When Black boaters faced discrimination on the water, this yacht club became a refuge

Commodore Benny McCottry stands outside the entrance of the Seafarers Yacht Club of Annapolis in Annapolis, Md. It was founded more than 60 years ago by a handful of Black boaters. (Keren Carrión/NPR)

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland — David Turner, whose father and grandfather worked the Chesapeake Bay as crabbers and oystermen, recalls "getting up at the crack of dawn" as a kid to help out on weekends and summers.

"I hated it," he says. Turner's childhood experience on Kent Island left him wanting "nothing to do with the water."