Fannie Birckhead

Fannie Mae Ward Birckhead (née Ward; February 28, 1935 – February 9, 2022) was a U.S. community organizer, judge, and politician. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was a plaintiff who successfully challenged the discriminatory election systems of Snow Hill, Maryland and Worcester County, Maryland. In 1987, she became the first African-American town councillor in Snow Hill. In 1998, she became the first Black woman to serve as mayor on the Eastern Shore of Maryland (interim mayor, not elected). From 1998 to 2002, she served as a judge on the orphans' court of Worcester County, the first Black person to do so.

Early life and education Birckhead was born on February 28, 1935, to Beatrice Geneva (née Drummond) and Frank James Ward Sr. She completed training at the Maryland State College and University of Maryland, College Park. In 1985, Birckhead and James Lee Purnell Jr. were among the seven plaintiffs who, with the support of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the town of Snow Hill, Maryland which had disenfranchised its Black constituents. In the 1990s, Birckhead was one of five plaintiffs who filed a successful lawsuit with the ACLU of Maryland against Worcester County's election system. She was the only woman plaintiff. This made her the first Black women mayor on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Later that year, Birckhead, a Democrat, was elected to the orphans' court of Worcester County.

In the 1980s, Birckhead was the first Black person to drive the boardwalk tram in Ocean City, Maryland.