Wiley Bates
Wiley H. Bates represented the very best of his times. Born a slave in North Carolina in August 1859 and after having moved north after the Civil War he worked as a water and freight tender on the C&O Railroad and then as part of the crew of barge on the C&O Canal between Cumberland, Maryland, and Georgetown, DC. Still living with his mother, she moved the family to Annapolis where he found work cleaning oysters.
He quickly became known as a positive, high-energy young man who excelled at anything he put his mind to. His early trades included waiting tables, selling wood and catching and selling crabs. He then opened a grocery store at 54 Cathedral Street, married and became part of the Asbury AME Church’s congregation.
Nevertheless, it was a time of growing racism. Politically at least, he overcame this challenge in 1897 when he was elected Annapolis’ third African American Alderman, representing what was then the Third and later Fourth Ward.
Bates became a tireless crusader for parity and equal rights. He ensured that when salaries were raised for white teachers they were similarly raised for black teachers. He condemned the senseless lynching of Wright Smith, a black man dragged from the city jail at night and then shot in the back while trying to flee an angry white mob. He offered a resolution condemning the killing in city council, which was defeated since only one other council member voted.
In 1908 the infamous Grandfather Law was passed, barring African Americans from holding office or even voting. So he lost his seat in city council to a white man, James Adams. He re-gained it again in 1915 but only after the US Supreme Court threw out this odious tool of disenfranchisement.
Bates retired from the grocery business in 1912 but continued to show a keen interest in matters relating to education. He is considered a founder of Wiley Bates High School, donating $500 to the construction of the High School that served a segregated Annapolis through the end of this era. He died in 1935 and became a beacon to Annapolitans who followed later in the 20th century and struggled for racial, economic and social equality.
Today Wiley’s strong municipal spirit lives on in Annapolis’ people and places. His Bates High School is today being restored for retirement and community living. And descendants include noted local Historian Janice Hayes Williams. A fitting tribute to the man who saw only positive opportunities in his troubled world.
"It is not with egotism that I boast on some of my accomplishment but it is to educate others what can be attained with pluck and perseverance. We as Negros in this country must understand that the opportunities for forging ahead are as great now as ever and I might say, greater; but first of all, let God direct you."
—The Researches, Sayings and Life of Wiley H. Bates, 1928
