Growing up in West Baltimore, Lamar Richards remembers childhood summers playing football on the streets of Sandtown-Winchester and using the $5 his parents gave him — while scrounging for some extra change — to buy a chicken box. Life was simple then, he said.
He knew he wanted to leave the city as an adult when it felt like crime was everywhere; when people he knew went to jail or got shot and killed; when gunshots became background noise.
“I think after a while, being in that environment takes a toll on you,” he said. “I think most people, that would take a mental toll on them.”
Richards, 27, moved out of the city in October 2021, long after he was ready to go, he said. Tired of the long commute, he finally made the jump when he was able to afford it after getting a job in Washington at the Department of Energy as a finance contractor. He moved to southern Prince George’s County.
He is among tens of thousands of Black residents who have led the decadeslong population loss in the city. Once the most loyal segment of the city, African American residents are leading the migration out. While they still make up the majority of the population at 57% of all residents, they are also moving out the fastest.
The city has lost more Black residents than white residents with about 57,000 Black residents leaving between 2010 and 2020, according to a Baltimore Banner analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. That was more than double the drop in white residents. Growth in the Hispanic, Asian and multiracial populations offset losses in the Black and white population.
