Arch Social Club
Location
Address:2426 Pennsylvania Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore, MD 21217
Description
For over 100 years, Arch Social has been a fixture of Black Baltimore's civil society. Many scholars have asserted that Arch Social is the oldest known, continuously operating African American men's club in the United States. (The Monday Club, Inc. in Wilmington Delaware was established in 1876 and officially incorporated November 4, 1893 and recently celebrated 125 years of continuous service to the community and its membership) The Arch Social Club was casually founded in 1905 and officially incorporated on March 15, 1912. The club is very much a child of Baltimore's brutally repressive racial environment.
Screenings
BLACK MEN UNIFYING BLACK MEN SHORTS: The Black Mr. Rodgers, Momma, Joe Barry Carroll, Erlkönig, Man Pants: A Game of Chance
October 7, 2023, 10:10 amUnited States (2023) - Director: Gerald Hamilton
MID-ATLANTIC PREMIERE
The Black Mr. Rodgers is a documentary film that follows the work of Joseph Williams, who is the Founder and Executive Director of a Chicago based organization called Mr. Dad's Father's Club. Joseph's organization aims to keep fathers active in their children's lives by going into the classrooms and having fathers from the community read to the kids. Often seen reading books to the children in a red cardigan, he was given the nickname "The Black Mr. Rodgers".
This film documents Joseph's journey to enrich his community while also highlighting his rough upbringing, and current struggle to keep his program alive.