Greeks in Baltimore

XIX century

The first Greeks to arrive in Baltimore were nine teenage refugees who escaped the massacre of Chios (1822) - the Ottoman Turkish massacre of tens of thousands of Greeks on the island of Chios during the Greek struggle for independence ^[1] .

In the 1890s, immigrants from Greece first began to settle in Baltimore in large numbers ^[2] .

XX century

One of the first Greek settlers of Baltimore built the Orthodox Evangelical Church (1906) and the Annunciation Cathedral (1909) ^[2] .

By the 1920s, the actively developing, but still small Greek community was firmly established in Baltimore. Soon, the Church of St. Nicholas was built to meet the needs of a growing community in the city ^[3] .

In the 1930-1950s, Greek immigration to Baltimore reached its peak ^[4] .

In 1959, the local Greeks first achieved political representation when Peter Angelos was elected to the city council of Baltimore.

In 1960-1980, the Greek population of the city experienced another, albeit a smaller scale, sharp increase in numbers, which was the adoption of the Immigration and Citizenship Act in 1965 (Hart-Zeller Act). During this period, which ended by the early 1980s, thousands of Greeks arrived in Baltimore.

In the 1980s, the Greek inhabitants of Neyborhud, who at that time was known as Hill, obtained from the city authorities renaming it to Grikttown. By that time, the Greek community consisted of 25,000 people ^[5] .

XXI century

Despite the fact that there is still a significant presence of American Greeks in Griktaune and Highlandtown, the number of the Greek community is declining: the population is aging, and many have left their neyborhuds. Against the background of the decline in the Greek population, the number of newly arriving Latin Americans is rapidly increasing ^{[6] [7] [8]} .

In 1920, 699 foreign-born white residents of Baltimore spoke Greek ^[9] .

In 1940, about 1,200 American Greeks lived in Baltimore ^[1] . In the same year, 1,193 immigrants from Greece were residents of Baltimore, representing 2% of the white population, whose representatives were from other countries ^[10] .

In 2000, the Greek community of the Baltimore agglomeration numbered 16,764 people (0.7% of the population) ^[11] , of which 2,693 lived in the city of Baltimore (0.4% of the population) ^[12] .

In 2013, about 2,611 Greeks (0.4% of the population) lived in Baltimore ^[13] .

In September 2014, immigrants from Greece occupied the 24th place in the list of the largest populations of Baltimore born abroad, and Greek (besides English) was the ninth most common language in use ^[14] .

Baltimore has many restaurants of Greek-American cuisine , including Ikaros, The Acropolis, The Black Olive, Samos and Zorba's. In addition, the city is annually held the Greek Folk Festival ( English Greek Folk Festival ), which is arranged in the local church of St. Nicholas.

The majority of people from Baltimore who live in Greece and their descendants belong to the Greek Orthodox Church , and a small minority to Judaism . In the latter case, we are talking about Jewish immigrants from Greece (mainly Sephardic ^[15] ), most of whom migrated to Baltimore in the 1950s from Thessaloniki , as well as from Athens and Patras .

Every year a solemn parade is held on the occasion of the Independence Day of Greece ^{[16] [17]} .

Historically, the Greek mafia is present in Baltimore ^[18] .

• Spiro Agnew (1918–1996) - Republican politician , governor of Maryland (1967–1969) and vice-president of the United States (1969–1973) under Richard Nixon . The first American Greek to hold these positions.
• Peter Angelos (born 1930) is a lawyer , the main owner of the professional baseball club " Baltimor Orioles ".
• Sam Bulmetis Sr. (born 1927) - jockey .
• Gregg Karukas (born 1956) is a keyboard player , producer , composer and pianist .
• Peter Moskos (born 1971) is a former member of the Baltimore Police Department , an assistant professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a Graduate School of Sociology at the University of New York .
• John Sarbanes (born 1962) is a Democrat politician and member of the US House of Representatives .
• Paul Sarbanes (born 1933) - Democrat politician, member of the US House of Representatives (1971-1977) and US Senate (1977-2007).
• Joanna Sfikas-Karvelas (born 1950) is an opera singer ( dramatic soprano ), performing leading roles and performing in the USA and Europe .
• Frank Zappa (1940–1993) - composer , singer , multi-instrumentalist , producer , songwriter , experimental musician, as well as sound and film director .

• Baltimore history

• Bazzarone, Ann Korologos. Death and diaspora: Greek American acculturation in Salt Lake City, Utah and Baltimore, Maryland , George Mason University, 2007.
• Caraveli, Anna. Scattered in Baltimore , Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1985. ISBN 0912298596 .
• Icon Films. A village in Baltimore. : images of Greek-American women , Washington, DC: Icon Films, 1981.
• Kiladis, Mary Bahadouris; Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation (Baltimore, Maryland). Seventy-fifth anniversary of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Baltimore, Maryland, 1906—81 , Baltimore, MD: Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, 1981.
• Moses, Doreen. A Village in Baltimore , Washington, DC: D. Moses, 1981.
• Prevas, Nicholas M. Gone, but not forgotten: A definitive history of the Greek section of the Church of the Annunciation, 2001.
• Prevas, Baltimore, Maryland , Baltimore, Md. : JD Lucas Print. Co., 1982.
• Prevas, Nicholas House of God ... Gateway to Heaven: Baltimore, Maryland , Baltimore, Md. : Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation., 2007.
• Prevas, Pauline; Angelos, Steven. Oral history interview, 1975.

• The Artistic Renaissance In Baltimore's Greektown
• Baltimore-Piraeus Sister City Committee
• Crazy greek pizza
• Culture shop: Baltimore
• Greek Folk Festival
• Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation
• Ikaros restaurant
• Maryland Greek Independence Day Parade
• Percentage of Greeks in Baltimore, MD by Zip Code
• Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church
• Samos restaurant
• St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church of Baltimore
• The acropolis restaurant
• The Black Olive restaurant
• Greek baltimore
• MD Greek Parade ( Twitter )
• Maryland Greek Independence Day Parade ( Facebook )