The Domino Sugar factory in Baltimore, MD, is at the center of Black history in the making today thanks to the hiring of Coricka White.
According to the Baltimore Sun, White is the first Black woman in history to be named the refinery manager. In the nearly 100 years since the factory has been part of the Baltimore skyline — with the Domino Sugar sign being the center point of the city — it has never had a Black woman leading the workers.
The outlet reports that White will oversee a $20 million installation of newly refined sugar silos, which will provide 14 million more pounds of storage capacity. While that seems like a challenge, White says she’s ready for whatever comes her way in the new role.
“I’m looking at myself as being a trailblazer and hope that I can pave the way for folks like myself to follow,” she said. “I definitely stand on the shoulders of some very strong folks here, and I’d like to think of my success as the success of the Domino family. It speaks to how progressive our organization is. I’m proud to say yes, and happy to be the first — but I definitely don’t want to be the last.”
The progressivism of the Domino Sugar factory isn’t just rooted in this latest hire, and neither is it a sop to the latest political buzzwords. Rather, according to a 2012 report released by the Capital News Service, the company was looking to be progressive in areas such as clean energy as well.
At that time, they announced that they’d invested $2 million into the installation of clean energy — and this was done at a time when it wasn’t a political buzzword.
The Domino Sugar factory is the last remaining manufacturing plant still operating in Baltimore’s inner harbor, and hopefully, it will be there for a long time to come.
