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Cambridge Ponders Race Relations 50 Years After Riots

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This weekend many in the city of Cambridge marked the 50th anniversary of the riots shook that the town in the midst of the civil rights movement.

The Salisbury Daily Times reports that around 200 gathered at the Bethel AME church on Saturday under the banner, “A Community Conversation on Race”.

It was 50 years ago that a fire on Pine Street symbolized the upheaval of the times.

One of the event organizers Dion Banks with the Eastern Shore Network for Change told the paper that the community needed to understand why it happened and how the community can find racial harmony in these tense times.

On Friday a mural was unveiled celebrating African American leaders including abolitionist Harriet Tubman whose Underground Railroad Visitors Centered opened this year.

Some in the crowd feared that there were those who might try to deface it with a racial slur.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.