. Abuse them, and the side-effects turn you into a study ma-chine.

“My friend took [Adderall] and stayed up two days straight,” junior Seann Convey said.

Students at Hopkins prefer not to talk about the drug, but in a world of high stress and cutthroat academics, like the one in which Hopkins students are of-

ten immersed, Adderall is an appealing and easily obtainable option, regardless of whether or not one has a prescription.

“[Adderall] is very readily available,” junior Shawn Xu said. “It’s literally a phone call away, at almost any given time.”

According to Alain Joffe, the director of Hopkins’ Health & Wellness Center, Adderall is beneficial for students diag-nosed with Attention Deficit Hyperac-tivity Disorder (ADHD), a neurobehav-ioral developmental disorder that causes hyperactivity and difficulty concentrat-ing.

“It’s very clear that stimulant medica-tions can work to help someone [afflict-ed with ADHD],” Joffe said. “There are many studies that show that they’re ef-fective, especially in critical cases.”

But the ostensible study-aid has an ugly side.

Adderall, which was first manufac-tured by Shire Pharmaceuticals in 1996, is intended to aid men and women who have ADHD and narcolepsy by increas-ing alertness, concentration and cogni-tive performance.

However, it is composed predomi-nantly of highly addictive substances that can lead to serious side effects and withdrawal symptoms when abused.

“It’s a stimulant,” Joffe said. “If you take too much of it, you can have an elevation of

How far would you

go to get ahead?

U

blood pressure, a very rap-id heartbeat, an irregular heartbeat and you can pos-sibly have a seizure. It can have a lot of side effects de-pending on how much you take and what routes you can take it.”

Amphetamine, one of the active chemicals in Adderall, is a potent and often dangerous stimu-lant, known to recreation-al users as speed or crank.

In the U.S., amphet-amine is classified as a Schedule II controlled substance, which means that it has a high potential for abuse and is only legal by prescription for medi-cal treatment.

Other drugs in this cat-egory include oxycodone, which is the active drug in opium, cocaine and the controversial painkiller OxyContin.

Psychiatrists who pre-scribe Adderall are aware of the drug’s downsides.

According to Arthur Hildreth, a consulting psychiatrist at the Hop-kins’ Student Counseling Center and a professor of psychology at the Univer-sity, those diagnosed with ADHD go through a seri-


ous screening process be-fore obtaining Adderall in order to determine wheth-er the drug would be det-rimental to them.

“There’s an addiction potential for the stimu-lants,” Hildreth said. “We interview patients and ask them if they have a history of substance abuse. If they do have a history, then you would avoid prescribing them the drug.”

Hildreth maintained that those who use the drug as prescribed tend to stay clear of Adderall’s more se-rious side effects.

“The abuse potential, if you don’t have a history of such, is really quite low,” he said.

According to students, many people seeking out the drug can obtain it from those who have al-ready been prescribed it.

“Most people have a pre-scription that they don’t use, and they sell the ex-tras,” Convey said. “My friend sells them at about $5 a pill.”

While popping an un-prescribed Adderall or two might make it easier to fin-ish that extra-dense Chem chapter, Joffe warned that

taking the drug without a prescription could lead to some serious problems.

“One of the reasons that a lot of medications are available only by prescrip-tion is because they have side effects,” Joffe said.

“Before you take a medi-cation, you have to make sure you don’t have an underlying condition that would perhaps preclude you taking that medica-tion. You probably wouldn’t want somebody who has high blood pressure or an underlying heart condition to start taking Adderall, because it can put a strain on your heart.”

Joffe also said that stu-dents who have not been evaluated by a doctor be-fore taking Adderall may take it improperly, cre-ating further complica-tions.

“Suppose you happen to have a cold and you’re taking something like Su-dafed, which has an effe-drine product in it, as well as Adderall,” Joffe said.

“Those two drugs can interact and cause you to feel unwell. Over the years, I’ve seen students who have combined stim-

ulant medications, taken [caffeine pills], and drank eight cups of coffee. They felt awful — dizzy, nau-seous and a very rapid heartbeat.”

Hildreth agreed that, when abused, Adderall has a very high potential for serious health disasters among students.

“Chronic usage of high-er doses [of Adderall] than prescribed could cause el-ements of psychosis with paranoid delusions,” he said. “There are also inci-dents of cardiac arrhyth-mia and blood pressure problems.”

THE SIDE ef-fects of un-c ont rol le d Adderall use has not dis-

suaded Hopkins students from turning to the drug. The underground world of Adderall dealing and distribution has grown ex-ponentially in the past few years and has proved to be a profitable practice.

“People have a co-pay on their prescription for $20, $30 maybe, and sell [Ad-derall] for $10 a pill,” Xu

said. “I would imagine it’s very lucrative.”

Joffe said that purchas-ing prescription drugs from an unknown source is particularly dan-gerous because stu-dents might be un-wittingly buying and consuming the wrong medications.

“If a student has a prescription from a doctor, you can be sure what you’re get-ting is Adderall,” he said.

“But if you’re go-ing to an unknown source, you’re always at risk of getting the wrong medication or something tainted with other products.”

Joffe also warned that taking Adder-all in any form other than orally has the potential to increase negative side effects.

“If you’re snorting it, you bypass the liver and it goes right to the lungs and the brain,” he said. “If there are any impurities in it, that’s more of a problem than if you take it orally and it goes to the liver and metabolizes there. If you’re

About Adderall Used to treat narcolepsy and ADHD Side effects of non-prescribed Adderall use can include paranoia, anxiety, nausea, insomnia, weight loss, seizures and irregular heartbeat

Adderall sales in the United States soared by more than 3,100 percent between 2002 and 2005

A 2004 study at the University of Wisconsin determined 14 percent of students had mis- used Adderal

- Courtesy of the Washington Post


ulant medications, taken [caffeine pills], and drank eight cups of coffee. They felt awful — dizzy, nau-seous and a very rapid heartbeat.”

Hildreth agreed that, when abused, Adderall has a very high potential for serious health disasters among students.

“Chronic usage of high-er doses [of Adderall] than prescribed could cause el-ements of psychosis with paranoid delusions,” he said. “There are also inci-dents of cardiac arrhyth-mia and blood pressure problems.”

THE SIDE ef-fects of un-c ont rol le d Adderall use has not dis-

suaded Hopkins students from turning to the drug. The underground world of Adderall dealing and distribution has grown ex-ponentially in the past few years and has proved to be a profitable practice.

“People have a co-pay on their prescription for $20, $30 maybe, and sell [Ad-derall] for $10 a pill,” Xu

said. “I would imagine it’s very lucrative.”

Joffe said that purchas-ing prescription drugs from an unknown source is particularly dan-gerous because stu-dents might be un-wittingly buying and consuming the wrong medications.

“If a student has a prescription from a doctor, you can be sure what you’re get-ting is Adderall,” he said.

“But if you’re go-ing to an unknown source, you’re always at risk of getting the wrong medication or something tainted with other products.”

Joffe also warned that taking Adder-all in any form other than orally has the potential to increase negative side effects.

“If you’re snorting it, you bypass the liver and it goes right to the lungs and the brain,” he said. “If there are any impurities in it, that’s more of a problem than if you take it orally and it goes to the liver and metabolizes there. If you’re

snorting it, you’re getting a more intense burst and depending on how suscep-tible you are, you might have more in the way of

side effects.”Students who deal Ad-

derall may not realize the negative effect the drug can have on others. Some may see it as a way to as-sist other overworked stu-dents.

“A lot of times, it’s not how lucrative [dealing

Adderall] is so much as peo-ple want to help out their friends,” Xu said. “You could get it for free.”

But Joffe believes that stu-

dents who turn to stimulants to help power through dif-ficult work periods may not achieve the results they want.

“I understand the position that students get into where they have a ton of work and a short time to do it, but I sug-gest they avoid using stimu-lant medications to mediate

this,” he said. “It is not clear that if you

wait until a day or two be-fore a project is due and then rely on stimulants to

get you through the next 48 hours, the quality of the project will be better than if you hadn’t taken stimulants at all.”

Hildreth urged stu-dents who were suf-fering from stress to seek outside help.

“There’s always the counseling center, or talking with your Resident Advisors and friends,” he said. “Generally speak-ing, people should communicate what they’re stressed about and try to get a good handle on it at a real-istic level.”

He added that stu-dents feeling pres-

sure from family members to perform well on exams might find it beneficial to talk about how they feel.

“You should try to find out how realistic your parents’ expectations are and if they really expect as much as you think they do,” he said. n

Diving to the depths

WE KNOW more about the moon than we do about

the bottom of our own oceans. The universe beneath the seas is both strange and wonderful. We enter a world of bioluminescent fish and beasts that we imag-ine to only exist in our wildest dreams.

In a lab below Krieger Hall, members of the Dynamical Sys-tems and Control Laboratory use a 43,000-gallon, 14-foot deep-water tank to test remotely op-erated robots that may one day explore the deepest parts of the ocean. The lab’s research focus is the navigation, sensing and con-trol of remotely operated, under-water research vehicles.

The Hydrodynamics Testing Facility tank is where different oceanographic systems for re-motely operated vehicles (ROVs) or unmanned undersea vehicles (UUV) are tested. Here, their control and navigation systems can be refined before they are deployed at sea.

For example, the JHUROV is a student-built vehicle that has helped test and refine navigation sensors, including Doppler so-nar and a fiber-optic gyroscope, which have been applied to other underwater vehicles.

Windows along the side of the tank allow researchers to get a

side view of the vehicles, and various objects are placed on the bottom to simulate what the vehicle might encounter on the ocean floor.

“Trying to find something in the deep ocean is like looking for your car keys on Mount Everest at night with a flashlight. In the middle of a blizzard. On your hands and knees,” said Sarah Webster, a current Ph.D. student at the DSCL. “Not only do you not know where your keys are, you’re not even sure where you are.”

One of the challenges with us-ing underwater robotic vehicles, and Webster’s main focus for her research, is determining ex-actly where the vehicle is in the ocean at any one time. The lo-cation helps give context to the data, from water salinity and temperature to species of organ-

isms present, that the vehicle is collecting.

Current systems for measur-ing the location of a UUV rely on acoustic signals sent from underwater modems, similar to how a dial-up Internet con-nection works. This system is limited in range and cannot be used for more than one UUV at a time.

Webster is developing a meth-od by which a single beacon broadcast from the research ship can reach many different UUVs. Once the UUV receives the in-formation about the mother ship’s location, with the time the signal was sent encoded in the signal, it can calculate its own position relative to the broad-cast.

“I am investigating algorithms that would allow us to simulta-neously navigate a large number

By Anne Wang

12 The UndergroundThe Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010

By Anne Wang

The Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010 13

of underwater vehicles using only a single beacon mounted on a sur-face ship,” Webster said. “Because the ship can move, the vehicles are not constrained to a small portion of the seafloor. In addition, enabling the simultaneous use of multiple un-derwater vehicles allows us to cover much larger areas in a short time, which significantly reduces the time required to complete a mission and the associated cost of ship time.”

Another exciting project that mem-bers of the DSCL have been develop-ing is an unmanned underwater ro-bot called Nereus, which in May of 2009 reached the deepest point of the ocean, known as the Challenger Deep. Hopkins scientists from the DSCL worked with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the Navy and the University of Hawaii.

The approximately 11,000-meter deep Challenger Deep is part of a larger depression in the ocean floor called the Marianas Trench. The trench, part of the notorious Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean, was formed by the collision of two tec-tonic plates. The Pacific plate is forced beneath the Mariana plate, creating the 2,550-kilometer trench east of the Mariana Islands. While in the Chal-lenger Deep, Nereus was tethered to the research ship Kilo Moana by a

light fiber-optic cable barely wider in diameter than a human hair.

Nereus is only one of three vehicles to reach the Challenger Deep so far. The Japanese-built Kaiko reached it three times, the first in 1996, and the Swiss-built Trieste took a crew of two men — in the only manned voyage — in 1960.

One of the biggest problems facing remotely operated vehicles is how to manage the miles of cables that con-nect the vehicle to the research ves-sel. The cables have to be strong so as not to break in the water, but not so heavy that they will snap under their own weight. Kaiko was ultimately lost because a cable connecting the vehicle to the research ship snapped in 2003.

Unlike most remotely-operated vehicles, which require power ca-bles running from the mother ship, Nereus runs on lith-ium-ion batteries. All that connects it to the mother ship is a 25-mile-long fiber-optic cable through which informa-tion is exchanged between robot and mother ship.

Before Nereus, the maximum depth currently active robotic vehi-cles were able to reach was 6500 me-ters, which lies below 95 percent of

the sea floor.Nereus can also act as an autono-

mous underwater vehicle, meaning that it is free-swimming and does not have to be tethered to a mother ship.

Future plans for Nereus include studying the ocean floor beneath po-lar ice caps and studying the hydro-thermal vents, where the ecosystem is based not on sunlight and photo-synthesis, but on organisms that feed off methane deposits from the heated water in the vents. n

University and Hospital founder Johns Hopkins in-cludes in his will that the

hospital must provide care for Baltimore’s poor “without regard to sex, age, or color.”

1867

Kelly Miller becomes the first black student at Hopkins.

Miller, who had been born a slave, spent two years studying

mathematics before a 25 percent tuition increase forced

his departure.

1887

University President Ira Remsen states that

accepting black students would be “almost suicidial” because it would decrease the enrollment

of white students.

1910 Because he is black, Harvard

graduate Carl Murphy is denied application for a

summer German course at Hopkins. University President

Frank Goodnow bases the decision on Maryland’s history

of providing seperate institutions for the “white and

the colored.”

1945

Frederick Scott becomes the first African-American

undergraduate student at Hopkins.

1914

The Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010The Underground14 The Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010

T HE YEAR WAS 1968. After decades of lunch-counter sit-ins, marches on

Washington, and bus rides to the south, the Civil Rights Movement had reached its midnight hour. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Bal-timore and other cities across the United States were con-sumed by race riots.

Rising Up:The History of Black Students

at Hopkins

Here at Hopkins, while the University had accepted black students for several decades at this point, many still felt that Hopkins was discriminating against them.

“Institutional racism sug-gested that we be treated dif-ferently, assuming we were all products, products of broken homes . . . That general stereo-type that was the basis for in-

teraction with us was totally incongruent with the majority of the black students enrolled as undergraduates,” Hopkins alumnus John Guess, Jr, wrote in an e-mail to The News-Letter.

During a basketball game, Guess and his friend Bruce Baker decided that they need-ed to take matters into their own hands and form the Black Students Union (BSU).

“I was political, but as a young man, Bruce was smart and wise beyond his actual years. I was a shoot from the hip kind of guy, but Baker was an extremely level headed guy . . . Baker also had insight into organizational development and a deeper understanding of our culture and achievement that most,” Guess wrote.

The seeds for this event were

planted in the early years of Hopkins’ history. Johns Hop-kins himself had fairly pro-gressive views on race.

In his instruction letter to the Hopkins Hospital’s trust-ees, he explicitly stated his desire that the hospital would serve the sick and injured, “without regard to sex, age or color” and that “the poor of this city and state, of all races, who are stricken down by any casualty, shall be received into the Hospital, without charge, for such periods of time and under such regulations as you may prescribe.”

Despite the progressive views of its founder, the Uni-versity was in operation for 11 years before it admitted its first African-American stu-

By Peter Sicher

Because he is black, Harvard graduate Carl Murphy is denied application for a

summer German course at Hopkins. University President

Frank Goodnow bases the decision on Maryland’s history

of providing seperate institutions for the “white and

the colored.”

1945

Frederick Scott becomes the first African-American

undergraduate student at Hopkins.

The Black Student Union is formed

1968

1970

Hopkins accepts its first female undergraduates, which includes

three African-American women.

1992

The Black Student Union holds a yearlong protest

which included demands for a Black Studies

program

Special thanks to the African Americans At Hopkins Project

The Underground 15The Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010The Johns Hopkins News-Letter April 18, 2010

Rising Up:The History of Black Students

at Hopkins

“I was political, but as a young man, Bruce was smart and wise beyond his actual years. I was a shoot from the hip kind of guy, but Baker was an extremely level headed guy . . . Baker also had insight into organizational development and a deeper understanding of our culture and achievement that most,” Guess wrote.

The seeds for this event were

planted in the early years of Hopkins’ history. Johns Hop-kins himself had fairly pro-gressive views on race.

In his instruction letter to the Hopkins Hospital’s trust-ees, he explicitly stated his desire that the hospital would serve the sick and injured, “without regard to sex, age or color” and that “the poor of this city and state, of all races, who are stricken down by any casualty, shall be received into the Hospital, without charge, for such periods of time and under such regulations as you may prescribe.”

Despite the progressive views of its founder, the Uni-versity was in operation for 11 years before it admitted its first African-American stu-

dent, Kelly Miller. According to a 2001 article by Home-wood archivist James Stim-pert, Miller was born a slave in South Carolina in 1863, two years before the United States abolished the “peculiar insti-tution” forever.

Educated by Northern teachers after the Civil War, Miller began his undergradu-ate studies at Howard Univer-sity in 1880. To pay for his tu-ition, he took a part-time job with the government, where he met Simon Newcomb, who would become a professor at Hopkins by 1887.

Newcomb discussed Mill-er’s case with then-University President Daniel Gilman. The case for Miller’s admission was then presented to the Board of

Trustees, who decided to ad-mit Miller to the University.

According to Stimpert, when he arrived at Hopkins, Miller was “ushered into a meeting in the president’s of-fice, where Gilman reminded him that he was the first of his race to enroll at Hopkins and would therefore be subject to observation by the students, faculty, and community.”

Gilman assured Miller that “all facilities of the University were open to him and the out-come of his Hopkins experi-ence remained in his hands.” Miller would later say that stu-dents at Hopkins treated him with “cool, calculated civility.”

Miller remained at Hopkins for two years, leaving when tuition was increased by 25

percent. Nevertheless, it seems that at least some people at Hopkins regarded him with respect: Less than a year after he left the University, Gilman and Newcomb helped Miller get a job on the faculty at How-ard University in Washington.

For more than half a cen-tury, Miller would be the only African American to attend Hopkins. In fact, according to a Web site dedicated to the history of African Americans at Hopkins (run by the Mil-ton S. Eisenhower Library) the history department, the Society of Black Alumni, the Fred Scott Brigade, the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Black Faculty and Staff Asso-ciation, in 1910, Ira Remsen, the University’s second presi-

dent, said that admitting black students to Hopkins would be “almost suicidal,” arguing that white students would go to southern schools because they shared “the natural feel-ing of men from that part of the country.”

In 1914, Carl Murphy, an African-American Harvard alumnus, applied to take a summer course in German at Hopkins. He was rejected. In justifying the University’s decision, President Good-now cited Maryland’s policy of providing separate institu-tions for “the white and the colored.”

In 1937, Edward Lewis, a Bal-timore native who had earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and had almost completed a second degree at The University of Pennsylvania, applied to study in the Department of Political Economy at Hopkins. Accord-ing to the African Americans at Hopkins Project, Lewis, an active member of the NAACP, applied after the Maryland Court of Appeals forced the University of Maryland to ac-cept black students in 1937.

Perhaps he had hoped that Hopkins would follow the lead of the state university system.

[[

By 1968, African American students were establishing a greater presence on campus. However, many still felt that the University was

ignoring their needs.


Instead, his application was buried for 18 months before finally being denied.

During those 18 months, his case was championed by a Hop-kins professor named Broadus Mitchell, a strong advocate of racial equality. Mitchell ended up getting in significant trou-ble with the administration due to his persistence on behalf of Edward Lewis.

In reply to a letter sent by Mitchell, an influential mem-ber of the Un i v e r s i t y Board wrote, “In a place like Boston, where Ne-groes are in a small minor-ity it is pos-sible to admit them to white schools, but your sugges-tion that this be done in Maryland, a south-ern state, is a reflection on your common sense.”

The very next day, Mitch-ell shot back a reply: “You are doubtless horrified that the Nazis exclude Jews from their universities, while you call the person who objects to exclud-ing Negroes from the Univer-

sity of which you are a trustee lacking in ‘common sense.’”

Later, Mitchell wrote to the chairman of the board, “The University under your man-agement, if your attitude in this matter of admission of Negroes is indicative, seems to me in danger of shriveling intellectually and spiritually.”

As the University continued to ignore his pleas, Mitchell’s efforts were revealed in The News-Letter, which also polled

graduate stu-dents across the Universi-ty and found broad support for admit-ting African-A m e r i c a n students. The administra-tion was furi-ous.

On March 21, The News-

Letter published an editorial suggesting, “The best way to solve the problem, it seems to us, is to return to simplicity [and] examine the record of Edward Lewis without regard to color.”

Lewis’s application was of-ficially rejected the same day. Later, after getting into

a heated argument with the University president over the issue, Mitchell resigned.

IT TOOK ALMOST A decade before Hopkins admitted its first Afri-can-American under-

graduate. Frederick Scott was a Baltimorean who attended Frederick Douglass High School.

Already accepted into Penn-sylvania State University, Scott applied to Hopkins on a dare from his friends. He contacted the Registrar and asked if they “accepted Negroes in here.” The Registrar told him to give it a try and Scott ended up en-rolling at Hopkins in 1945.

While at Hopkins, he helped found the University’s chapter of Beta Sigma Tau, the first in-terracial fraternity. Scott also was selected to serve on Hop-kins’ first honor council.

Scott did not recall experi-encing any overt discrimina-tion at Hopkins, though he believed he was kept out of the theater group Barnstormers because of his race. While his studies were interrupted by a 15-month tour of duty in the Army, in 1950 Scott became the first black undergraduate to receive a degree from Hopkins.

By 1968, black students were establishing a greater presence on campus. However, many still felt that the University was ignoring their needs. It was for this reason that students like Guess and Baker came togeth-er to form the BSU.

The Hopkins administra-tion, however, refused to go along with the proposal.

“That’s always been the problem at Hopkins. It’s okay as long as we’re [blacks] not driving the train,” Guess told the African-Americans at Hopkins project.

When the administration refused to cooperate, Guess and his friends took matters into their own hands and oc-cupied the Homewood House until the administration would listen to their demands.

“We did not see courses that created awareness of our ex-perience — remember, I, like a number of students, came to Hopkins from segregated communities,” he wrote.

“So we wanted courses on the black experience. And we wanted black professors teach-ing those and other courses. We wanted an increase in black student enrollment, the hiring of more black profes-sors, the hiring of a black staff


a heated argument with the University president over the issue, Mitchell resigned.

IT TOOK ALMOST A decade before Hopkins admitted its first Afri-can-American under-

graduate. Frederick Scott was a Baltimorean who attended Frederick Douglass High School.

Already accepted into Penn-sylvania State University, Scott applied to Hopkins on a dare from his friends. He contacted the Registrar and asked if they “accepted Negroes in here.” The Registrar told him to give it a try and Scott ended up en-rolling at Hopkins in 1945.

While at Hopkins, he helped found the University’s chapter of Beta Sigma Tau, the first in-terracial fraternity. Scott also was selected to serve on Hop-kins’ first honor council.

Scott did not recall experi-encing any overt discrimina-tion at Hopkins, though he believed he was kept out of the theater group Barnstormers because of his race. While his studies were interrupted by a 15-month tour of duty in the Army, in 1950 Scott became the first black undergraduate to receive a degree from Hopkins.

By 1968, black students were establishing a greater presence on campus. However, many still felt that the University was ignoring their needs. It was for this reason that students like Guess and Baker came togeth-er to form the BSU.

The Hopkins administra-tion, however, refused to go along with the proposal.

“That’s always been the problem at Hopkins. It’s okay as long as we’re [blacks] not driving the train,” Guess told the African-Americans at Hopkins project.

When the administration refused to cooperate, Guess and his friends took matters into their own hands and oc-cupied the Homewood House until the administration would listen to their demands.

“We did not see courses that created awareness of our ex-perience — remember, I, like a number of students, came to Hopkins from segregated communities,” he wrote.

“So we wanted courses on the black experience. And we wanted black professors teach-ing those and other courses. We wanted an increase in black student enrollment, the hiring of more black profes-sors, the hiring of a black staff

person in the university ad-missions office, a black barber and a section of the Milton Eisenhower library that would be dedicated to black authors.”

“The students also asked that committees be formed “to fa-cilitate the integration of the black community into Home-wood, while still maintaining their black identity” and they requested formal recognition of this “Black Student Union” by the administration,” he wrote.

According to Guess, most of the demands the black stu-dents presented were eventu-ally met by the University be-grudgingly. Others, he wrote, were met in, “a spirit of healthy attempts to understand these new people and unfamiliar culture thrust upon Univer-sity officials.”

He looks back on his student radicalism with pride.

“It was a major accomplish-ment, getting mostly middle class kids to take such a re-bellious act toward authority, regardless of whether we were right or not,” he wrote.

The University still refused to cooperate when it came to the creation of the BSU, how-ever. The administration ob-jected to language in the pro-

posed BSU constitution that it believed would ban whites from joining the organization.

Rather than accept the Uni-versity’s decision, the black students formed the BSU any-way. It received official sanc-tion in 1969.

While at Hopkins, Guess was also elected as the first black president of the Student Council. He served during a tumultuous time.

“The night of my election, there was a police drug bust on campus. I ran during a pe-riod when the Vietnam War and Civil Rights demonstra-tions were prevalent. I had been to New Hampshire sup-porting Gene McCarthy and had been a youth coordinator for CORE (The Congress of Racial Equality) in Baltimore,” Guess wrote.

“That night, after class, there was a huge protest rally be-cause of students’ feeling that the police had ‘violated’ the campus. My year as president was a riotous one, with me es-tablishing a ‘Kitchen Cabinet’ to formulate policy that was presented to the Council, at times having to explain my not carrying more water for the BSU, and shutting down fund-ing for The News-Letter when it

became a bit too critical of me.”For Guess, the drug bust was

the single event that brought Hopkins into the national protest movement. When stu-dent protests stopped classes from being held, Guess and other student leaders negoti-ated with administrators and worked to reopen classes.

But tension between black students and the Hopkins Ad-ministration continued. In the academic year 1992-1993, the BSU, led by Henry Boateng, was involved in several con-troversies on campus. They presented a list of demands to the University calling for the hiring of more black faculty and the creation of an African-American studies program.

The BSU also occupied the MSE Library after-hours be-cause it objected to a display on white abolitionists put up for Black History Month. They believed the display suggest-ed black history was a story of African-Americans being helped by whites.

Forty-two years later, the BSU remains active on cam-pus, preserving the legacies of Miller, Guess and other black students who fought for equal-ity in the face of opposition and indifference. n

This year’s Baltimore Tattoo Conven-tion shed light on the impressive per-manent artwork of world famous tattoo artists. The Convention, an annual event held in the Inner Harbor, provides an out-let for tattoo fanatics to show off their own work, get some new ink and celebrate the unique — and often overlooked — talent of tattoo artists.

However, one need not wait for the next convention in order to experience truly magnificent work because Baltimore hous-es its very own seasoned tattoo artists.

What comes to most people’s minds when thinking of Baltimore tattoo art is the Baltimore Tattoo Museum. Located near Fell’s Point, George “Fudgie” Dob-

son, Chris Keaton and Bill Stevenson opened the museum, which also dou-

bles as a tattoo street shop, in 1999. With 10 years under its belt, the Museum has never been more popular.

While its artists specialize in old school traditional, portraits, Japanese, Kanji and more, they are most often complemented on their ability to create a custom work inspired by an off-the-wall gallery piece.

Visiting the museum, though, is one of the best ways to begin one’s apprecia-

tion of the history of tattooing. It show-cases this history in pictures, old tattoo needles and even a dated Barbie doll with a stick-on tattoo. The museum serves as a reminder that while tattoos have become less stigmatized recently, they have been around forever and upon getting a tattoo, one becomes a part of a long-running tra-dition of permanent body art.

The Baltimore Tattoo Museum’s Dob-son eventually moved onto Read Street Tattoo Parlour, another big name in Bal-timore tattoo culture. With its four cur-rent artists, Read Street has also become known for hosting renowned guest artists from around the world. No longer located on Read Street, the parlor has retained its name.

One thing it did not retain, however, was celebrated artist Seth Ciferri. Ciferri is known not simply in Baltimore, but throughout the worldwide tattoo com-munity. And while Read Street has under-gone some significant changes, it is still hailed for being one of the best parlors in Baltimore.

As of late, several members of Read Street Tattoos have left the famous shop and opened Devil’s Workshop, which is housed in the old Reptilian Records next to the Ottobar.

Less than a year ago, the Devil’s Work-shop celebrated its grand opening, and while it may not have as many years as oth-er Baltimore tattoo shops, it certainly holds a lot of promise. With names like Dobson (previously of Read Street and Baltimore Tattoo Museum), this shop might make

B’More Inked Baltimore tattoo artists take on a unique canvas

By Christina Warner

AVA YAP/GRAPHICS STAFF


City Paper’s “Best Tattoo Parlor” yet. Other shops include Saints and Sinners

and Baltimore’s oldest, Tattoo Charlie’s Place. Established in 1938, Charlie’s is Maryland’s oldest studio and the United States’ second-oldest studio. And don’t forget Charm City Tattoo.

In a city with no lack of artists, hipsters and individuals with a yen for ink, there have been other places than just tattoo parlors to view artwork. Art shows, such as “Baltimore Ink: Patterns on Bodies,” have occasionally been featured at local venues.

However, it should be noted that photos of works of art can only go so far. Think about it this way: looking at a print of the “Mona Lisa” is far different than seeing it on the walls of the Louvre. The same goes for tattoos: Seeing them in person is an en-tirely different experience. Favorite waiters or baristas in Charles Village, Hampden and Remington are only some examples of the tattooed Baltimore citizens.

Ex-city planner Jim Hall is one of the more famous tattooed Baltimoreans. His entire body, including some areas that

would appear excruciatingly painful to stick a needle, has been covered in a blue and black pattern he designed himself. Suprisingly though, in an interview with The News-Letter last year, he said the most painful area to get tattooed was his scalp. His shop of choice has Glen Burnie’s Dragon Moon Tattoo Studio.

While this is the first mention of Dragon Moon, the shop cannot be noted without acknowledging its contribution to Hall’s full-body masterpiece, which is certainly one of Baltimore’s most impressive tattoo feats.

Whether you are interested in getting your own ink done, or simply in rec-ommending an artist to a friend, there is no need to look any further than the city limits of Baltimore. Word on the street is as good as a “Best of Baltimore” City Paper review, and it is likely that both verbal and print recommenda-tions will send you to the same places.

Be it a well-established parlor, or one that well-known artists have just opened, there is no lack of variety and tal-ent in the world of Baltimore tattoo art.


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