Bertha Copeland Receives 2025 HCRP Civil Rights Leadership Award

The 2025 Harford Civil Rights Project Civil Rights Leadership Award was presented to Bertha Copeland at a reception at Harford Community College on February 27. The award represents lifetime achievement and dedication to civil rights.

Dr. James Karmel, Harford Civil Rights Project (HCRP) Director and Professor of History at Harford Community College, welcomed guests to the reception. Additional speakers included Dr. Theresa Felder, Harford Community College President; Harford Community College HCRP students Brittany Baylor, Quentin Santiago, and Elizabeth Hunter; and Nathalie James, Alberta Brier, and C. Tiger Davis, who made award nomination speeches. Entertainment was provided by the Benny Russell Jazz Trio.

Bertha Copeland has a long, dedicated record of Civil Rights achievement in Harford County. Florida-born, she grew up in the deep South in the middle of the Jim Crow era, giving her a lifelong perspective on the importance of fighting racial injustice. While working as a Licensed Practical Nurse at the Perry Point Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Mrs. Copeland dove into Civil Rights leadership in the 1950s seeking racial equality in and around Harford County. She was a leader in the Hamilton Court Association, seeking to improve working living conditions and fair housing opportunities for Black families in Aberdeen. In 1963, she led an effort to mobilize car transportation barred from crossing the Hatem Bridge between Perryville and Havre de Grace on their way to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. She participated in the March and also coordinated efforts to provide the marchers with food and shelter. In the 1960s, she organized bus trips to the Harford County Courthouse from Aberdeen to help people register to vote. She continued her involvement in local politics by serving as an election judge beginning in the 1970s to ensure fair representation at the polls. Mrs. Copeland also participated in the 1997 Million Woman March and the 2000 Million Family March. In 2011, Harford County Council and Harford County Public Library recognized Mrs. Copeland as a Harford Living Treasure. She has been a member of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church since 1956, actively involved in many church activities and service to her community as an embodiment of her faith.

Past Harford Civil Rights Project Civil Rights Leadership Award winners include Janice East Moorehead Grant (2023) and Nathalie Mullen James (2024).

Additional information about the Harford Civil Rights Project can be found here.