Further question, has Maryland ever really been considered to be part of the South? My understanding is that it’s the beginning of the North.

Further south there was a higher density of freed slaves and proportionally fewer Europeans. The attitude of people in a state that was 10-20% freed slave was different than states where the freedmen's numbers were equal to or greater than the white people. In E KY and W MD there were very few freedmen because the plantation system didn't work in Appalachia. Racism and Jim Crow was the law of the land even in places where no blacks lived. Many northern cities are still segregated under the defacto boundaries left over after the demise of Jim Crow beginning in the 1960's.

Maryland is largely split into various socio - economic parts, and each has it's particular history. The affluent and larger parts of Maryland, particularly those around the D.C area, were more progressed and open minded towards Afro - American culture, therefore we saw less discrimination in general compared to southern parts of Maryland. By law, they were generally much less discriminatory compared to other Southern states. The main law that was most evident and strictly enforced was for all public forms of transportation to be segregated. This, compared to even some northern states, was relatively liberal at the time.