I say this a lot, but over the past year, I’ve found it to be so true: Baltimore is such an underrated, unique place to live. East Coast cities are a dime a dozen – Boston, Philadelphia, each borough of NYC, Atlanta, Richmond, Charleston, the list goes on and on. Each city has its own quirks and is famous – or infamous – for different things, but all in all, you run into a lot of the same aspects of society in most cities. This is where I think Baltimore differs from the rest.

This past week, April 19 to be exact, Baltimore acknowledged a very solemn anniversary. It had been exactly one year since Freddie Gray died of a coma after brutal mistreatment by law enforcement officers while being arrested in Baltimore. In the world we live in today, sadly, police violence doesn’t always make the news, but this was an event that shook Baltimore to its core. Not only was this the front-page headline in every paper, but it pushed racial tensions to the point of explosion and almost ended up destroying the city.

It all started with Freddie Gray’s arrest on April 12, 2015. The 25-year-old black man was taken into police custody for allegedly having an illegal switchblade on his person at the time of the arrest. He had over 20 other criminal charges on his record, some still legally active, and was promptly arrested after a non-aggressive confrontation with police. Shortly after being put in a police van without proper seatbelts and safety precautions, he suffered an irreversible spinal cord injury and became unresponsive; he died a week later. Protests began on April 18. The six officers involved in his arrest were charged on April 21; the first use of violence at a protest happened on April 25. Protesters stood in downtown Baltimore to support Freddie Gray’s family and highlight the injustice that had occurred; people eventually began throwing rocks and a car was set on fire. That day, over 30 protestors were arrested and 15 police officers were injured. Over the next few days, the infamous riots that were plastered all over TV stations nationwide, including the burning down of a CVS and numerous violent protests and lootings occurred. The National Guard was sent to Baltimore, a curfew was enacted, all public and most private schools cancelled classes, and Governor Hogan declared Baltimore to be in a state of emergency.

Before Freddie Gray, Baltimore had not seen a violent protest since the Civil Rights movement in the 60s. Before Freddie Gray, racial tensions had been suppressed in Baltimore for multiple generations. Before Freddie Gray, the conversation of inequality and mistreatment and injustice had not been explored in our city. Freddie Gray’s death was tragic, there is absolutely no question about it. Reports after the fact say that his spine was roughly 80 percent severed by the time he made it to the hospital. He died a painful, inhumane death and he serves as a sobering reminder that we have made progress in the fight for simple human equality over the years, but we’re far from where we need to be. Freddie Gray is a name heard amongst many others: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, and a frighteningly high number of other black men and women killed by some form of law enforcement in non-provocative confrontations. Because of Freddie Gray and many others, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has taken off, shedding light on many of the injustices black people face in today’s world, despite the image that anti-segregation laws meant the end of social segregation and hardships. The protests in Baltimore lead to protests in New York, Philadelphia, D.C., Denver, Portland, and all over the United States; over twenty organized, public protests took place nationwide before the end of April. Freddie Gray’s constitutional rights were violated on the morning of April 12, 2015 – he was given a cruel and unusual death. But we can hope his family rests easily knowing that their son did not die in vain. He sparked a social revolution. Because of Freddie Gray, because of the Baltimore riots, the Civil Rights movement that was so unceremoniously halted after the late 1960s has surged back into motion.

And as for Baltimore itself, the Charm City lost some of its charm after the riots. Baltimore got a stigma of being a violent and dangerous place. University enrollment in Baltimore-area schools like Johns Hopkins, Loyola, and Towson dropped significantly. Loyola alone lost over 200 deposits from students in the class of 2019 as a result of the unrest. However, a year after the riots in Baltimore, the city stands strong as ever. Peaceful marches and memorials in honor of Freddie Gray took place this past week, reminding us that we are only where we are going because of where we have been. The riots of April 2015 are a part of our city’s identity now; there’s no use in trying to hide them or be shameful of what happened. At the annual Caufield Lecture at Loyola University this past week, in reflecting on Baltimore over the past year, a video was played in which we saw Baltimore and its citizens after the unrest. A man in the streets was shown picking up bricks and putting them in trash bags. He told a reporter that he didn’t want the bricks to become weapons, so his friends had decided the best way to prevent that was cleaning up the streets by themselves. “That’s what Baltimore is all about,” he proceeded to say to the camera, “people helping people.”