William "Billy" Poe:
African Americans of Calvert County

William “Billy” Poe, moved to Calvert County in 1975.  The house he lived in was built between 2 farms owned by African-American farmers.  He would often visit his neighbors and listen to their stories. 

Billy moved away for a time and returned to a much different Calvert County in terms of landscape.  Farms were disappearing.  He wanted to capture the stories of the farmers before they were lost forever.

 
This led to a series of photographs and interviews with many of these farmers.   He is the author of a book “African- Americans of Calvert County” which includes many of his photographs and some photos dating back to the Civil War.  He has created a traveling exhibit of 41 photographs and comments from the people featured in the photos.  Calvert Library, Prince Frederick, was the host of this exhibit during February and March, 2013.  The exhibit was viewed by many customers, many of whom commented on the need for an exhibit such as this and expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to view this part of our county history, both in comments to the staff and in a guest book left by Billy.

 
Billy is currently working on a second exhibit of photographs which he plans to share in 2014. 

“African-Americans of Calvert County” is available to check out at the libraries in Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties. 

Inspired to learn more about Black History and African American heritage? Come in and speak to our librarians about checking out our books.

You can also check out these online resources.

Links:

African-American History Online

Black History at Biography.com

Black History at the History Channel

Book Recommendations From BookList

Top 10 Black History Nonfiction

Top 10 Black History Books for Youth