Content uploaded by Terri Davis
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Terri Davis on Mar 31, 2025
Content may be subject to copyright.
HOWARD UNIVERSITY
Voicing Concerns: Counter Stories of African Americans Lived
Experiences of Eminent Domain and the Resulting
Impact on Intergenerational Wealth
A Dissertation
Submitted to the Faculty of the
Graduate School
of
HOWARD UNIVERSITY
in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the
degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies
by
Terri L. Davis
Washington, D.C.
July 2023
ii
HOWARD UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE SCHOOL
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION, CULTURE AND MEDIA STUDIES
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
____________________________
Richard L. Wright, Ph.D.
Chairperson
____________________________
Terri Adams, Ph.D.
____________________________
Frances Gateward, Ph.D.
_____________________________
Wei Sun, Ph.D.
____________________________
Mark Hopson, Ph.D.
External Reviewer, Chapman
University
_____________________________
Wei Sun, Ph.D.
Dissertation Advisor
Doctoral Candidate: Terri L. Davis
Date of Final Oral Defense: July 26, 2023
iii
DEDICATION
This body of work is dedicated to my paternal great-grandmother, Sarah Ann Hancock,
born in 1863 into slavery in Nacogdoches, Texas. Her spirit guides me to lift my voice to speak
up against African American injustices.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are a host of individuals to which I am indebted. I am truly grateful to those who
assisted me in this endeavor with love and patience. And to those who laid the foundation and
have passed on, your words of wisdom and encouragement still resonate. I am so thankful for
you all seeing something great inside me when I couldn’t. I have found my voice! My passion,
my purpose, and to you all I am forever thankful:
Margaret Wells
Waymon Wells
Mary Stevens
Annie Linthicum
To my committee THANK YOU! Dr. Wright, Dr. Gateward, Dr. Adams, Dr. Wei Sun.
Thank you for leading and guiding me and never giving up on me. A special thank you to Dr.
Mark Hopson. I look forward to collaborating with you.
I would also like to thank my parents, family, and friends, for allowing me space to focus
on this very important project. I thank you, with much love and admiration.
To my daughter, my heartbeat! Thank you so much for all that you do! (Didn’t HE work
it out!)
v
ABSTRACT
It has been documented that the United States has seized millions of acres of privately
owned land from African Americans in the name of eminent domain. A policy that gives the
government power to take privately owned property for “public good” or commercial use in
exchange for just compensation, is used to obliterate self-sustaining African American
communities throughout the US as early as the 19th century. Compensation was one of the
serious problems faced by families affected by the earliest urban renewal projects guided by
eminent domain (Fullilove et al., 2016).
Eminent domain in African American spaces is a nationwide phenomenon; however, for
this project, the researcher focused on the Washington, DC, and surrounding counties that make
up the DMV area. First, pulling from previous studies, which examined the psychological impact
of eminent domain, this research aims to examine the economic effect to give further context to
the taking of property and other systemic structures that stripped African Americans of
prosperity, leading to the present-day wealth gap.
The research problem addressed in this inquiry addresses whether individuals displaced
due to eminent domain suffered financial loss and the financial impact that loss has on
intergenerational wealth. As a qualitative approach, this study brings forth the lived experiences
of African Americans impacted by eminent domain.
Secondly, this research raises awareness and identified descendants of those who were
victims of land theft. In addition, this research can catalyze reform of eminent domain and seek
restitution for land taken unjustly, starting with examining the African American enclaves in
Montgomery County. Ultimately this research seeks to advance the literature on this
phenomenon and lived experiences of those impacted to provide a resolution to wealth lost.
vi
The research questions centered on the understanding of their perceptions and lived
experiences of persons who were displaced due to eminent domain. The researcher for this
present study utilized a purposive and snowball sampling of 5 participants and administered 12
questions to capture reflections and personal stories that uncovered the financial impact of
eminent domain. All interviews were conducted recorded and transcribed via Zoom. NVivo was
used to code the transcribed interviews and to analyze for themes. The findings of this study
conclude that there is a correlation between eminent domain and lack of generational wealth.
Keywords: black/white wealth gap, eminent domain, stolen land, stolen property,
property rights
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE ................................................................................................. ii
DEDICATION............................................................................................................................ iii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... vii
LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... x
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1
Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................................ 4
Significance of Voice ...............................................................................................................10
Research Questions ................................................................................................................11
Purpose of the Study ..............................................................................................................12
Significance of Study ..............................................................................................................16
Theoretical Framework-Critical Race Theory .........................................................................17
Researchers Positionality ........................................................................................................20
Background of Eminent Domain .............................................................................................21
Conclusion of Introduction .....................................................................................................21
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................23
Introduction ...........................................................................................................................23
African American Land Acquisition During the 19th Century ..................................................23
Historical and Governmental Housing Policies That Negatively Impact African Americans ......26
The Homestead Acts ...........................................................................................................27
Housing Act of 1934 ............................................................................................................28
Federal Housing Administration (FHA) ...............................................................................29
Housing Act of 1949 ............................................................................................................33
Eminent Domain Abuse in African American Spaces ...............................................................41
African American /and White Wealth Gap ..............................................................................46
Narrative Inquiry as a Method ...............................................................................................50
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY ...........................................................................................54
Introduction ...........................................................................................................................54
Research Rationale .................................................................................................................55
Research Design: ....................................................................................................................55
Data Collection ...................................................................................................................56
Historical Analysis ..............................................................................................................56
viii
Interviews and Oral Histories ..............................................................................................58
Sampling ............................................................................................................................59
Recruitment of Participants ................................................................................................60
Participants ........................................................................................................................60
CHAPTER IV: RESULTS .........................................................................................................65
Introduction ...........................................................................................................................65
Washington, DC .................................................................................................................65
Montgomery County, Maryland ..........................................................................................67
Research Questions and Responses .........................................................................................70
RQ1: What were the lived experiences prior to being displaced due to eminent domain? .......70
RQ2: What were the lived experiences after being displaced due to eminent domain? ...........74
RQ3: How has being displaced financially impacted the participants of the study? .............77
RQ4: How did the eminent domain policies affect their generational wealth legacy? .............79
Emergent Themes and Research Questions .............................................................................80
CHAPTER V: SUMMARY, DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION ...................................................82
Introduction ...........................................................................................................................82
Summary of Study .................................................................................................................82
Summary of Findings .............................................................................................................84
Implications of Findings .........................................................................................................85
Contribution to The Literature ...............................................................................................87
Contribution to The Communication Field ..............................................................................87
Limitations ............................................................................................................................88
Methodology .......................................................................................................................88
Age of Participants .............................................................................................................88
Suggestions Future Research ..................................................................................................89
Recommendations ..................................................................................................................89
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................91
APPENDICES ...........................................................................................................................93
Appendix A 1890 ATLAS MAP ..............................................................................................93
Appendix B TOBYTOWN DOCUMENTS SHOW SALE of a PLOT for $10.00 in 1974. ..........94
Appendix C FAMILY TREES of PARTICIPANT 3 & 4, WHOSE FAMILY LIVED in ............96
Appendix D TOBYTOWN DEEDS .........................................................................................98
Appendix E PICTURES of CHEVY CHASE, WASHINGTON, DC BROAD BRANCH ........ 106
ix
Appendix F PLAT of CHEVY CHASE, DC BROAD BRANCH NEIGHBORHOOD ............. 107
Appendix G PLOT of TOBYTOWN NEIGHBORHOOD ..................................................... 113
Appendix H EVENING STAR 1931 ARTICLE ..................................................................... 114
Appendix I INTERVIEW QUESTIONS .............................................................................. 115
Appendix J SCREENING QUESTIONS FOR RECRUITING PARTICIPANTS ................... 116
Appendix K RECRUITMENT MESSAGE ........................................................................... 117
Appendix L CONSENT PREAMBLE .................................................................................. 118
TRANSCRIPTIONS ................................................................................................................ 119
Transcription Participant 1 C.T. .......................................................................................... 119
Transcription Participant 2 M. M ........................................................................................ 134
Transcription Participant 3 J.F. & T. H. .............................................................................. 157
Transcription Participant 4 J.J. .......................................................................................... 177
Transcription Participant 5 S.G. ......................................................................................... 192
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................ 202
x
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Participants Selected for Study ....................................................................................... 61
Table 2 Emergent Themes and Research Questions ................................................................... 81
1
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
“The best way to take care of ourselves is to have land.”
Reverend Garrison Frazier 1865
After the Civil War ended in 1865 freed slaves were protected by the Thirteenth,
Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (Nast et al.,
1998). The scholarship shows that during this period African Americans were allowed to vote,
participate in the political process, acquire land of former owners, seek employment, and use
public accommodations (Nast et al., 1998; DuBois, 1935, 1962). By 1888 over 200 African
American towns and communities had been established. This newfound independence and
progress did not bode well for Whites, who would eventually find ways to impede this growth
and snuff out freed slaves’ freedom (Nast et al., 1998).
In search of jobs and to escape the grip of the Jim Crow laws, African Americans
migrated away from the South in great numbers. According to the 1890 Atlas Map (Appendix
A), the migration pattern during this year showed that there was a heavier concentration of freed
slaves that migrated to Maryland, Virginia and southeastern states as well as an emerging
concentration in New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Toledo and Chicago (Nast
et al., 1998). It is important to examine the great migration for this present study and juxtapose it
against the racist housing covenants as this was the basis of such concentrated African American
communities.
The discourse around the disparity between the African American and White wealth gap
permeates the news and scholarly dialogues. According to the Brookings Institute (2019), the
racial wealth gap has been a widely discussed phenomenon in the academic and policy realms
2
for years (Broyles, 2019). However, few studies have examined the personal impact of eminent
domain on the existing African American wealth gap and the erasure of communities.
Contemporary studies have found that there is a continued significant wealth gap
between African Americans and Whites (Collins & Stockton, 2018; Hamilton & Darity Jr, 2009;
Kijakazi et al., 2016, Kijakazi et al., 2019). While it is true there is a significant gap, it is
important to examine the root of this inequality. Research has demonstrated that history is a
crucial foundation to explore contemporary inequality in part because legacy is passed down
from one generation to the next (Hamilton & Darity Jr, 2009; Shambaugh, 2020).
The present-day wealth gap is not a result of African Americans not being capable of
accumulating wealth. Scholarship has shown that it is quite the contrary. The researchers have
found due to racist systemic structures which impeded wealth attainment has had a trickling-
down effect (Miller, 2011; Rothstein, 2018). Both illegal actions and abuse of legal actions
served as obstacles to attaining wealth and facilitators to the demise of potential wealth building
(Kijakazi et al., 2019). The Miller study entitled, Land and Racial Wealth Inequality (2011), that
examined land and racial wealth inequality outlined two explanations for the financial demise,
which have been echoed by other scholarship, and that is, due to racist policies and the grave
impact of said policies (Miller 2011; Rothstein 2018).
In 2001, the Associated Press conducted an 18-month investigation on African American
land loss and found that out of the 107 land takings, 57 were due to violence, “the other cases
involved trickery and legal manipulations” (Lewan, T. & Barclay, D. 2001). In the 18-month
investigation, which looked at land owned by African Americans over 150 years dating before
the Civil War, the AP documented a pattern in which African Americans were cheated out of
their land or driven from it through intimidation, violence, and even murder. In some cases,
3
government officials approved the land-takings. In others, they took part in them. Under the
guise of eminent domain, land once owned by freed slaves was pilfered.
Sociologist, Steven E. Tolnay (2003), argues that the success of African Americans
threatened the reign of White supremacy noting that there were obvious limitations or ceilings,
that African Americans weren’t supposed to go beyond (Tolnay, 2003). Historical evidence
suggests that in the decades between the Civil War and the civil rights era, one of those
limitations was owning land. Racial violence in America is not a new story, however, the
importance of land as a motive for lynching, white mob attacks on African Americans as well as
laws and policies that allowed the takings of African American-owned land coupled with the
financial impact of said land takings has been widely overlooked and largely unreported.
Dr. Mindy Fullilove, a research psychiatrist at the New York Psychiatric Institute and a
professor at Columbia University conducted a study on the effects of eminent domain abuse on
African American communities and found that African Americans were five times more likely to
be displaced. In her study, she found that between “1949 and 1973 … 2,532 projects were
carried out in 992 cities that displaced one million people, two-thirds of them African
American,” (Fullilove & Wallace, 2011, p. 2).
Drawing from both the 18-month AP and Dr. Fullilove’s study (2007), this present study
explores the impact of eminent domain on the continued African American wealth gap. Although
the literature tells us this is a nationwide phenomenon, this study centered on selective African
American enclaves in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area including Montgomery County,
Maryland.
Mass displacement of African Americans has lasting implications This present research
explored this idea and investigated the power of eminent domain and how it has stripped African
4
Americans of economic and generational wealth, focusing specifically on the DMV area. This
study, which took on a qualitative approach, is based on the argument that the mass displacement
of African Americans due to eminent domain has a direct impact on the lack of generational
wealth. This research puts into context the illegal efforts and legal policies that prey on these
communities. White Americans' wealth today traces back to land ownership and African
American poverty traces back to slavery as well as to the government’s failure in policy and land
distribution after emancipation (Racial Wealth Gaps Research and Data, n.d.). Through the
stories that reflected the lived experiences of the participants of this study, the findings reveal
that there is a correlation between those impacted by eminent domain and the lack of
generational wealth, thus lending to the current African American wealth gap.
Statement of the Problem
Research has shown that the power of government to use eminent domain has expanded
significantly over time, threatening property rights, individual liberty, and generational wealth
(Fullilove, 2007). Eminent domain as defined by scholar Stoebuck (1972) is “a power granted to
government by which property of private persons may be transferred to the government, or an
alter ego such as a public utility, over the transferor’s immediate personal protest” (Stoebuck,
1972, p. 599). In other words, the government has the power to take privately owned property.
The term "public use" has evolved to mean "public purpose," and today private property
is more commonly being taken and transferred to other private parties for "public benefit"
(Fullilove, 2007). It is eminent domain that Montgomery County, Maryland used to seize African
American enclaves namely, Tobytown and Emory Grove. Similarly, just over the Maryland line,
in what is now affluent Chevy Chase, DC, eminent domain was used to displace African
American families from their property that was owned as early as the 19th century. This
5
phenomenon is not unique to the Washington, DC metropolitan area as other governmental
municipalities throughout the US used eminent domain to seize African American enclaves.
Who are the lives that were impacted by this displacement? What are the individual stories
behind the statistics that tout the African American White wealth gap?
To understand this wealth gap, one must examine it through a critical lens, not just 10 or
50 years, but extend back to the emancipation of slavery and the ability of once enslaved people
to acquire land. It is important to investigate the violent, systemic takings, structures, and
policies that were in place to keep African Americans from achieving basic everyday skills, such
as reading let alone economic wealth. Further, it is imperative to put into context the historical
impact of existing inequality as its unequal wealth legacy is passed down from generation to
generation (Shambaugh, 2020). The remnants of policies such as denial of property rights, land
ownership policies and many others that impacted African Americans' financial wealth can still
be felt today, thus the widening of the African American-White wealth gap.
A Catalyst Brief (2019) conducted by the Urban Institute, examined what it would take to
overcome the damaging effects of structural racism and ensure a more equitable future. They
echoed the same sentiments and acknowledged that for most of its history, the United States
excluded people of color from its main pathways of opportunity and upward mobility (Kijakazi
et al., 2019). Further noting that the history of discriminatory policies and institutional practices
created deep inequities across social and economic domains (Kijakazi et al., 2019).
If land and property are wealth, it is clear how there is a disparity between African
American and White wealth. Eminent domain abuse coupled with the advent of urban renewal
policies were used to dismantle disproportionately African American communities. Scholarship
has shown that there is a cycle of land erasure in African American communities throughout the
6
US in the name of eminent domain. One can draw a line, connect the dots, and see how the
policies favored one group over another.
Eminent domain can involve either taking an individual property, multiple properties, or
communities (2016). Note that for this study, the researcher used land interchangeably with
acquired properties whether housing, communities, or land. Notably, in 1942, less than 30 miles
from Potomac and Bethesda, Maryland where this current study is centered, the Federal
Government seized 411 acres of land including an African American neighborhood to construct
what we know now as the Pentagon (Perry, 2016). This community known as East Arlington
had over 200 households and over 900 people residing in the community (Perry, 2016). East
Arlington would soon be razed to become roadways and parking structures for the Pentagon
(WETA, n.d.).
While the Pentagon project made way for public use, its detrimental effects on the
African American community were insurmountable (Moon, 2016; Perry, 2016). What is
disturbing about this case and so many similar ones is that these African American residents
owned their houses, and some of the homes that were taken were built by the owners themselves
(WETA, n.d.). It is important to understand that although “just compensation” may have been
offered to these residents, they were moved into low-income rental projects, with no chance of
passing on any generational wealth (Perry, 2016; Schwab, 2018). The houses they lived in prior
may not have been perfect with running water, as during the Jim Crow era it was customary for
African Americans to not receive the benefits of everyday luxuries, such as running water, as
their White neighbors (Connolly, 2008), but it was a property that they owned, versus the
government-backed public housing they were thrust into due to eminent domain and the building
of a parking structure for the Pentagon (WETA, n.d.).
7
Author Richard Rothstein (2018), notes in his book, The Color of Law: A Forgotten
History of How the U.S. Government Segregated America (2018) that in 1933 faced with a
housing shortage the federal government began a program explicitly designed to provide housing
to White middle-class, and lower-middle class families (Rothstein 2018). He further explains that
African Americans and other people of color were left out of the new suburban communities and
pushed instead into urban housing projects (Rothstein 2018).
Incidentally, this relates to the current study, as individuals were either continually
moved to public housing, or left with little to no financial compensation, which has no recourse
for generational wealth. The mass displacement in East Arlington is not an isolated case.
Innumerable stories of land/property takings of predominantly African American communities
ravished throughout the United States. In his article entitled, Bringing Detroit’s Black Bottom
Back to (Virtual) Life, McGraw (2017) points out that, “tens of thousands of poor and mostly
Black citizens dislocated in the name of civic progress saw their homes, businesses, and
communities appraised, bought and destroyed without their input or permission” (McGraw,
2017).
In the 1950s and 1960s a predominantly African American neighborhood known as Black
Bottom and the neighboring predominately African American business and entertainment hub,
Paradise Valley, in Detroit, were demolished due to eminent domain and urban development.
This led to the forced eviction and mass displacement of 100,000 African Americans to build
Lafayette Park residential district and a highway (McGraw, 2017). According to the Detroit Free
Press article, (2017), the virtually all-White city government bulldozed Black Bottom in the
name of ‘slum clearance’ (McGraw, 2017), and replaced the once close-knit community and
entertainment/business hub with Chrysler Freeway and Lafayette Park, with a mixed-income
8
development and upscale residential community that was settled by mostly Whites. Relocation
assistance was minimal, and many former Black Bottom and Paradise Valley residents were
given just 30 days’ notice to vacate (Black Bottom Neighborhood | Detroit Historical Society,
n.d.).
Black Bottom a neighborhood in Detroit, was originally home to various immigrant
groups, specifically Jewish communities. However, the demographic makeup and hue of the area
began to shift as African Americans migrated northward to escape the Jim Crow South in search
for better jobs. (Black Bottom Neighborhood/Detroit Historical Society, n.d.).. It is important to
note that Black Bottom became one of the few areas where African Americans could live in
Detroit due to the racist climate (McGraw, 2017). “Black Bottom was isolated economically and
socially, but it became a city within a city, with Black merchants, doctors, and lawyers living and
working in the neighborhood” (McGraw, 2017). It is also worth noting that many residents lived
in their own homes with their own yards (McGraw, 2017). Upon the eviction, relocation
assistance was minimal, and many former Black Bottom and Paradise Valley residents were
given only 30 days’ notice to vacate (Black Bottom Neighborhood | Detroit Historical Society,
n.d.). This action is akin to predatory capitalism and forms the basis of this current study, which
investigates the impact of eminent domain on the African American wealth gap. More
importantly to learn firsthand the lived experiences of those personally impacted.
Scholarship has shown that during the early 19th century, African Americans were not
allowed to use the same facilities as Whites. To circumvent this, separate facilities were acquired
by African Americans where they could enjoy themselves. For example, in Southern California,
a parcel of waterfront property, which became known as Bruce’s Beach, was purchased for
$1,275 in 1912 by an African American couple, Willa and Charles Bruce. The plot of land
9
became a thriving resort for African American beachgoers and as the literature reports, the racist
Whites reacted with great hostility (Bruce’s Beach, n.d.). Consequently, other African American
families began to buy property and create a thriving community in Manhattan Beach, California
(Bruce’s Beach, n.d.). However, it is documented that the White residents led by the White real
estate agents went to great lengths to have the property seized in 1924 (Bruce’s Beach, n.d.;
“Bruce’s Beach,” 2021; Hajek et al., 2021). Racists used racist policies to take land that was
acquired legally by African Americans. Ultimately, the city razed the thriving property by
utilizing eminent domain to strip the Bruce’s of their property and wealth legacy.
The property sat vacant for 30 years before the city of Manhattan Beach developed it into
a park in 1956 (Bruce’s Beach, n.d.). In 2022, Ninety-seven years after the land was razed, and
now valued at over 70 million dollars, the land was finally returned to the legal African
American heirs of the Bruce family. (Avery, 2021; Bruce’s Beach, n.d.).
There is a litany of scholarship on the African American-White wealth gap,
discriminatory housing, and race relations, but little research exists which brings forth the voices
of those who have been financially impacted generationally while amplifying their lived
experiences through narrative inquiry. The argument regarding the African American and White
wealth gap appears to be muted when it comes to understanding the impact of eminent domain
throughout the U.S. on African American legacy wealth.
This study demonstrates how the use of “slum” and “blight” were used interchangeably
to justify eminent domain to pave the way for urban renewal. Blight was dual in nature as it was
used to describe deteriorating conditions, but also used as a vehicle to usher in the government’s
power to take property, in the name of eminent domain. This study serves as a launching point
for further examination of other African American communities throughout the United States
10
that have been financially impacted by eminent domain and attempts to fill the gap by examining
and investigating the connection between those who were displaced due to eminent domain in
the Washington, DC Maryland area (DMV) while giving voice to the African Americans
personally financially impacted by this policy.
The history is long and sordid, while the detrimental impact of the African American-
White wealth gap discourse is the status quo. But what pales to be heard are those personally
impacted. The voices of those personally impacted by eminent domain drive this qualitative
study. Through counter storytelling, which is a method used to magnify the voices and lived
experiences of marginalized people. This research brings to life voices unheard, and a spotlight
on their plight.
Significance of Voice
The voice is the instrument that uplifts personal reflections. It can tell authentic
subjective stories that may have otherwise gone unheard. The voice that resonates throughout
this present study and provides a firsthand glimpse of the impact of eminent domain abuse and
the lasting impact on generational wealth is a powerful tool. This is significant to the study as it
sheds firsthand light on a phenomenon that is otherwise not told. The voice of the participants
brought through by open-ended interview questions allows for not only the authentic voice but
emotion.
The voices of the marginalized, are often muted from mainstream media. Their full
stories go untold and often glossed over not giving full context. A 2010 story published in the
Washington Post authored by Anne Gowen, titled “Amid Montgomery’s Affluence , Plight of the
Suburban Poor Worsens”, examined a few of the “poor” residents of Tobytown, an African
American community nestled amongst the affluent city of Potomac, Maryland. The Washington
11
Post article failed to provide a firsthand or historical account on the factors that contributed to
the poverty, while highlighting that poverty had been generational. Specifically, the article failed
to explore the crucial history of the land, which was once owned by freed slaves, and how it was
ultimately seized, developed and replaced with public housing, all while the descendants of those
ancestors were left without any deed to the land that had once been theirs. This study allows the
research participants, including members of the aforementioned Tobytown community, the
platform to share their personal stories of how their inheritance was stolen and counter the
mainstream media, which have queried their communities ignoring the underbelly of the causes
of their plight.
Dr. Olszewski (2022) who authored a study regarding the impact of counter-storytelling
in medicine noted that counter-story is a tool that contradicts, and exposes, the oppression in the
stock narrative by giving voice to the oppressed, silenced or ignored (Olszewski, 2022). Through
storytelling, pictures are curated, and a deeper meaning evolves. It is the power of the voices of
the participants of this present study and others like them that speak out on the travesty of
eminent domain abuse. It is through these individual voices that address the four research
questions listed below.
Research Questions
The paper will culminate by answering the following research questions:
RQ1: What were the lived experiences before being displaced due to eminent domain?
RQ2: What were the lived experiences after being displaced due to eminent domain?
RQ3: How has being displaced financially impacted the participants of the study?
RQ4: How did the eminent domain policies affect their generational wealth legacy?
12
Purpose of the Study
The purposes of this research were, first to examine through a historical and critical lens
to give further context to the financial impact of eminent domain and other systemic structures
that stripped African Americans of prosperity, which, research has shown, have set the wheels in
motion for the present generational wealth gap, specifically under the doctrine of eminent
domain which is enshrined under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. Secondly, this
research serves to provide a space to amplify the voices and the lived experiences of those
African Americans whose ancestors were victims of land theft in the United States.
Specifically, the participants shared personal reflections on the impact eminent domain
had on their lives. Further, this research serves as a catalyst to reform eminent domain and to
seek restitution for land taken unjustly. Ultimately, this study aimed to advocate for redress,
accountability, and changes to eminent domain policies and practices starting with the
examination of the African American enclaves in the DMV, land that was acquired by freed
slaves during the 19th century and communities inhabited predominantly by African Americans
during the 20th century and ultimately lost due to eminent domain and other governmental
policies.
It is important to note, while research shows that eminent domain is still impacting
communities, this study examines a period from the early 19th century up to the height of urban
renewal during the 1970s. The voices collected in this study have been able to trace their family
land ownership back to the early 19th century and weave a chronological narrative while sharing
their lived experiences, because of displacement.
African Americans were stripped from their land and their communities, which led to
mass displacement resulting in erasure of culture and adverse effects on generational wealth.
13
Previous articles have stated that at least eleven million acres of rightfully owned land were lost
or stolen from African Americans due to fraud, deception, and eminent domain (Love, 2017).
These properties could have provided a foundation for wealth building in the post-Jim Crow era
thus narrowing what we now know as the wealth gap. In fact, the wealth gap between African
Americans and Whites was shrinking until the Jim Crow laws took effect (Copeland, 2013).
Noted by scholars, the wealth gap is a culmination of four centuries of institutional and systemic
racism and is a major contributing factor to the existing disparity in income, health, education,
and other social ills pressed upon the African American community (Kijakazi et al., 2021).
To achieve these research objectives, the study examined documents, newspaper
clippings, deeds, plots, and parcel plans as well as interviewed descendants of landowners, in an
effort to answer the research questions. This paper begins with this introduction that lays out the
background, significance, purpose, and theoretical framework, followed by the literature review,
the methods section, findings, and conclusion.
The history of racism, discrimination, and violence is woven into the fabric of the United
States. 250 years of chattel slavery, years of Black codes, Jim Crow, urban renewal under the
Federal Housing Act of 1949, redlining, and predatory lending are just a few systemic structures
that impede wealth for African Americans and cannot be ignored. This history matters for
contemporary inequality in part because its legacy is passed down generation-to-generation
through unequal monetary inheritances which make up a great deal of the current wealth gap
(Shambaugh, 2020).
American history shares that land was a symbol of freedom and both free and enslaved
Africans understood the power of land ownership. During the 16th through 19th centuries, African
Americans created sustained communities, whether settlements, townships, fortifications, and
14
maroon communities. Unfortunately, these areas were either seized through White mob violence
or governmental policies.
During the latter part of the 1880s, big cities in the South were not indebted to Jim Crow
laws and African Americans found more freedom during this time. History has shown that
periods of progress, specifically during the Reconstruction period, were met with incidences of
rebuke, by angry White mobs. As Paula J. Giddings, a Duke University historian, noted “By the
1880s and 1890s, a significant number of blacks began to do very well in terms of
entrepreneurship and land ownership, and it simply couldn’t be tolerated” (Landownership Made
Blacks Targets of Violence and Murder | The Authentic Voice, n.d.). History has shown and
research has documented that White supremacy was the catalyst for the generational demise of
African Americans.
Racial violence in America is a familiar story, but the importance of land as a motive for
lynchings and White mob attacks on African Americans resulting in the loss of land has been
widely overlooked and has gone largely unreported (Lewan, T., & Barclay, D. 2001). As noted
in the Atlanta Black Star article entitled 15 million acres to 1 Million: How Black People Lost
Their Land (2017) the article highlights an example of how one African American family was
run off their land:
After midnight on Oct. 4, 1908, 50 hooded White men surrounded the home of a black
farmer in Hickman, Kentucky, and ordered him to come out for a whipping. When David
Walker refused and shot at them instead, the mob poured coal oil on his house and set it
afire, according to contemporary newspaper accounts. Pleading for mercy, Walker ran out
the front door, followed by four screaming children and his wife, carrying a baby in her
arms. The mob shot them all, wounding three children and killing the others. Walker’s
15
oldest son never escaped the burning house. No one was ever charged with the killings,
and the surviving children were deprived of the farm their father died defending. Land
records show that Walker’s 2 1/2-acre farm was simply folded into the property of a White
neighbor. The neighbor soon sold it to another man, whose daughter owns the undeveloped
land today (Love, 2017).
There are countless stories of thriving African American communities dating back to the
early 19th century, land that was acquired by freed slaves but was taken due to either White mob
violence or eminent domain. For example, Seneca Village in New York, which was founded by
freed slaves in 1825, was seized by the city in 1857 and is now part of Central Park (Uncovering
the History of Seneca Village in New York City, n.d.). The first African American to purchase
land in Seneca Village was a 25-year-old African American young man, with more freed slaves
soon to follow suit and purchase land, and ultimately building a thriving community, Seneca
Village was home to the largest number of African American property owners in New York
before the Civil War and as it is told, it is because of this land ownership the African American
men had the ability to vote (Uncovering the History of Seneca Village in New York City, n.d.).
All of this changed when the city, through eminent domain, desecrated the community to extend
what we now know as Central Park.
The Taking Clause in the Fifth Amendment was originally intended for the taking of
private property to serve as public use with “just compensation.” It is this clause that drives the
present study. What constitutes “just compensation?” How is this enforced? What are the civil
rights implications of eminent domain? Why are African Americans disproportionately impacted
by eminent domain? And how does eminent domain impact wealth and financial legacy?
16
As noted in the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report entitled The Civil Rights
Implication of Eminent Domain Abuse, which was a briefing that was held before the United
States Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, DC, the Fifth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution states that government shall not take private property except for “public use” and
with “just compensation.” The issue becomes how is “public use” defined and who benefits from
“public use.” Moreover, who regulates “just compensation”?
Significance of Study
This research is imperative as it gives historical and contemporary context coupled with a
subjective understanding of the current wealth disparity between African Americans and Whites,
through interviews with those impacted, while chronicling governmental policies that were and
still are in place that continue to impact predominantly African American communities thus
lending to the present day African American and White wealth gap. Ultimately, it brings to life
the graphs and charts of prior empirical studies on the African American White wealth gap and
brings forth the voices of those impacted. What is missing from contemporary studies about the
African American wealth gap are the authentic personal lived experiences and perceptions of
those who have been generational and financially impacted.
This present study investigated legislation that allows for private property to be taken.
More specifically, it focused on African American communities and the impact of said policies
on generational wealth. Through eminent domain and urban renewal efforts, land once legally
acquired by freed Africans/African Americans subsequently expropriated. There are stories
about land takings but few about the return of said land or redress for the harm done. As noted in
the Associated Press study (2001), in recent years, a handful of African American families sued
to regain ancestral lands, but the cases were dismissed on grounds that statutes of limitations had
17
expired. Some legal experts say redress for many land-takings may not be possible unless laws
are changed (Landownership Made Blacks Targets of Violence and Murder | The Authentic
Voice, n.d.). However, the first step in creating change in policies is to recognize and raise
awareness of its negative impact. In addition, to change the narrative and give rise to the unjust
done to those directly impacted, this study puts context to a phenomenon that has paved the way
for the present-day generational wealth gap. This study, specifically for those in the DMV area
provides a platform to raise awareness about the detrimental financial effects of eminent domain,
a practice that often overlooks the harm caused to those affected.
This research will contribute to the existing literature on eminent domain abuse and
further the study conducted by the Associated Press as well as extend Dr. Mindy Fullilove’s
study which examined the impact of eminent domain on African American health. This study
will bring in another dimension to not only address the economic inequality but will also benefit
affected communities by giving voice to their plight and to ultimately bring about redress and
change to eminent domain abuse.
Theoretical Framework-Critical Race Theory
This study used critical race theory as a theoretical framework that guides in investigating
and correlating eminent domain abuse as a foundational cause of wealth disparity. The central
focus of CRT is the endemic nature of racism. According to Lawrence & Hilton’s article (2022),
“CRT has been used successfully as an analytical framework to explore matters of race,
racialization, and subordination in numerous fields” (Lawrence & Hylton, 2022, p. 1).
CRT grew out of legal scholarship and is based on the premise that racism is systemic
and thereby influences societal institutions and interactions (Bell, Crenshaw, Matsuda,
Lawrence, & Delgado,1989). In their book Critical Race Theory An Introduction (2012), the
18
authors argue that CRT is a collection of activists and scholars engaged in studying and
transforming the relationship between race, racism, and power (Delgado et al., 2012).
Additionally, CRT aims to give marginalized people a voice to provide a counter-
narrative to mainstream discourses about race and racism as well as issues that impact said group
by mainstream media (Crenshaw, 2012; Delgado 2011) including the news.
There are five tenets of critical race theory, and all are essential when seeking to address
racial inequalities especially when examining the racial wealth gap which includes:
1. Storytelling/Counter storytelling
2. Permanence of Racism
3. Whiteness as property,
4. Interest convergence
5. Critique of liberalism.
For this study, the researcher applied critical race theory’s concept of permanence of
racism to examine structural racist policies that have contributed to the current African American
wealth gap. Additionally, counterstorytelling was used as a tool to give authentic voice and to
amplify the voices of the marginalized.
Through the counterstory tenet of CRT, the participants were able to refute stock stories
and bring to life a counter discourse often controlled by the status quo. Counterstorytelling is a
method of telling the stories of those people whose experiences are not often told (Delgado 2001,
Solorzano, 2002, Aleman, 2017, Olszewski, 2022) and whose voices are muted. Delgado argues
that for many victims of racial discrimination counter storytelling and storytelling can be used to
expose, analyze, as well as challenge negative narratives and characterizations of racial
privilege. This is very important for the present study as it allows for the historical racist
19
structures to be examined. Counterstorytelling is a method of telling stories of those who may
have not been able to act in opposition to negative images and narratives. As Delgado (2001),
notes, “Engaging stories can help us understand what life is like for others and invite the reader
into a new and unfamiliar world.” (Delgado, 2001 p.41).
The simple sharing of views and experiences of someone outside of a dominant culture
can be enough to create a new narrative. “Society constructs the social world through a series of
tacit agreements mediated by images, pictures, tales, and scripts. (Delgado, 2001, p. 42).
Counter-stories can help promote social justice by putting a human face to the experiences of
often-marginalized groups which is relevant to the present study by allowing the amplification of
voices, through personal interviews, by those impacted by systemic policies and laws and in this
case eminent domain abuse.
Delgado states in his text, Critical Race Theory, (Delgado et al., 2012), that often victims
of racial discrimination suffer in silence and or blame themselves for their predicament (Delgado
2012, p. 43). Counter stories have the power to shift narratives while providing a theoretical lens
and a look into myths about a group of people.
Further, the goal of CRT is to work toward social justice and equality. It is for this reason
that the researcher is grounding this research in critical race theory as a guide to examine the
racist policies and structures that have been the foundation of racial inequities and the present-
day wealth gap among African Americans while providing a space for stories to be told. As a
critical approach to eminent domain and the taking of property, specifically from freed slaves
who obtained their land legally, there must be tools in place to remedy the ills that still plague
descendants of slavery. The CRT theoretical framework guided this research and confronted the
oppressive structures.
20
Researchers Positionality
Both communication scholars, Dr. Lawrence R. Frey, Professor of Communication at the
University of Colorado at Boulder, and Dr. Kevin M. Carragee, Associate Professor at Suffolk
University in the School of Communications, argued that:
Communication activism is a significant form of communication scholarship that
can be engaged in by scholars from across the communication discipline using a
wide range of interventions, theories, and methods to promote social change and
social justice for marginalized and under-resourced individuals, groups,
organizations, and communities” (Frey & Carragee, 2007 p. 39).
The communication activism approach has generated a growing body of research and as
of 2014, that scholarship helped to establish an Activism and Social Justice Division within the
National Communication Association (NCA) (Carragee, 2016). As a critical communication
scholar, the researcher for this present study seeks to bring about change and is deeply
committed to social justice issues. According to Frey and Carragee (2016), communication
activism scholarship, involves communication researchers using their theories, methods, and
applied practices to work with and for oppressed, marginalized, and under-resourced groups and
communities (Carragee, 2016). The two professors further expand on communication activism
and note that it is grounded in communication scholars immersing themselves in the stream of
human life, taking direct vigorous action in support of or opposition to a controversial issue to
promote social change and justice (Carragee, 2016). Further communication scholars
communicate the need, bring attention and advocate for social justice.
In Frey and Carragee’s book, Communication Activism (2016), they raise awareness of
the power of communication activism and demonstrate throughout the myriad of studies the
effects of communication scholars working from a litany of theoretical and methodological
21
traditions can have on promoting social change (2016). In the spirit of this present study the
communication scholar seeks to bring about social change and raise awareness of the financial
impact eminent domain abuse has on the African American wealth gap
Background of Eminent Domain
Eminent domain as outlined in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution proclaims that
government shall not take private property except for public use and with just compensation
(Perry, 2016). The power of eminent domain is often used by cities in connection
with blighted areas to accomplish their plans for urban renewal projects (Blight and Eminent
Domain, n.d; Hoyman & McCall, 2010). It has been long used as a tool to claim private property
(History Of the Federal Use of Eminent Domain, 2015; Perry 2016).
Whenever the United States acquires a property through eminent domain, it has a
constitutional responsibility to justly compensate the fair market value of the property
(Blackman, 2009, Baude 2013, History Of The Federal Use Of Eminent Domain, 2015, ). There
are several issues at stake here and the basis for this research. The literature has found that
African American communities are at least five times greater to be victims of eminent domain
(Fullilove 2011) and the compensation, if paid, is not “just” as found by a myriad of studies led
by Professor Richard Nelson (Perry, 2016; Schwab, 2018).
The Washington, DC, Maryland area is not immune to eminent domain and other
governmental racist housing policies. Several noted areas within the DMV have fallen victim to
eminent domain abuse, thus the purpose of this research.
Conclusion of Introduction
There are numerous stories of eminent domain throughout the US that have impacted
African American communities. Stories that have been silenced, but the residue remains. With
22
continued dialogue regarding the widening of the wealth gap, it is imperative to examine the root
cause and uncover the African American communities that were robbed of their wealth legacy. It
is important to hear their voices and to hear their subjective stories. Cynthia Copeland, who is the
President of the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village exclaimed when asked why the
Seneca Village's history is untold:
The victorious are the ones who get to write the stories. These were people who
were forgotten. And, unfortunately, the story was hidden for so long. But it’s
great the story has emerged (Uncovering the History of Seneca Village in New
York City, n.d.)
When economic structures have generated inequality, it is important to continue to tell
the stories and continue to examine these structures to close the wealth gap. Eminent domain can
ruin lives and communities while benefiting a few and leaving a community of people without
recourse. It is for this reason this study seeks redress and restitution for land taken which would
be a step in the right direction, to right a wrong and begin to narrow the African American
wealth gap. A travesty, which began with slavery but never diminished over time because
discriminatory governmental policies continue to perpetuate circumstances for the wealth gap.
23
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what
we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy
or too frightened when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom and
decency and justice.” — Robert F. Kennedy
Introduction
The objective of this research was to uncover and analyze the lived experiences of
African Americans displaced due to eminent domain. Specifically, for this study, the period
examined covered the early 19th century until the height of urban renewal in the 1970s. Because
historical analysis is a major part of this study, it is tantamount to examine not only eminent
domain, but interrogate a host of historical discriminatory housing policies that worked in
conjunction with eminent domain that made it impossible for African Americans to not only
acquire wealth but to maintain it. Policies that explicitly aided and abetted in the smothering of
generational wealth.
This literature review covers land acquisition during the 19th century, historical and
governmental policies that negatively impacted African Americans, for example, the Homestead
and Housing Acts, eminent domain abuse, inventing blight, and federal housing redlining.
Additionally, the literature review explores the importance of narrative through storytelling and
the power of voice. The chapter culminates with the African American White wealth gap and
how these policies negatively impacted African Americans.
African American Land Acquisition During the 19th Century
The history of African American land acquisition and dispossession is a long and
torturous story (Hinson, 2018). What is important to understand is that according to the
literature, African Americans made strides to become self-sufficient once freed from bondage
(Nast 1998, Schwab 2018). As Nast (1998) points out in his book, the protection of the
24
Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution as well as the Civil Rights
Act of 1866, allowed African Americans a period in which they were able to exercise their
freedom and participate in the political process, seek employment, use public accommodations,
and in addition acquire land (Nast et al., 1998). As Roy W. Copeland (2013) aptly notes in his
research, the quest for real property ownership by African Americans began immediately after
emancipation (Copeland, 2013).
To put things into context, it is important to understand the climate of the United States
during this time period and what laws were in place that either created a barrier or facilitated
progression for African Americans. The trajectory of wealth accumulation among southern
African Americans from Emancipation to World War 1 is of crucial importance to the evolution
of African American-White wealth difference. There has been a litany of studies conducted on
the accumulation of land and wealth during the 19th century. The literature includes studies that
relied on property tax records from select Southern states that calculated assessed wealth or tax
payments during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Dating as far back as 1901, DuBois (1901) utilized tax records specifically for Georgia to
document occurrences in African American land ownership. DuBois (1901) studied Georgia
during this period, as it had the largest population of African Americans of any State in the
Union. The purpose of his study attempted to make clear the steps by which 470,000 freedmen
and their children in one of the former slave states amassed over one million acres of land in a
generation, the value of the land, the conditions of ownership (Dubois, 1901). Utilizing tax
records for the state and drawing from DuBois’ earlier study, Robert Higgs (1982) examined
African American wealth from 1887 through 1915 utilizing DuBois’ race-specific data to
highlight an increase in the total assessed value of African American wealth. Robert Margo
25
(1984) broadened his research and looked at other southern states, Louisiana, North Carolina,
Virginia, and Kentucky, and utilized property taxes and race data. His study also found sustained
increases in aggregate African American wealth in all the states except for Louisiana. In an
article published by Neil Canada entitled, The Accumulation of Property by Southern Blacks and
Whites: Individual Level Evidence from South Carolina Cotton County, 1910-1919, noted that
both Higgs and Margo showed that during the postbellum south, African Americans accumulated
nominally assessed wealth at a faster rate than southern Whites, thereby closing the racial gap in
assessed property (Canaday, 2008).
Adversaries to the advancement of African Americans uncovered ways to impede their
success. As documented by Eric Foner (1988) African Americans acquired approximately fifteen
million acres of land in the South in the fifty years following Emancipation (Foner 1988). An
inextricable link exists between land ownership and power in America (Copeland, 2013). It is the
foundation of wealth and power (Copeland, 2013; Higgs, 1984) one in which newly freed slaves
knew that acquiring would assist in sustaining their livelihood. Conversely, Whites understood
that too. George Tucker a law professor at William & Mary recognized in 1796 the easiest way
to smother “Free Negroes” quest for economic development and power is to defeat their ability
to acquire property (Copeland, 2013, p. 649).
Tolnay & Beck (1992) conducted a study that evaluated a model of reciprocal causation
between racial violence and black net-out migration from southern counties during the era of the
Great Migration. Tolnay & Beck (1992) noted the abolition of slavery presented freed slaves
with new opportunities, including the freedom to relocate if existing circumstances were
unsatisfactory or the potential for improved conditions beckoned elsewhere (1992). Their study
used county-level data for ten southern states to estimate the effects of social and economic
26
factors on African American net migration from 1910 to 1920 and 1920 to 1930. Tolnay &
Beck’s (1992), focus of the study was the effect of racial violence. The researchers hypothesized
that elevated levels of racial violence motivated African Americans to leave certain areas, but
that extensive out-migration and the resulting loss of labor persuaded some communities to
soften racial hostility, repression, and violence. The findings of this study showed the number of
African American lynchings had a significant positive effect on African American net out-
migration. This supports the conclusion that African Americans were leaving areas where
lynching was more frequent and that African Americans were more likely to leave areas where
mob violence was greatest (Tolnay & Beck, 1992).
Historical and Governmental Housing Policies That Negatively Impact African Americans
As outlined in the literature, law, and policy in the United States have embraced,
mandated, and maintained segregation. It is not by accident but by design. Beginning with 250
years of chattel slavery, mismanagement, and of the Freedman’s Savings Bank, a financial
institution founded by the US Government to provide financial services to former slaves which
between 1865 and its closing in 1874 had 37 offices in 17 states including Washington, DC with
a total of at least 57 million dollars in deposits and 70,000 depositors. In addition, The GI Bill,
redlining eminent domain and urban renewal caused a tremendous blow to the economic growth
of freed slaves. This review of literature examines a myriad of legislation that made and
continues to make it legally possible for the government to take possession of private property
and one of the main governmental laws is eminent domain. There is a cacophony of legislation
that negatively impacted African Americans. This research highlights a few to lay the foundation
to illustrate select times in the United States when federal government policies severely impacted
the trajectory of African Americans' wealth accumulation in the housing market, thus lending to
the present-day wealth gap.
27
When referring to the African American plight, Dr. Mindy Fullilove (2007) notes:
Black people were uprooted from Africa and forced into slavery in the Americas. This
disruption started a chain of destabilizing events that includes the slave trade within the
Americas, the resettlement after emancipation, the institution of segregation, the Great
Migration, redlining, the Second Great Migration, urban renewal under the Federal
Housing Act of 1949 between that year and 1973, catastrophic disinvestment, federal
demolition of public housing under the HOPE VI program, and gentrification ( p.1).
The Homestead Acts
Land policy plays a key role in U.S History (Williams Shanks 2005, ). In 1862 President
Lincoln signed into law the racially biased Homestead Act. The Act gave certain American
citizens the right to apply for ownership of government land. The Homestead statute, as outlined
in Dr. Williams Shanks (2005), article entitled The Homestead Act: A Major Asset-building
Policy in American History states:
Anyone who is head of a household, a military veteran, or over 21 years of age was entitled
to 160 acres of unappropriated land as long as they had not borne arms against the United
States Government. Applicants had to be U.S. citizens or at least have filed intention of
becoming one (2005).
This Act of 1862 was filed at the beginning of the Civil War when African Americans
were still enslaved and not considered citizens making them ineligible to acquire any public land
(Williams Shanks, 2000, Edwards, 2019). The Homestead Act is important to this particular
research as the African American wealth gap is examined because this legislation served as a
vehicle to land and ultimately power for Whites, and a vehicle that the 4 million enslaved
African Americans were not able to enjoy (Williams Shanks, 2005, Edwards 2019). However,
28
even after emancipation, African Americans were free, the literature has found that “as early as
1865 Southerners put legal obstacles in place to prevent ex-slaves from acquiring property.
Throughout the South, state legislation was used to thwart any progress toward African
American owning and acquiring land. In 1866 Congress established the Homestead Act of 1866
to make land assessable to freed slaves by opening forty-six million acres of public land
specifically for homesteading (Canaday et al., 2015).
The literature shows, that the Homestead Acts were the most redistributive governmental
policy in US History (Canaday, 2015, Edwards, 2019). As Keri Leigh Merritt argues in her book
Masterless Men: Poor Whites, Slavery and Capitalism in the Deep South (2017), 46 million or
an estimated 20% of the adult population can trace their roots to settlers under the Homestead
Act, which were majority White. Merritt (2017), also noted that if that many White Americans
can trace their legacy of wealth and property ownership to a single entitlement program, then the
perpetuation of African American poverty must also be linked to national policy (2017).
Hinson’s (2018) study examined freed slaves' land gains and land losses. He notes that
property represents power and wealth, and that private property establishes the maximum
conditions for wealth creation (Hinson, 2018), thus the reason freed slaves desired property.
Hinson utilized both regional and national data to understand land gains and land losses and
analyzed prior studies and narratives. Scholarship has found an inextricable link exists between
land ownership and power in America (Hinson, 2018; Copeland, 2013)
Housing Act of 1934
Under the Housing Act of 1934, several programs were established, namely the Federal
Housing Administration (FHA). According to policy analyst La-Brina Almeida's research
(2022), The Federal Housing Administration began insuring mortgages but required that the
29
properties be in White only neighborhoods (Almeida, 2022). She further notes that in addition,
FHA favored loans for new suburban construction over urban properties, ultimately contributing
to urban decay (Almeida, 2022).
Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
The Federal Housing Administration established a host of programs, which famed
historian and author, Richard Rothstein would deem tantamount to “state-sponsored segregation”
(Rothstein, 2018). As stated previously, racist policies impeded wealth accumulation for African
Americans, as illustrated by the birth of the Federal Housing Administration in 1934. In a study
conducted by Fishback et al., (2021) he noted the Federal Housing Administration, did not offer
mortgages to low-income areas where the majority of the residents were African Americans
(2021). In another study conducted by Kijakazi et al., (2016) shared that the FHA advocated
using restrictive covenants to maintain the racial segregation of neighborhoods. Michael Jones-
Correra, who examined racial restrictive covenants (2000), defined racial restrictive covenants as
“agreements between buyers and sellers of property, which took the form of an addendum to not
sell, rent or lease to Blacks (Jones-Correa, 2000, p.544). Or as Pat Morrison (2021) wrote in their
piece in the Los Angeles Times, entitled The Ugly and True History of LA’s Racist Housing
Covenants, exclaimed “restrictive covenants were walls made of paper and ink” (The Ugly and
True History of L.A.’s Racist Housing Covenants - Los Angeles Times, n.d.)
To get a glimpse of what the typical verbiage is included in the covenant, Jones-Correra
(2000) noted:
In consideration of the premises and the sum of five dollars ($5.00) each to the other in
hand paid, the parties hereto do hereby mutually covenant, promise, and agree each to the
other, and for their respective heirs and assigns, that no part of the land now owned by
30
the parties hereto, a more detailed description of said property, being given after the
respective signatures hereto, shall ever be used or occupied by, or sold, conveyed, leased,
rented, or given to Negroes, or any person or persons of the Negro race or blood. This
covenant shall run with the land and bind the respective heirs and assigns of the parties
hereto for the period of twenty-one (21) years from and after the date of these presents.
(p. 544)
This is crucial to the current research, as it underscores additional barriers for
African Americans to acquire wealth leading them to live within certain areas, and as the
literature has found those areas are five times more likely to be impacted by eminent
domain (Schwab 2018, Fullilove 2011). Even though the Supreme Court outlawed the
covenants in 1948, their impact continued (Kijakazi et al., 2019). The literature has
shown that although the Federal Housing Administration promoted home ownership, that
promotion was geared toward one specific demographic, which were Whites and those
living in the suburbs. “Older homes and Black communities were less likely to receive
approval for loans. Loans were primarily approved for White housing in the suburbs”
(Kijakazi, 2016, p.23). Similarly, John P. Dean argues in his study (1947), entitled Only
Caucasian: A Study of Race Covenants, “the restrictive covenants become a vehicle for
racism when property owners in a neighborhood agree not to rent or sell the property to
Negroes or other ethnic minorities” (Dean, 1947, p.428 ). Dean’s (1947) study
investigated the prevalence of over 300 restrictive housing covenants in the New York
area during the 1930s and 1940s.
The research report, The Color of Wealth in the Nation’s Capital (Kijakazi, et al., 2016) noted:
31
The FHA’s actions have had a lasting impact on the wealth portfolios of Black
Americans. Locked out of the greatest mass-based opportunity for wealth
accumulation in American history, African Americans who desired and were able
to afford homeownership found themselves consigned to central-city communities
where their investments were affected by the “self-fulfilling prophecies” of the
FHA appraisers: cut off from sources of new investment, their homes, and
communities deteriorated and lost value in comparison to those homes and
communities that FHA appraisers deemed desirable (p.24).
When examining the existing wealth disparity and juxtaposing it against housing policies
where Whites were the recipients and African Americans were left without recourse, it is evident
how there is a residue of these policies which have resulted in the current wealth gap. Richard
Rothstein (2018) argued:
Federal Housing Administration, which was established in 1934 furthered the segregation
efforts by refusing to insure mortgages in and near African American Neighborhoods—A
policy known as redlining. At the same time, the FHA was subsidizing builders who were
mass-producing entire subdivisions for Whites—with the requirement that none of the
homes be sold to African Americans. (Rothstein, 2018)
Redlining
Although not termed until the 1960s, redlining was a practice used to keep neighborhoods
segregated. Prior to the conceptualization of the term redlining in the 1960s, discriminatory
housing policies forbidding African Americans from purchasing homes were in effect. As freed
slaves migrated throughout the country to establish communities, they were faced in 1930’s with
the practice of redlining although the term had yet been coined before the actual maps, became
32
known as redlining, Fishback et al., noted that (2021) the Federal Housing Administration, did
not offer mortgages to low-income areas where most of the residents were African Americans
(2021). “For decades, redlining limited access to homeownership and wealth creation among
racial minorities, contributing to a host of adverse social outcomes, including high
unemployment, poverty, and residential vacancy, which persist today (Locke et al., 2021, p.1).
In a recent press release by the Department of Justice, (2021), Attorney General Merrick
Garland argued that “lending discrimination runs counter to fundamental promises of our
economic system” (Justice Department to Investigate “Digital Redlining” in Lending, n.d.)
Recognizing that redlining is not an issue of the past and the devastating impact it has had on
African American homeownership, the DOJ led by Merrick Garland appointed the Civil Rights
division to oversee and identify unfair lending practices, further expressed that “equal and fair
access to mortgage lending opportunities is the cornerstone on which families and communities
can build wealth in our country” (2021). It is in this same spirit that this present research looks to
have a change in the way eminent domain abuse impacts African American communities and
hopes that this same vigor will add to reform and redress for impacted communities.
In addition to other policies in effect at governmental levels such as eminent domain,
redlining restricted African Americans in home ownership. The policy of redlining is important
to this present study as it lends context to the foundational pinning of the Black and White
wealth gap. Any way to achieve wealth, education, and other opportunities afforded to Whites
was stifled for African Americans. Laws and policies were established and structured to keep
African Americans from enjoying the “American Dream,” acquiring property. For instance, a
policy established by the federal government’s Homeowners Loan Corporation (HOLC) during
the 1930s was formed under the New Deal initiative as a Depression-era effort to refinance
33
defaulted home mortgages. The issue with HOLC was that it came out with a systematic way of
grading African American and immigrant neighborhoods, thus ultimately affecting appreciation
values. Which ultimately, was another way of diminishing the wealth of Black homeowners.
If African Americans were allowed to purchase homes they were subjugated to certain areas,
and as the literature shows, these areas were five times likely to be in areas zoned for urban
renewal and thus victims of eminent domain. Rothstein (2018), noted that African American
families that were prohibited from buying homes in the suburbs in the 1940s and 50s, and even
into the 1960s, by the Federal Housing Administration gained none of the equity appreciation
that Whites gained (“Housing Discrimination Underpins the Staggering Wealth Gap between
Blacks and Whites,” n.d.) He further noted that African American families were often met with
violence when trying to move into neighborhoods that had been declared “White” per
government policy (“Housing Discrimination Underpins the Staggering Wealth Gap between
Blacks and Whites,” n.d.)
Housing Act of 1949
Soon followed the Housing Act of 1949. In William Wheaton’s article The Housing Act
of 1949 (2007), Wheaton argues that “the adoption of the Housing Act of 1949 is the most
significant event in the development of city planning in the recent history of the United States”
(Wheaton, 2007 p. 36). The foundation of the Act is that it declared that all Americans deserve a
decent home and suitable living environments (Lang & Somher, 2000). Through its public
housing program the act provided housing for low-income families; however, through its urban
redevelopment program, it dismantled affordable housing and destroyed neighborhoods (von
Hoffman, 2000; Freeman, 1996) ultimately displacing millions of people.
To add context to the negative impact this Housing Act had on African Americans, La-
Brina Almeida (2022) shares that by 1974 there were at least 2100 urban renewal projects had
34
been conducted (2022). She further notes that due to the Housing Act of 1949, cleared the way
for urban renewal and slum clearances.
Urban Renewal
Urban renewal a policy established by the federal government’s, Housing Act of 1949,
was designed to incentivize cities to clean up impoverished areas by giving them funding
(Schwab, 2018, Fullilove 2007). Kirk Harris, a faculty member in the Department of Urban
Planning (2015), conducted research that explored the authority and influence of local
government in development and how that authority and influence has grown over time (Harris,
2015) He argues:
State and local governments’ narrow policy focus on incentivizing capital investment
schemes, economic growth, and security persistently ignores longstanding issues of racial
inequality and social justice for all by placing municipal actions for poverty alleviation,
distressed labor markets, and inadequate low-income housing outside the purview of the
neoliberal state. (Harris, 2015)
The original goal of urban renewal was to get rid of blight (Duncan, 2021; Beyer, 2020;
Gold, n.d.; Sanders, 2019). However, urban renewal of the 1950s and 1960s involved the
physical leveling of ‘blighted’ areas and the wholesale displacement of existing populations from
areas within central cities (Schwab, 2018). Literature has shown that demographically, these
displaced populations were disproportionately African Americans (Fullilove & Wallace, 2011),
and not all were actually slum or blighted communities. James Foner, a professor at Vanderbilt
University noted that there were incidences across the country where White power was used to
desecrate certain neighborhoods, to upgrade areas in the name of helping people. Foner (1988)
argued that it didn’t take into consideration the unstated goals and pointed out that urban renewal
35
occurred in an era in which White supremacy was used to create cities in the image of
colonizers-people who came in and decided what they wanted was better than what was there
(Duncan, 2021).
For a quarter century, the federal government provided funding for cities to cure slum
neighborhoods. The goal was to improve these areas and thus increase economic development,
however; through these programs, thousands of people were displaced, and communities
destroyed (von Hoffman, 2000) The urban renewal policy established by the Housing Act of
1949, which lasted until the 1960s had a devastating effect on communities of color. Fullilove
and Wallace (2011) noted in their article that “ approximately one million people were displaced
in 2,500 projects carried out in 993 American cities; 75% of those displaced were people of
color”(Fullilove & Wallace, 2011; Gotham, 2000). The government, often acting in concert with
private development corporations or other private interests, condemned homes or small
businesses so they could be transferred to another party for its private benefit (Top Ten Worst
Abuses of Eminent Domain Spotlighted in New Report, n.d.)
For example, as in the case of Black Bottom in Detroit, the condemnation of the property
which housed over 100,000 majority African Americans began before the National Housing Act
in 1949, and then later the National Highway Act of 1956 gave the city funding to begin an
urban renewal project in earnest (McGraw, 2017). Within eight years the African American,
Black Bottom neighborhood was obliterated (McGraw, 2017). It is reported that many of these
residents owned homes, however with restrictive housing covenants replacement housing found
them in lesser quality and in public housing (McGraw, 2017).
What is important to note is that an exorbitant amount of the former residents moved to
large public housing projects. The study, The Neglected Political Economy of Eminent Domain,
36
conducted by Nicole Garnett (2006), argued that while most of those displaced eventually found
replacement housing, many ended up paying more for living arrangements that were not
appreciably better than those they had lost (Garnett, 2006) She further pointed out eminent
domain also deprives owners of the gains from trade that a market transaction might generate
(2006).
According to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights published report, The Civil Rights
Implications of Eminent Domain Abuse, eminent domain’s reputation is based on sordid racial
history and continued disproportionate effects on racial and ethnic minorities. Research has
documented that privately owned properties within an area deemed an urban renewal area were
subjected to disproportionate mass displacement. The literature has found that these specific
areas were also predominantly African American areas.
Below is an excerpt from an interview that was conducted by researchers of former
residents of an area in Asheville, North Carolina whose community was dismantled due to urban
renewal. This firsthand lived experience puts a face to the devastation eminent domain caused to
their community and family intergenerational wealth. As told by the Robinson sisters during the
2021 Launch of the Urban Renewal Website and Initiative:
Urban Renewal told people it was going to be better living. Most houses were
dilapidated. Beech Hill had nice homes…Ms. Virginia Holloway…Ben Hall. There was a
man who would not sell his property. His water and lights were cut off. Once he left his
house, the house was burned down to the ground. The homeowner was sent an apology
letter from the city. The Southside community was a village/family. The whole
community took care of the children. We used to sleep with doors open. Can’t do that
now. The system has a lot to do with all of it. When we relocated, we were happy at first.
37
After a while, it seemed like a concentration camp. Streets were blocked off on Erskine
Street. Living at 477 South French Broad was much nicer than living in public housing
(2021).
There are a multitude of stories of descendants of stolen land that date back to the early
19th century and continue to be uncovered today. During the 19th and 20th centuries, when
African Americans tried to create wealth, it was thwarted through both illegal and legal
maneuvering in the name of eminent domain. For example, another well-documented eminent
domain case involved the Espy family in Vero Beach, Florida who according to the Associated
Press (2001), “lost its heritage in 1942 when the U.S. government seized its land through
eminent domain to build an airfield” (Lewan, T., & Barclay, D., 2001). According to the
Associated Press (AP) study entitled Torn From the Land (2001), the Navy appraised their 147
acres, which included a 30-acre fruit grove and 40 house lots, at just $8,000. The Espys’ sued,
and an all-White jury awarded them $13,000. Which was much less than the property was worth.
According to the Associated Press (AP) study (2001), the amount the Espys’ were quoted
amounted to just one-sixth of the price per acre that the Navy paid White neighbors for similar
land.
The study also noted that after World War II, the Navy gave the airfield to the city of
Vero Beach. “Ignoring the Espys plea to buy back their land, the city sold part of it, at $1,500 an
acre, to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1965 as a spring-training facility. The team sold its property
to Indian River County for $10 million” (Lewan, T., & Barclay, D., 2001.) The Associated Press
(AP) study acknowledged that the Government frequently takes land this way under rules that
require fair or as the 5th Amendment to the US Constitution states, “just compensation”.
38
Post-World War II urban renewal replaced thriving African American communities and
property with major developments, highways as well as public housing (Beyer, 2020). Another
example, in 2008, the city of Clarksville, Tennessee, seized more than 1,000 homes, businesses,
and churches with the plan to resell much of the land to developers (Cato Institute 2008). Many
who resided there were African Americans, who lived on fixed incomes and owned their well-
maintained Victorian homes (Cato 2008). For the purposes of this present study and the
examination of the disparity of wealth, it is important to note that these families owned their
properties prior to being displaced. Studies have proven that eminent domain was not only used
as an instrument to raze communities that disproportionately impacted African Americans but
was weaponized by racists Whites as a tool to remove African Americans from property as in the
case of Bruce’s Beach (Hajek et al., 2021; “When They Steal Your Land, They Steal Your
Future” - Los Angeles Times, n.d.).
The displacement of African Americans and urban renewal projects were so intertwined
that urban renewal was referred to as “Negro removal.” (Eminent Domain and Race, n.d;
Rothstein, 2018; Schwab 2018) According to the CATO Institute report (2008), some 3 to 4
million Americans, most of them “ethnic minorities”, have been forcibly displaced from their
homes because of urban renewal (Beito, D. & Ilyan, S, 2008). By definition, displacement can be
defined as the permanent, involuntary relocation of residents based on conditions beyond their
control (Baker et al., 2021).
Urban renewal spanned from 1949 through 1974 in both practice and theory (Hyra,
2012), however, scholar, Derek Hyra (2012), writes that in fact there was a second wave of urban
renewal disguised as inner-city redevelopment (Hyra, 2012). He notes that “in the 1990s and
2000’s “inner city neighborhood redevelopment occurred throughout the United States as
39
billions in public and private investments entered impoverished Black communities” (Hyra,
2012, p. 498). The devastating displacement and impact of the past serial displacement are
congruent to the present (Hyra 2012). He uses a historical comparative approach to examine the
“initial” urban renewal period between 1949 -1970 and contemporary redevelopment. He
describes one such occurrence:
On the South Side of Chicago, in the historic African-American Bronzeville
neighborhood, nearly 17,000 low-income people were displaced as the community’s
public housing was torn down (Hyra, 2012, p. 2).
Similarly, in an expose for NPR (2022) Greg Rosalsky notes that the government helped
facilitate the Bronzeville downturn (How the “Black Metropolis” Made a Comeback, 2022),
arguing that the building of the Dan Ryan Expressway aided in the demise of the neighborhood
(How the “Black Metropolis” Made a Comeback, 2022).
On paper it may look like a win for the city as they reduced poverty in the area, but what
happened to the residents of the public housing that was torn down? What happened to the
community? In Hyra’s article (2012), he found that the former tenants were not able to stay in
the neighborhood as the landlords were not accepting housing vouchers. During this time, the
housing covenants were illegal and for those affluent African Americans, they were able to find
housing outside of the area (Hyra 2012).
As stated in the US Commission on Civil Rights a briefing before the United States
Commission on Civil Rights, proclaimed that “few policies have done more to destroy
community and opportunity for minorities than eminent domain” (Battle over Eminent Domain
Is Another Civil Rights Issue, 2008).
40
Inventing Blight
Blight, a term, most critics believe was and still is used to mask discriminatory takings is
a conduit to urban renewal and eminent domain (Wyche et al., 2006, The Civil Rights
Implication of Eminent Domain; Gold, M. & Sagalyn, L 2011.). A code word used as an entry
point for destruction in exchange for city subsidies and a path to eminent domain. It is through
the government’s power of eminent domain that cities use in conjunction with the labeling of
blighted areas to accomplish their urban renewal goals. Josh Blackman (2009) explored the
alternatives to takings due to eminent domain and argued that:
Urban renewal was a movement wherein governments used the broad power of eminent
domain to condemn homes as blighted, effectively—perhaps intentionally---displacing
poor and minority homeowners. Although eminent domain takings are presumptively no
longer motivated by racial animus, modern statistics show the effects of this process
disproportionately fall on the poor, uneducated, and minorities.
In Josh Blackman’s (2010) article Equal Protection from Eminent Domain: Protecting
The Home of Olech’s Class of One, (2010) notes that during the 1950s, urban renewal tended to
mean “Negro” removal. He further points out that of the 120,000 families relocated between
1949-1963, 78% were non-White. He further notes that “In many instances, urban renewal
intensified racial segregation and constrained the mobility of African Americans” (Blackman,
2010).
Beito and Somin (2008) noted in their article that in 2004, in Alabaster, Alabama,
“blight” was used as a reason to take 400 acres of rural property, most was owned by African
Americans, who had lived on the land for generations. Due to eminent domain’s definition and
the takings clause, the taking was justified for public use of a new Wal‐Mart even though there
were two other Wal‐Mart stores located less than fifteen miles away. Several of the landowners,
41
particularly those who lacked political clout and legal aid, ended up selling out at a discount
(Blackman, 2010). As quoted directly from Cato Institute (2008):
Some earlier civil rights champions, by contrast, often ignored, or worse helped to
undermine, the rights of property owners. Ironically, the same U.S. Supreme
Court which handed down Brown v. Board in 1954 also issued Berman v. Parker,
in which the Court allowed the District of Columbia to forcibly expel some 5,000
low-income African‐Americans from their homes to facilitate “urban renewal.” It
was Berman that enabled the massive urban renewal condemnations of later
decades, which many critics dubbed “Negro removal” because they too tended to
target African Americans (Battle over Eminent Domain Is Another Civil Rights
Issue, 2008)
Ronald Goodspeed echoed the same sentiment in his 2004 honors thesis, entitled Urban
Renewal in Postwar Detroit, noting that razing “Black” neighborhoods was seen as a feature, not
a bug of urban renewal policy (Goodspeed, 2004)
Eminent Domain Abuse in African American Spaces
There is a linear relationship that exists between eminent domain abuse, and racist
policies that prevented African Americans to acquire and sustain wealth (Gotham, 2000; Harris,
2015; Schwab, 2018). One cannot be inextricably independent of the other when examining the
history of wealth building.
This present study is focused on the legal policy of eminent domain and the abuse of said
policy in African American spaces while uncovering the lived experiences that lead to the
present-day wealth gap. Consequently, this study would fall short, without mentioning other
legal and illegal practices that aided and abetted the present-day wealth gap. It is important to
42
give greater context to the contemporary wealth gap by understanding the approaches that
continued to attack the opportunity for African Americans to enjoy liberty and justice while
trying to ascertain wealth. It is also important to recognize that in cases where individuals
received “just compensation” during this climate due to restrictive housing covenants made it
even harder to reestablish oneself financially (Garnett, 2006; Schwab, 2018). The Fifth
Amendment of the United States mandates that if the Government takes private property for
public use, the government must provide “just compensation.” It is the clause “just
compensation” as well as eminent domain abuse in African American spaces, which has caused
the researcher to explore the land takings throughout the US with a focus for this study
specifically on the Washington, DC area including neighboring metropolitan Montgomery
County, known collectively as the DMV area.
The scholarship has shown that racist policies and practices have been embedded into the
seams of the United States. These policies were put in place to quell African American people
and afford dominance to Whites. Those who were in position, specifically those in power to
make changes to these racist policies and spoke of equality were oftentimes the same ones who
turned their backs on equality.
Richard Nelson, a professor at the University of Richmond, led a study entitled The
Racist Roots of Urban Renewal and How it Made Cities Less Equal (2018) examined data to
investigate the number of displaced families from 1950-1966 in cities throughout the US. His
group developed an interactive map, which highlighted cities impacted by urban renewal proving
that the majority of those impacted were persons of color. He noted in his research that, it is not
hard to look at these things and see the contours of poverty and wealth that exist over four and
five generations (Schwab, 2018).
43
Similar to Fullilove’s study and others examining the disparity of displacements among
African Americans and Whites, this study too, uncovered displacement disparities in people of
color who were disproportionately affected by urban renewal. The study (2018) also found that
some of the disparities are “shocking”. For example, in Lubbock Texas, 3% of the population
was non-White, but all the 1,300 families that were displaced because of urban renewal projects
were of color (Schwab, 2018).
Regardless of urban renewal’s intentions, its reality became the mass uprooting of
African American residents. In an expose entitled, Losing Home: Black Neighborhoods and
Eminent Domain (Duncan, 2021) the researchers of this study spoke with residents of an African
American neighborhood who were subjected to eminent domain. By the 1950s cities were
displacing thousands of families each year and the majority of them were disproportionately
people of color (Urban Renewal, 1950-1966, n.d.). A study conducted by Castle Coalition in
partnership with the Institute for Justice, entitled Building Empires, Destroying Homes Eminent
Domain in New York argued when referring to the New York Stock Exchange, Ikea, Costco, and
other large corporations moving into African American spaces:
An inner-city church lost its future home to eminent domain for commercial development
that never came to pass. Scores of small business owners have been threatened with
seizure for a private university in Harlem and office space in Queens and Syracuse. Older
homes were on the chopping block near Buffalo, simply so newer homes could be built.
From Montauk Point to Niagara Falls, every community in the Empire State is subject to
what the U.S. Supreme Court has accurately called the “despotic power.” This
enthusiasm for eminent domain is encouraged by the New York courts, which habitually
44
rubber-stamp condemnations and seem to consider any kind of private undertaking a
public use (Institute for Justice 2009, p.1).
During the period between the 1950s and 1970s, Knoxville, Tennessee used federal
dollars intended to curb blight and improve the general look of urban centers. It is reported that
Knoxville demolished most of the African American neighborhoods (WUOT News, 2021). The
expose found that the then once robust African American neighborhoods were erased leaving
cultural and economic effects that have spanned generations (WUOT News, 2021). What is
fascinating and relevant to the present study, is that the city has apologized and has recognized
that “uprooting most of the Black population between 1954 and 1974 directly contributed to
today’s Black poverty, struggles for education, poor housing conditions, crime, and unsafe
neighborhoods (Duncan, 2021).
Similarly, during the 1960s and 1970s, the Brooklyn section of Charlotte, NC, a thriving
African American community, was razed due to eminent domain in the spirit of urban renewal.
As told by historian Tim Hanchett in Sorting out the New South: Race, Class and Urban
Development (Hanchett, T. 1998), 1,007 Brooklyn families were displaced and 216 businesses,
many never reopened (1998).
In dissenting from the decision upholding the use of eminent domain for private-to-
private transfers of property, Justices O’Connor and Thomas asserted, based on the history of
urban renewal, that eminent domain for private development would disproportionately hurt poor
and minority communities. (Carpenter & Ross 2009). The researchers evaluated the assertions of
Justice Thomas and O’Connor by conducting a study that examined the US census data and a
sample of redevelopment project areas using or identified for the use of eminent domain. The
findings of the study revealed that such project areas are, in fact, disproportionately populated by
45
those who are poor, minority, and less educated (Carpenter & Ross, 2009). The study also found
that those often least equipped to represent their own interests when faced with displacement
were not only economically impacted but socially and culturally as well. What is important to
note is in the article Racist Roots of Urban Renewal and How it Made Cities Less Equal
(Schwab, 2018) found that although the eminent domain policy was supposed to support those,
by “just compensation” who were displaced either through funds for their property, assist with
the relocation or find public housing assistance, “the assistance was often late or never arrived at
all” (Schwab, 2018).
The literature presented here has overwhelmingly agreed that African American spaces
were impacted by eminent domain abuse, however; some oppose this notion. J. Peter Byrne, a
professor at Georgetown University Law School at the time of the writing of his study, entitled
Eminent and Racial Discrimination: A Bogus Equation (2011) writes that “such concerns are
misplaced” (Byrne, 2011, p. 1). He further acknowledges the racist past, noting:
Political realities have changed dramatically since the urban renewal period. Minorities
have secured significant political power in nearly every U.S. city, as well as increased
influence in private real estate markets. Redevelopment projects have largely come under
the control of local governments, as federal money and direction have disappeared. Local
officials strive to avoid displacement of homes because of negative political
repercussions and expensive litigation. Federal and state statutes have in many instances
increased the payments due to property owners about what “just compensation” requires.
In these circumstances, the condemnation of homes is rare and has little or no identifiable
ethnic or racial character (p.1).
46
Contrary to J. Peter Byrne’s belief that there is a “bogus equation,” eminent domain is
still occurring, and African Americans are still being displaced in greater numbers. In fact, in the
same city, as Professor Byrne, in the Nation’s Capital, 8 years after his writing, the Washington,
Post ran an expose in 2019, that looked at the sizeable amount of residents that had been
displaced noting “more than 20,000 African American residents were displaced from low-
income neighborhoods from 2000-2013 (Shaver, 2019).
African American /and White Wealth Gap
White Americans trafficked and enslaved Africans to and throughout the US all for the
sole purpose of building their own wealth. The American Humanist Association published an
article in 2008, which argued that if emancipated slaves had been allowed to possess and retain
the profits of their labor, their descendants might now control a much larger share of American
social and monetary wealth (Conley, 1999; Copeland, 2013). Consequently, in 1862 Congress
enacted legislation that emancipated African Americans in Washington, DC a year before the
Emancipation Proclamation declared African Americans free from bondage and three years
before the Thirteenth Amendment abolition of slavery. It was during this time that White
residents received $300 for every African American they enslaved while African Americans
received nothing (Kijakazi, 2016).
History has shown that the United States deliberately and systematically excluded
African Americans from enjoying the pathways to wealth building thus leading to a lack of
generational wealth (Rothstein, 2018). Dalton Conley (2001) further notes that in his article
Getting into the Black: Race, Wealth and Public Policy (2001), “wealth ownership is the
socioeconomic measure that displays the single greatest racial disparity in America
today”(Conley, 2001, p. 595). The forefathers of the US understood the power of land and
47
understood that prosperity was tied to land ownership (Hinson, 2018; Copeland, 2013). In
Copeland’s (2013) research he noted that “land ownership represented independence, self-
sufficiency and served as evidence that some African Americans possessed the will to overcome
economic, legal obstacles, and even the threat of violence to become property owners (Copeland,
2013 p. 661).
As scholarship shows, (Kijakazi, 2016) laws were enacted to prevent newly freed slaves
to purchase property, and laws were enacted as well as unscrupulous practices employed to
prevent the accumulation of wealth. Prior to the Civil War, African Americans who were able to
purchase real property had to navigate around barriers erected by state legislation and had to
withstand the onslaught of violence by Whites who were determined to keep African Americans
landless. Despite this, according to Robert Higgs (1984) who examined the accumulation of
property in the South before World War 1, utilizing DuBois’ data set found that blacks
accumulated property at a faster rate than Whites during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries” (Higgs, 1984 p. 777).
The literature has proven that due to systemic racist structures, laws, and policies,
specifically relating to housing and property were designed to smother generational wealth.
Wealth was stripped from African Americans before it could even manifest. According to a
study conducted by Darity, W. et al., 2018, wealth is far more unequally distributed than income.
While income primarily is earned in the labor market, wealth is built primarily by the transfer of
resources across generations (2018). The numbers are grim, the gap is widening and eminent
domain and urban renewal continue to bulldoze African American communities
disproportionately, which continues to severely impact the trajectory of the accumulation of
wealth (Copeland, 2013).
48
Washington, DC, the Nation’s Capital, which is just a few minutes south of Montgomery
County, Maryland, is not anesthetized to this phenomenon of eminent domain abuse. In fact,
there have been a myriad of studies that have examined the wealth disparity in Washington, DC.
One such report, a joint publication of researchers from the Urban Institute, Duke University,
The New School, and the Insight Center for Economic Development, entitled The Color of
Wealth in the Nation’s Capital (2016) examined the wealth disparities among African Americans
and Whites, in Washington, DC. The study conducted in 2014 utilized a survey instrument that
was designed to gather information about a respondent’s household assets, liabilities, financial
resources, personal savings, and investment activity. The report showed that building wealth is
hindered by a history of structural barriers and found that “the typical Black household in which
the head had a graduate degree had less than half the net worth of White households in which the
head attained only a high school degree” (Kijakazi, 2016).
In Thomas Shapiro and Melvin Oliver’s book entitled, Black Wealth, White Wealth a
New Perspective on Inequality (Shapiro, T. & Oliver, M, 1995) noted the rise in the African
American middle class is heralded as evidence of greater racial equality but questioned why
middle-class African Americans possess only .15 cents for every dollar of wealth held by
Whites? Drawing on data from over 12,000 households which included interviews with both
African American families, the authors uncover a myriad of ways in which systemic economic
barriers have discouraged many African Americans and have impacted wealth generation (1995).
One of the barriers mentioned in the book is the making of the urban ghettos.
According to Pedro de Costa in his article Housing Discrimination Underpins the
Staggering Wealth Gap Between Whites and Blacks (2019), he points out that wealth is a
crucially important measure of economic health (da Costa, P. 2019). He references Richard
49
Rothstein’s documentary Segregated by Design in which Rothstein acknowledges that
“enormous difference in (wealth) is almost entirely attributable to federal housing policy
implemented through the 20th century” (da Costa, P. 2019). These same findings were echoed in
Dalton Conley’s article (2001) entitled, Getting into the Black: Race, Wealth and Public Policy
A study conducted by Keith Gotham (2008) utilizing a case study method examined the
organized efforts of home builders and home owners associations to create racially homogenous
neighborhoods through the use of and enforcement of racially restrictive covenants (Gotham,
2000). This is important to the existing study as housing and property has been an impetus to the
wealth gap. The study echoed Richard Rothstein in his documentary, Segregated by Design, and
found that African American families that were prohibited from buying homes in the suburbs in
the 1940s and 50s, and even into the 1960s, by the Federal Housing Administration gained none
of the equity appreciation that Whites gained (da Costa, P. 2019).
Some adversaries to redress, point to improving education as a means to closing the
wealth gap. While this may be a viable option, as Emmons & Noeth examined, they found that
education alone cannot “level the playing field” (Emmons & Noeth, 2015 p.3). Further, research
has shown (2021) that White college graduates have seven times more wealth than African
American graduates (“Homeownership, Racial Segregation, and Policy Solutions to Racial
Wealth Equity,” 2021). Utilizing the same historical examination will turn up laws that
prevented African Americans from learning how to read and write to contemporary educational
settings where African American communities in the United States still face inequities in
education. This is relevant to this study as the research has found that some of Tobytown
descendants as well as other victims of eminent domain had little to no education and were
tasked with reading and signing legal documents, ultimately relinquishing their land for less than
50
its value. This study cannot progress without an examination of the racist structures that allowed
for the takings.
Narrative Inquiry as a Method
Narrative inquiry and storytelling provide alternative ways of knowing the lived
experiences while exploring subjectivity. A way for those to orate their realities. In a study
conducted by Alexsandra E. Olszewski (2022) entitled Narrative, Compassion, and Counter
Stories (2022) the author examined the use of CRT and applied it to a specific case involving
overvaluation for nonaccidental trauma to describe the impact on patient care and experience of
competing perspectives (2022).
According to Olszewski (2022), providing compassionate care in medicine is the goal of
medicine (2022). Not pity but compassion. The researcher believes that b systemic stock stories
perpetuated by hierarchies, policies, and practices in medicine can cause unintentional harm. As
quoted in the study (2022), “When narratives are written, centered, and manipulated, by those in
power, and when those narratives shape medical and legal decisions, individuals, individuals,
and institutions can harm patients and families” (p. 214). Counter storytelling in this particular
study conducted by Olszewski (2022), argued that applying CRT to stock stories in the form of
counter stories can assist clinicians to reframe their care approaches (2022).
This is relevant to the present study as the stock stories surrounding the African
American wealth gap coupled with the discourse surrounding eminent domain, pales in raising
the personal stories of those personally impacted and could benefit from applying the personal
stories of those impacted. By giving voice to the silenced, one is giving a platform for the
marginalized to counter the stock narratives (2022).
51
Additionally, a study conducted by Sonya Aleman (2017) interrogated the training of
journalism students, in which they note that 70% of the students are White (2017). This article
employs counter storytelling to interrogate the training of the majority of White journalism
students who are taught by the majority of White professors, noting “much of the research on
diversity and journalism education conflates the bodies of people of color as the solutions for
improved news coverage of racial groups” (p. 74). This study is extremely relevant to the present
study as it clearly illustrates the birth of the erasure of important coverage of people of color and
how they are represented or muted altogether in the media. The study argued that “mass
communication scholars have amassed evidence of biased, hegemonic, and exclusionary media
coverage, imagery, and newsrooms. Fittingly, integration of newsrooms and journalism
classrooms attempt to redress the dismal representation” (Aleman, 2017, p. 73).
Conclusion
Additionally, it is important to understand how governmental municipalities manage
displaced individuals according to law. Some studies have shown that displaced residents were
to receive “just compensation” and actually did not receive anything in return. The other concern
is how is just compensation calculated? Others were forced to sell their plots as in the case of
Tobytown for as low as $10.00, as shown in the attached Tobytown documents (Appendix B).
$10.00 for land in Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the richest counties in the country,
even in the 1970s is astronomically low. It is not unheard of for payments to be unjust. Several
studies have examined compensation and how it is calculated. For example, in Michael DeBow’s
(1995) article Unjust Compensation, the federal law interpreting and applying the calculation of
“just compensation” under the Fifth Amendment does not adequately protect the rights of
property owners.
52
As argued in Dr. Fullilove’s report (2007), entitled: Eminent Domain and African
Americans, What is the price of the Commons:
Through all these upheavals, legalized “takings”—first of the person, to make him or her
a slave, and more recently of houses, to get people’s land—have threatened African
Americans’ lives, homes, and families…..the government’s use of eminent domain—its
power to take land for “public use”—has been an important part of this story of repetitive
forced displacement” (p.1 ).
Compounded with mass displacement and unjust compensation, the literature has proven
a clear connection between how there is a present-day wealth gap. As the literature has shown,
residents of Tobytown, Emory Grove both of Montgomery County, Maryland, Black Bottom and
Paradise Valley in Detroit, and thousands of other countless African American communities
were obliterated by design.
This literature review’s purpose is to help the reader understand the contributing factors
to the present-day wealth gap and to understand the financial impact of the colossal eminent
domain abuse within African American spaces while sharing the importance of narrative inquiry
as a method. This is significant as the impact of eminent domain on the African American
community needs to continue to be researched to change legislation of eminent domain, redress,
and provide reparations to those impacted, thus ultimately clearing a path to narrowing the
wealth gap, while raising the authentic voices and lived experiences of those impacted, as
mainstream media has often muted these voices.
A powerful quote found in economist, Dr. William Darity’s (2018) collaborative study
entitled What We Get Wrong About Closing the Racial Wealth Gap (Darity et al., 2018.),
encapsulates the essence of this present research:
53
Our nation’s underlying economic structure is supported by harmful narratives and
unequal access to assets which begets unequal opportunities to preserve or increase
wealth to be passed on to subsequent generations. It is time to move beyond these
fallacies and confront the root causes of the racial wealth gap. Otherwise, we will whistle
in the wind, and the racial wealth gap will remain unchallenged (Darity, p. 55).
54
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter will highlight the methodology used to draw out answers to the four research
questions that guided the study:
RQ1: What were the lived experiences prior to being displaced due to eminent domain?
RQ2: What were the lived experiences after being displaced due to eminent domain?
RQ3: How has being displaced financially impacted the participants of the study?
RQ4: How did the eminent domain policies affect their generational wealth legacy?
For this present study, the researcher examined the financial impact African Americans
suffered as a result of being displaced due to eminent domain and the repercussions of
discriminatory housing policies. The purpose of this research is to take a critical look at the
present-day African American and White wealth gap to get a deeper understanding of the
financial impact of eminent domain abuse on African American communities while giving voice
to the impacted individuals.
This specific study aimed to uncover the lived experiences of those affected by mass
displacement by creating a space for their subjective stories. The present study incorporated a
qualitative approach while using a narrative inquiry through interviews/oral histories as
methodology and thematic analysis used to synthesize and analyze data. Hamza Alshenqeeti
(2014) conducted a study entitled Interviewing as a Data Collection Method: A Critical Review
(2014) and notes that “this line of research seeks to explore and describe the ‘quality’ and
‘nature’ of how people behave, experience and understand” (p. 39).
55
Research Rationale
The rationale for this study is threefold. The first is to address the discourse around the
African American and White wealth gap, while allowing those impacted to share their
perceptions and lend their voices to the foundation of the problem and finally to seek change to
the legislative powerful, disruptive policy, eminent domain, which the literature has found that
African American’s are five times more likely to be displaced than Whites (Fullilove et al., 2016;
Fullilove & Wallace, 2011; Schwab, 2018).
Research Design:
A research design is a strategy for answering research questions using empirical data
(Creswell, J.W. and Poth, C.N. 2018). Utilizing a qualitative approach, this study used narrative
inquiry, which studies participants’ life experiences through in-depth interviews, to address the
four research questions. The goal of qualitative research is to get a better understanding of
subjective lived experiences of a particular phenomenon as it was experienced by a person or a
group (Creswell, J.W. and Poth, C.N., 2018). In their book, entitled Qualitative Inquiry &
Research Design, Creswell & Poth (2018) note that “qualitative research begins with
assumptions and utilizes interpretive/theoretical frameworks that inform the study of research
problems addressing the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem
(Creswell, J.W. and Poth, C.N., 2018, p.8). For this approach, the final presentation allows the
voices of those impacted as well as participants of the study to be heard.
Creswell & Poth (2018), also point out that this approach includes the reflexivity of the
researcher, a complex description and interpretation of the problem, and its contribution to the
literature or a call for change (2018).
56
Data Collection
Creswell, and Poth (2018), share that qualitative researchers will collect data from more
than one source (2018). To assist with understanding the contemporary issue of the generational
wealth gap, it was necessary to utilize the historical analysis concurrently with oral
histories/interviews methodology which not only shed light on past events but complimented the
lived experiences. Giving voice to those often pushed aside and silenced is the heartbeat of this
research. The respondents for this study are a powerful group of people whose lived experiences
should be raised and created into a larger forum, thus the reason for the oral histories data
collection.
Data collection was gathered through two methods, historical analysis, in which Maps,
(Appendix A), parcel records, (Appendix B), genealogical trees (Appendix C), deeds (Appendix
D), pictures, (Appendix E) plats (Appendix F), plots (Appendix G), newspaper articles
(Appendix H) and other legal documentation were examined, and raw data gathered through
narrative inquiry interviews/oral histories. Through purposive and snowball sampling 5
participants were selected to answer 12 strategic interview questions (Appendix I) that were
conducted and recorded via Zoom.
Historical Analysis
Historical research involves finding, using, interpreting, and correlating information
within primary and secondary sources, to understand past events. The collection of historical
data is accomplished through methodical and comprehensive research in primary and secondary
sources.
For this research, historical analysis is a complementary methodology coupled with
narrative inquiry to uncover the impact of eminent domain on the existing African American and
White wealth gap. Exploring the past, by interrogating those who were directly impacted and
57
allowing a platform for their lived experiences to be told, helps us understand who we are today
and where we are going. As philosopher George Santayana so aptly put “Those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (Wyche et al., 2006). Historical analysis can aid
in understanding current conditions, whether discussing the disparity in health, wealth, or
education. Understanding the historical roots can lead to a better understanding to create change.
In the case of this present study exploring the past can shed light on past systemic barriers that
impeded wealth accumulation through the theft of property in the name of eminent domain.
According to Mahoney & Rueschemeyer’s article (2003) entitled Comparative
Historical Analysis in Social Sciences (Mahoney & Rueschemeyer, 2003), they write that
comparative historical analysis has a long distinguished history (2003), which includes social
science founders, Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville and Karl Marx, who utilized comparative
historical analysis as a source of investigation. (Mahoney & Rueschemeyer, 2003)
Historical analysis research involves finding, using, interpreting, and correlating
information within primary and secondary sources, to understand past events (Wyche et al.,
2006). Primary sources refer to documents or artifacts that provide first-hand, eyewitness
accounts of events (Primary Sources for Historical Research | Subject and Course Guides, n.d.).
By utilizing the United States Library of Congress, the State Archives of Maryland, the
Maryland Historical Society, and online digital library services, the researcher uncovered
additional historical documents, property records, parcel deeds, tax assessor records, title
records, maps, and other pertinent historical documentation analyzed as seen in the Appendices.
The idea is to examine the primary documents to draw a connection between past events to the
current wealth gap.
58
Narrative Inquiry/Interviews
Narrative inquiry is a form of qualitative research in which the stories themselves become
the raw data (Butina, 2015). However, as Creswell & Poth (2018) point out, it can be a method
used in a study as data collection with experiences expressed as lived and told stories (Cresswell
& Poth, 2018), this is accomplished through interviews/oral histories of personal reflections of
events and the causes and effects from one individual or several individuals, according to
Creswell & Poth. (2018). They further state that oral histories may draw upon diverse methods
and be guided by interpretive frameworks such as social justice. In this research oral history is
guided by the critical race theoretical framework including the counterstorytelling tenet of CRT.
Interviews and Oral Histories
Interrogating how people experience a phenomenon provides in-depth insights that are
not easily accessible through empirical scientific investigations (Giorgi, 1970). Without a
firsthand deep exploration of the person’s lived experiences, any explanation and conjecture
would pale of its potential impact. As a result, it is tantamount to subjectively examine the lived
experiences recounted by the individuals who encountered the phenomenon under investigation.
The scholarship shows that narrative inquiry uses storytelling as a way of communicating
the respondents’ realities to a broader audience. Through narrative inquiry, interviews are
conducted. Interviews were used as a form of data collection as a primary source to get firsthand
knowledge. Impacted communities and former residents of said communities were identified.
The instrument used to draw out answers for the research questions were through interview
questions that were administered to participants.
In addition, secondary sources were used to inform what has already been researched and
what others have said about this topic as well as provide vital background information.
59
Secondary sources for this present study include but are not limited to journal articles, online
blogs, books, maps, plots, plats, and other historical artifacts.
Sampling
It is improbable to reach all the former residents within the investigated area, although it
would be ideal. As a result, the researcher of this present study used a sample of the population
to address the research questions. A sample, according to Acharya et al., (2013), is a subset of a
population (2013). There is a myriad of sampling strategies, however, the best strategy to secure
participants for this research are purposive and snowball.
According to Creswell & Poth, (2018):
In a narrative study, the researcher reflects more on whom to sample-the
individual may be convenient to study because she or he is available; a politically
important individual who attracts attention or is marginalized; or a typical
ordinary person. All of the individuals need to have stories to tell about their lived
experiences.
Similarly, for a phenomenology study, the participants must all have experienced the
phenomenon. (Creswell, J.W. & Poth, C.N. 2018). Further, Creswell & Poth (2018), state that
the inquirer selects individuals and sites for study because they can purposefully inform an
understanding of the research problem and central phenomenon in the study (2018).
While the purposive sampling technique is the deliberate choice of a participant due to
qualities the participant possesses (Etikan, 2016, Etikan, 2016, Creswell & Poth, 2018) snowball
sampling technique was used to identify cases of interest from people who know other people
with a similar focus.
60
The participants utilized for this study were strategically selected based on preliminary
screening questions. (Appendix J). In addition, short recruitment messages, (Appendix K) were
emailed and posted on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram.
The criteria for the participants were very deliberate as for this study the researcher is
only interested in interviewing legal heirs, and or former residents of impacted communities. The
criteria for this study required respondents to be African American, however; for this study, it is
imperative that there is a delineation among African Americans as not all African Americans are
descendants of the United States slavery. There was no age requirement, however; each
respondent must be at least 18 years old to participate. Interviews were conducted via a digital
video medium and recorded and preserved for oral histories.
Recruitment of Participants
The successful recruitment and retention of study participants is paramount to the success
of this research. It is vital to make sure that the respondents fit the established criteria and that
the researcher is able to pull from a necessary pool of qualified candidates. This is crucial as this
can impact the findings of the study. In addition, as Manohar, N. et al., (2018), point out in their
research it is important to establish a reciprocal relationship with participants and layout
expectations. They note in their article, that the appropriate selection of participants is essential
for accurate representation (Manohar, N. et al., 2018).
Participants
The research secured 5 participants, as outlined in Table 1, to represent a subset of the
population in question. The identified participants were given a consent form for review and
acknowledgment. According to Creswell & Poth (2018), the consent form often requires specific
elements such as the right for participants to voluntarily withdraw from the study at any time, the
61
central purpose of the study and the procedures to be used in data collection, the protection of the
confidentiality of the respondents, the known risks associated with participation in the study. For
this particular study, there are no known risks, however; due to the nature of displacement, it was
noted that it may be emotional. A feeling that may resonate as they recollect.
Table 1 PARTICIPANTS SELECTED FOR STUDY
Participants
Gender
Age
Community
Education Level
Participant 1
Female
72
Emory Grove
High School
Participant 2
Male
81
Tobytown
College
Participant 3
Male
70
Chevy Chase, Washington, DC
Some college
Participant 4
Female
60
Chevy Chase, Washington, DC
Bachelors
Participant 5
Female
70+
Chevy Chase, Washington, DC
2 years of college
From the preliminary pool, careful consideration was made to identify African American
individuals who were not only impacted by eminent domain abuse but were descendants of
African slaves. The respondent pool in this study included five individuals, four females and one
male and all ranged in age from 60 to 81 years of age. A total of 5 participants were identified to
partake in the 12-question research, which was conducted via Zoom video. All respondents
chose to have their cameras on; however, all names have been redacted from the study.
The justification for the sample size is the iteration has established that you do not need a
large number of participants for a qualitative study and the average is between 5-10 participants
(Renwick, 2019). This sample range is based on the understanding that qualitative research aims
not to generalize findings to the entire population under consideration. It is believed that through
62
purposive and snowball sampling, a similar sample of participants will emerge. The goal is that
the targeted number of interviews should generate thematic saturation and achieve informational
redundancy (Creswell & Poth, 2018).
Instruments
Diane Hinds (2000), article on research instrumentation notes that research is usually
constructed through rigorous, systemic, inquiry, and research instruments are the tools (Hinds,
2000). For this present study, the researcher utilized interview questions and historical artifacts
as the instruments. The interview questions included below were strategically conceptualized to
draw out authentic storytelling from the participants.
Interview Questions
The five participants were asked a series of five (5) basic demographic questions
followed by 12 questions that centered on their lived experiences.
Demographic Information:
Gender:
Age:
Educational Level:
Employment:
Are you a homeowner now?
1. Can you tell me your family story about being displaced because of eminent domain?
2. What happened to your family after being displaced? What challenges have your family
experienced since the displacement?
3. How was your family notified about eminent domain and that your property would be seized?
63
4. How do you define just compensation? What kind of compensation has been offered for your
property which was seized?
5. How did you and your family deal with the situation after you experienced displacement?
6. How has eminent domain impacted you financially?
7. How has eminent domain impacted your family’s generational wealth?
8. How has eminent domain impacted your personal life?
9. Has your community done something to protest eminent domain? If so, what has been done?
What did your community look like before eminent domain? What does the community
look like?
10. Do you know anyone else who has been affected by eminent domain?
11. If eminent domain policy were to be revised, what do you want to see in change? Who
should be the key person to speak for your concerns?
12. This last question is an opportunity for you to provide any additional information on your
thoughts and feelings on eminent domain?
Research Questions
The twelve questions were designed to capture their authentic lived experiences and to
address the research questions that centered on the following:
1) RQ1: What was community/life prior to eminent domain?
2) RQ2: What was community/life after eminent domain?
3) RQ3: What was the financial impact of eminent domain?
4) RQ4: How did the eminent domain polices affect their generational wealth legacy?
Data Analysis
64
According to Creswell & Poth as noted in their book Qualitative Inquiry & Research
Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches (2018), qualitative research data analysis consists of
preparing and organizing the data. Collected data was coded and analyzed through NVivo, a
qualitative research software. Saldana (2016) notes that coding is the critical link between data
collection and their explanation of meaning. According to The Coding Manual for Qualitative
Researchers, by Johnny Saldana (2016), “a code in qualitative inquiry is most often a word or
short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and or evocative
attribute for a portion of language-based data” (p. 4). As noted by Saldana (2016), this data can
consist of interview transcripts, participant observation, field notes, documents, and open-ended
questions, to name just a few (Saldana, 2016). For this present study artifacts, which consisted of
transcripts, images of plots, parcels, and any other historical and legal documents, as well as
transcribed interview responses, were analyzed to answer the research questions.
The responses from the interviews as well as data collected from the historical documents
were coded and prepared for analysis. Data from this present study were stored on a password-
protected computer in the Principal Investigator’s office, accessible only by the investigators and
Howard University Institutional Review Board (IRB).
The interviews from Zoom were transcribed into a Word file including the consent preamble
(Appendix L). A first-level coding was conducted, which included coding the transcriptions
using a coding scheme and uploaded into NVivo, a qualitative software analysis. Utilizing an
inductive approach allowed for major themes to be uncovered based on the data. The frequency
of themes, which helped identify answers to the research question, was established utilizing
NVivo.
65
CHAPTER IV: RESULTS
“We wish to plead our own cause. For too long have others spoken for us. Too long has
the public been deceived by misrepresentations, in things which concern us dearly.”
Samuel Cornish & John Brown Russwurm, March 12, 1827
Introduction
The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the lived experiences of individuals
that were displaced due to eminent domain, specifically, this study examined the acquiring of
land as early as the 19th century through to the height of urban renewal in the 1970s. It
contextualizes African American lived experiences through their authentic voices and sheds light
on the loss of generational wealth due to eminent domain. This chapter presents the qualitative
analysis of the raw data that was derived from in-depth interviews that consisted of 12 open-
ended questions from the five participants and an analysis of historical documents from the three
represented communities in this study.
While research has found that eminent domain has impacted African Americans
throughout the US, for this particular study, the researcher only focused on three communities
within the Washington, DC metropolitan areas and interviewed participants associated with the
following communities:
1) Chevy Chase DC, Broad Branch neighborhood,
2) Montgomery County, Maryland enclaves of:
a. Tobytown
b. Emory Grove
Washington, DC
According to historian Marya Arnette McQuirter, Ph.D. (Cultural Tourism DC, n.d.),
African Americans were 25 percent of the population in the 1800’s with the majority of them
enslaved. Although slavery remained, Dr. McQuirter points out that by 1830 most were free
people. The article notes how African Americans who resisted slavery and injustices did so by
66
organizing their own churches, and private schools; aid societies as well as businesses
accumulating wealth and property (Cultural Tourism DC, n.d.)
Chevy Chase DC Broad Branch Neighborhood
One such neighborhood where African Americans amassed property in Washington, DC
during the 19th century was in what we now know as the Broad Branch neighborhood in Chevy
Chase DC. A neighborhood that today touts homes with a median household value “with a
mortgage of $1,091,900. (Chevy Chase, DC Household Income, Population & Demographics |
Point2, n.d.) was once home to an African American neighborhood. Several of the participants in
the present study have shared their personal lived experiences as a result of their ancestors’
displacement due to eminent domain from their land.
An article ran in the Evening Star newspaper on March 4th, 1931, entitled Colored
Tenants’ Plots Purchased By District read: (Appendix H)
The District Commissioners yesterday approved the purchase of a lot of land, improved by
frame dwelling, adjoining the LaFayette School, now under construction at Broad Branch
Road and Oliver Street.
The house is occupied by colored tenants. In explaining the reason for the purchase,
Assistant Engineer Commissioner H. L. Robb wrote: The presence of this house, with its
colored occupants, so close to a white school is a source of possible friction that it is
thought desirable to remove. The price is somewhat higher than has been paid for other
property for this school but is a considerable reduction from the original price asked. The
purchase of this property has the approval of the school authorities. (Evening Star March
4, 1931)
67
The particular house mentioned in the newspaper article was the family property of
Participant 4. A property that had been in the family as early as the mid-1800s and held in the
family until the 1930s when they were forced to give up the property for the construction of a
school for White students.
Montgomery County, Maryland
It has been documented that as early as 1793 African Americans owned property in
Montgomery County, Maryland (Lecture Series – African American Housing in 19th Century
D.C., n.d.). However, most of the African American communities were established after the Civil
War. During the 19th century, there were approximately 40 communities in Montgomery County,
Maryland that were settled by freed slaves. According to the Montgomery County Preservation
Commission, land ownership provided an important step toward greater prosperity.
According to the Montgomery County Mapping Segregation site (Mapping Segregation
Project, n.d.), in the first 20 years after the Civil War, the African American population remained
accounted for approximately 36 percent of the county’s population. Montgomery County had
7,434 and 9,685 Black residents in 1870 and 1890, respectively.
According to the 2021 U.S. Census Bureau Montgomery County, Maryland, today is one
of the richest counties in the United States with Potomac, and Bethesda, Maryland home to
multimillion-dollar homes. In cities, where land and communities were once owned by freed
slaves, and whose property was purloined, the annual average income to date, according to the
Census is $111,812 (U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, n.d.). Lying in the shadows of wealth are
enclaves once owned by freed slaves whose own generational wealth has been stifled due to
eminent domain and discriminatory housing policies.
68
It is important to note that the majority of these communities did not have running water.
Despite protests, Montgomery County never provided water facilities, sewage, sidewalks, paved
streets, or streetlights for communities such as Tobytown and Emory Grove until the 1960s
(Lecture Series – African American Housing in 19th Century D.C., n.d.).
Tobytown
Tobytown a once thriving and close-knit African American enclave established in 1875
by freed slaves, is situated in Montgomery County, Maryland. As reported by the Parent’s
Coalition of Montgomery County (2016), Tobytown was established by William Davis, Ailsie
Martin, and Emory Genus in 1875. Davis was an emancipated slave who purchased four acres of
land for $8.00, while Martin and Genus bought a 5-acre parcel for $100 (Parents’ Coalition of
Montgomery County, Maryland: How the Descendants of Freed Slaves Lost Their Land in
Montgomery County Tobytown, n.d.).
During the 1970s, and the height of urban renewal in which cities received governmental
funding to improve blighted areas, Montgomery County would use blight as a reason to raze
Tobytown and other African American communities in which the government used their eminent
domain power to take the land and demolish the homes. For Tobytown, specifically, the homes
were replaced with public housing townhomes, managed by the Housing Opportunities
Commission, in which residents were forced to rent for 40 years before they could buy just the
homes back from the HOC (Parents’ Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: How the
Descendants of Freed Slaves Lost Their Land in Montgomery County #Tobytown, n.d.).
When the county came in, it is important to note that the residents of Tobytown no longer
had ownership of their land but were allowed to live in the public housing that was built on it. In
1972, the housing authority used federal housing funds to build 26 duplexes and single-family
homes, and a small community center, with the idea that the residents would eventually purchase
69
the low-income homes (Parents’ Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: How the
Descendants of Freed Slaves Lost Their Land in Montgomery County #Tobytown, n.d.).
Participant 2, through his narrative shares insight on what the community was like prior
to eminent domain and shares the financial impact and “trickery” that was used to take the land
that totaled over 100 acres in the 19th century and dwindled to “twelve acres”. He recollects:
“From what I learned from my parents and what they learned from their parents to their ancestors
that Tobytown, once upon a time, had accumulated up to over 100 [acres]”.
He shares his life story In detail on how the property was eventually seized through
eminent domain- and the once landowners became renters while living on the land they once
owned. It is through his voice and his in-depth narrative that this study shares a firsthand glimpse
into the true lived experiences and history of Tobytown and its devastating impact on families.
Emory Grove
Emory Grove was founded in 1864 by freed African American slaves and encompassed
300 acres with upwards of 500 residents. A vibrant tight-knit community for more than 100
years, until urban renewal brought a dismantling of the community with broken promises of
revitalizing the area. As shared by Participant 1, a direct descendant whose family-owned land
and a house in Emory Grove noted that in 1974 many of the residents were forced to move away.
Unlike Tobytown, the residents of the Emory Grove community were completely removed and
promised that they would be able to return.
Participant 1 further explained that from 1970 until 2024, when groundbreaking for the
redevelopment of the historic Montgomery County neighborhood would finally begin, nothing
had been done.
70
You know, and we have a development going on right now called Heritage, Emory
Grove, which is trying to rebuild some houses and to get people back in. It looks kind of
like the same thing, but they’re planning for it. Planning with Habitat for Humanity
Housing Commission with Montgomery County Council, which has approved this
project for half a billion dollars, actually so. And groundbreaking will start in 2024.
Research Questions and Responses
Chapter IV centers on the findings from a sample population through in-depth interviews
and aims to address the research questions while amplifying, in their voices, the lived
experiences and the negative financial impact of eminent domain abuse.
RQ1: What were the lived experiences prior to being displaced due to eminent domain?
Thriving and self-sustaining community
The most salient theme that the participants discussed when reflecting on their
community before eminent domain was a “thriving community,” a “self-sustaining community,”
as outlined below in their own voices:
My family was living in a community that had been developed in the 1860s. After slavery,
the property was given to a group of people. Who have been slaves in the region, and they
formed the community, and my family was part of that founding group. They established
churches and schools. They established their own businesses, and my family was, I guess,
the largest family in the community… I did have my great-grandmother who was a slave
in the house with me until I was about four years old, she died at 102. (Participant 1)
71
Participant 1, recalled with pride and exuberance when recalling the childhood home her
grandfather built in the during late 19th century, a home that would stay in the family for
generations up until the 1970s urban renewal plan to raze Emory Grove through eminent domain:
He built a big house which in the community everybody knows that’s the big house and a
lot of people lived in that house. It was a 13-room house. Three stories, plus a basement.
And so that’s how I grew up. I grew up in a village that was contained within one home,
and we had a strong impact on the community. So, there was a, you know, I’ll just let you
know that we were a very active community, a very vibrant community that touched
many lives along the East Coast, the Mid-Atlantic area. (Participant 1)
As Participant 1 shared their story, the intentionality in which they shared was palpable.
The researcher could feel through the participants words, the sense of community for Emory
Grove, and how it was all interconnected and centered around the church. The stability of the
community erased with little compensation to look for new housing.
Similarly, as told by Participant 2 an 81-year-old African American man who is a direct
descendant of Tobytown, “Tobytown, which is a historic community. I think it was founded in
1875 by something like about 12 slaves come from out of Tennessee” he shared that although it
was a poor community, they owned their land, built their houses themselves, and created a
thriving community one which centered on helping each other.
The houses ran from four to five bedrooms, but then the family started to grow. And then
so, when families start growing. They the ones that are that were younger, had to get out,
you know. Because they started having families and they just built little shacks on the
property. These were good houses, constructed solidly built houses with, farming,
vineyards, peaches, and grapevines. The only thing missing before the renewal was
72
there was no running water, they had pumps and an outside facility bathroom no running
water and a spring, pump, and spring, and spring water was really cold…they started
building pumps and each house would get a pump no plumbing and this was in the
40’s, 50’s, and ’60s. (Participant 2)
When sharing their lived experiences, Participant 3 was able to trace the ownership of his
relative’s land in the Chevy Chase Broad Branch neighborhood, from the late “1840 or 1850s”.
The family owned the land for approximately 89 years, that is until it was ultimately stripped
from them due to eminent domain and intimidation in 1928.
And another thing about that particular area, too was it was the one place where free
persons of color had decided to live in, because surrounding that if you look at the old
maps, those are all White folks and plantations. Very few Blacks who own land, or
property, in the DMV area and so that was quite an accomplishment to have
land and. For what, 90 years? Yeah, they had the land for almost 90 years. I believe. Of
doing that, that that period, blacks were actually thriving in that area, they had
networking and support systems for people who may be. (Participant 3)
Participant 3 reflected on recorded stories of the land and thriving community prior to
eminent domain and noted that Newland, “an outspoken racist” led the development of the
Chevy Chase land that was ultimately razed. Participant 3 shared:
It is interesting because there during that time I can’t remember the gentlemen’s name, but
he wasn’t a very nice White man. He was a racist. Newland was his name.
(Participant 3)
Participant 4 echoed the same sentiment when sharing information on the new developers
of their land, known collectively as the Chevy Chase Land.
73
Roughly latter part of 1800s my excuse me, my second great grand Aunt, Lord Dorsey
, and her husband Robert purchased land and built upon it a dwelling, the home. Shortly
after they built this home, they were asked to raise their nieces and nephews. Because
their mother, my second great-grandmother, died. So, they took the children in and raised
them as their own. They housed them, clothed them, fed them, and educated them. My
that would be my great-grandmother, Rosa Shorter. Excuse me, Rosa is a Shorter.
Brennan Shorter, I should say. And they were raised there on Broad Branch Rd. My Aunt
Laura, my great aunt Laura. Great Aunt Laura had a farm where she grew her own fruits,
vegetables. And had a store that she operated. And according to my grandmother, kept all
the numbers. So, they were thriving. They were self-sufficient, self-sustaining, being
educated, went to church, did all those things right there on Broad Branch. So, it was
generational. They were self-sufficient, self-sustaining being educated, went to church,
did all those things right there on Broad Branch. So, it was generational. And so, my
great-grandmother grew up. She was educated and ultimately got married. Had her
children right there on Broad Branch there, and her aunt Laura sold the home to them to
her and her husband, Richard Shorter. And they raised my grandmother and her siblings.
It was roughly the latter part of the 1920s. Where rumblings began with taking over the
land. (Participant 4)
Participant 5 added:
He owned the land, and he had a farm on the land and his wife, and his children. And
then with a nice little with a nice neighborhood with a very nice neighborhood
with farmland and you know, profit that they made the money through farming
they ate through farming. So, when the Europeans came, they wanted the land.
74
There was a thriving community that they built, took the whole community. They
tore the all the buildings down and built their schools and their homes.
(Participant 5)
The participants all shared that the time span prior to eminent domain their communities
were thriving and self-sustaining, albeit poor they had a community that supported each other,
and land/property that they owned, a source of power, a means of supporting themselves, land
which was stripped from them.
RQ2: What were the lived experiences after being displaced due to eminent domain?
Resilience
When asked what their lived experiences were after being displaced the tone of the
conversation changed. While four were noticeably saddened recollecting the loss of their family
property, Participant 5 was visibly angry and used very strong language against the “oppressors”.
They spoke with intentions and did not hold back their thoughts and feelings about the trajectory
of her family’s life and wondering what it could have been if their land were not taken. All
participants expressed a form of resilience.
Participant 1 added:
Well, of course you know, we didn’t have any economic resources after that. Everybody
worked. They always, everybody always worked. But finding the support that we were able
to give each other living together. Just taking care of each other.
I think it’s the main thing. I think the usual, the usual displacement kind of thing you have
to start and make a life together. You know Grandma died and Granddad died. And so then,
you know the level of, you know, family unity and guidance that dispersed and everybody
was on their own. So, we tried over the years. To keep on coming together, you know, and
I think that we did a pretty good job for a long time. Over all these years I’ve talked to
75
people from different states that has happened to them that they built a big highway right
in the middle of their community, that they knocked their community down so that they
could build a shopping mall or, you know, or maybe a stadium.
Say that and their lives were very, very upset by the community being split in half by a
highway being in the middle of it. I’ve talked to those people who are very bitter, you
know, who feel like that. The chances that they had for growth were minimalized because
of this and a lot of that. This comes from the feeling of being worthy, you know your worth,
your value, and your pride. You know, the feeling of being in control of your life, with
taking away from you so. (Participant1)
The landowners of Tobytown owned the property, in which Participant 2 is a resident, they
had a community of their own, and after urban renewal, were governed by the Montgomery County
Housing Opportunities Commission, (HOC). Urban renewal brought running water and electric
heat but at a loss. Historical analysis of documents and deeds from 1974 shows that some plots
were sold to the county for as low as $10.00.
Participant 3’s tonal inflection shifted downward when reflecting on his family’s life after
displacement. Knowing that his ancestors had created a stream of generational revenue by
purchasing property and it all taken away with little to no recourse due to eminent domain
brought sadness to his voice as he reflected.
Participant 3 further explained that:
A lot of the other family members were struggling even more than that. Because it was
immediate there the loss was immediate. They didn’t have a lot of time to prepare or
make plans or anything. And just like one of the descendants was saying how in the
world did they go from Chevy Chase living in Chevy Chase, a wonderful place with a
76
wonderful home to the ghetto? Just immediately they were just sent out to now. And
that’s what they said it just it baffles them and especially to think about it now and now
understanding how they have become so separated, finding out about this, and having the
only reunion they’ve ever had on that property in 2015 was an opportunity for that family
to come together. After all those years. And recognize and understand who they are and
who they’ve been missing.
Participant 4 echoed the others and lamented the resilience of her ancestors.
Like the generations before them, they just gone on with it. What does that mean? Oh,
they worked, they toiled, they laughed. Well, let me back that up. If they cried it was
in private. But they just they just got on the best way. It’s not without its faults, though.
Think that there were lasting psychological effects. My grandmother had anxiety. I
believe my father did, although he did not talk about it. Occasionally he would mask it
with alcohol. Yeah, I think psychologically it had a great impact. I know my
grandmother’s brothers, two in particular never wanted to leave the house. You know,
they were afraid to venture out for fear of losing, so they were quite the opposite and
stayed and never, never moved. So, they would psychologically it had a great impact.
(Participant 4)
When sharing their lived experiences, Participant 4 noted that their family was the victim
of serial displacements due to eminent domain, and the resilience allowed her family to
continually be in a perpetual starting over space. They stated that they were only one generation
away from being displaced. After their family was forced to move from the Chevy Chase Broad
Branch neighborhood they settled on a property on Irving Street, NW, which would face
displacement again when they moved to the Irving Street, NW Washington, DC property. “Now
77
it's only one generation because my father was displaced as well because he and my grandmother
and great-grandmother, and their families all resided on Irving Street.
The family was forced to move from their Chevy Chase, DC Broad Branch neighborhood
in 1931, settled on a home on Irving Street, NW Washington, DC a few miles away, and was
ultimately forced to move again from that home as well during the late “1940’s early 50’s.”
It was a beautiful home, beautiful home, 3 levels, three and if well, I guess you do know
about DC. Obviously, it was a beautiful home. And their house was taken because they
wanted to build a school for Black children because they didn’t want the Black children
going to school near the White children. So, they obliterated the block and built the school.
And so, my father had to endure that. And this, I think the saddest part of that and that was
about 40s that was in the 1950s where that took place. So, they’d been there for some time.
But the saddest part? You know, there’s sadness. In all of it really. They’re too sad. And
I’m trying to grasp the words. Two sad points. That will probably never leave me, and that
is when my grandmother Anna Shorter Chambers died. Before she died, rather, she died at
102. But shortly before that, as her memory began to fade, she would always pine to go
back home. And I said, well, you know, where is that? Where is home and she said it’s
Chevy Chase. It’s Broad Branch. (Participant 4)
Participant 5 shared that although her family was resilient, they suffered the most. As explained:
Because of the lack of education and money, my grandmother’s sons, my uncles, they all
became drug addicts and drunks. I mean, they’re all dead. I mean, they died at a young
age because of because of poverty. It’s been hard. (Participant 5)
RQ3: How has being displaced financially impacted the participants of the study?
Little to No Compensation/Poverty
A lot of people may have low income. They did not put any kind of plan together to
78
help these people to get back or to own homes, you know, get back and to buy back
into the community. I think that they should have gotten more monetary compensation, but
like I said, my family was unusual. There were too many people. So, they didn’t give them
very much money anyway for the land. (Participant 1)
Participant 2 spoke emphatically, as he wondered who was making money off of his stolen land.
The county came and took what I understood and gave them $12,000 for the plan. With
that no one knows the value of that land market value of that land back then could
been worth. See, they did not know the too much value of money. They
took it. And then with the farmers. The sad thing about is, they were going
to build your new house…Somebody’s parking money. You know somebody making big
money. (Participant 2)
Historical documents show that there were plots that were deeded to Montgomery
County for just $10.00 documents Participant 2 may not be aware of. However, even $12,000 as
he stated, in 1974 for land in Montgomery County, is still extremely low.
Participant 3 agreed that the money offered was low.
I would say it was not enough compensation. That’s right. I believe I heard when we were
talking about it that it was still below its value. Exactly, yeah. And when you factor in
the human element, it was way, way below. (Participant 3)
Participant 4 agreed with the other participants that the offer was extremely low. They
further explained that not only did they give them a low offer but paid them even less than the
original offer.
To start, they were originally offered 12,000 for the house and. Land. They were only
given 7000. Land values at that time were well over 20,000 and beyond. But the only
79
way that I could see. It being just is to give the land back. (Participant 4)
Participant 5 the most outspoken of the participants argued that the compensation, if any
was nominal. They were adamant that the stipulations for eminent domain need to change.
It wasn’t very much. I would find that if you want to move me from
one place to another. Have some place for me to go, build me another house. On that
land, put it on the other land is it is this farmland make the make another give a land for
another farm. Give it equal to what you take. Same thing you took from us. Plus, money to
move plus compensation. (Participant 5)
RQ4: How did the eminent domain policies affect their generational wealth legacy?
From Property Owners to Public Housing
Participant 1 reflected on the community of Emory Grove, during the height of the urban renewal
and recalled:
The people were put in public housing and people who did have money and who did own
land individually were able to buy property elsewhere. You know, in the in the county,
Unfortunately, because my family was so big at that time. I was. Maybe 20 years old and
there was a whole there was my grandparents. My grandfather was still living. And then
his children. So that lay. Or, you know, did not, of course, trickle down to me with any
funds. So, they didn’t give them very much money anyway for the land. So
basically, we had to just go out and find housing, you know, and I know that a lot of
people, we’ve had lots of meetings about this, and a lot of people are very, very bitter,
even still and upset. That their lives were pulled apart because it was a very close-knit
family community. (Participant 1)
Participant 2, a resident of Tobytown and the most outspoken of the residents in his
community expressed his sadness. He understands what it takes to fight for his land, and a good
80
lawyer and understands that he does not have the money to pay for a good lawyer
See, I really don’t want to see my community be stolen away from me no more. Yeah, I
don’t have the money to get our expensive lawyer. This thing could be tackled, but it takes
money. Money can get you a good smart lawyer, somebody that knows how to deal with
it. But I just. I just don’t. (Participant 2)
All five of the participants recognized that eminent domain has had a negative impact on
their families financially. Participant 3 says it “destroyed” his family of generational wealth and
further lamented:
You know, it destroyed our family of it, robbed us of, of you know that wealth that would
have come because I mean. And unless we were forced. To give up that that property. You
know because they had been in our family for 89 years. (Participant 3)
Being displaced from the Broad Branch Chevy Chase neighborhood would continue a
cycle of displacement due to eminent domain for Participant 4’s family.
There was no generational wealth. We didn’t have anything to give to our children.
(Participant 4)
Participant 5 echoed the same sentiment:
That’s where they live and they live in dire poverty because they were, they were
uneducated, they had children, they had no more farmland, they had no. So
generational wealth affects us up until today, but it’s not just me, it’s all of us. I
think about. All of us. Not just me because I’m, I’m 75. I’m not going to be here
much longer but look at what we’re leaving behind. I want justice. (Participant 5)
Emergent Themes and Research Questions
Emergent themes from the interviews are highlighted in Table 2.
81
Table 2 Research Questions and Themes
Research Questions
Themes that address questions
RQ1: What were the lived experiences
prior to being displaced due to eminent
domain?
RQ2: What were the lived experiences
after being displaced due to eminent
domain?
RQ3: How has being displaced
financially impacted the participants of
the study?
RQ4: How did the eminent domain
policies affect their generational wealth
legacy?
Theme 1: Thriving community
Theme 2: Tight-knit community
Theme 3: Owned land; housing
Theme 4: Feeling of Devastation
Theme 5: Family dispersed
Theme 6: Resilience/Survival
Theme 7: Little to no
compensation/poverty
Theme 8: From Property Owner/
to Public Housing
Theme 9: No assets to pass down
82
CHAPTER V: SUMMARY, DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION
This chapter presents the summary of the study, summary of findings, implications of
findings, and suggestions for future research.
Introduction
To get a true understanding of the impact of eminent domain, this study investigated the
historical trajectory, from the acquiring of land during the 19th century through to the height of
urban renewal during the 1970s as an act of illegal and legal maneuvering that impacted
generational wealth. The literature focused not only on eminent domain but equally as damaging,
the historical discriminatory housing policies that coincided during the same time. As
demonstrated in the review of literature there was a myriad of legislation that made and
continues to make it legally possible for the government to take possession of private property
and one of the main governmental laws is eminent domain.
The timing for this body of work is critically important. Over the past few years, the talks
of reparations for African Americans have grown. With the nationally recognized Bruce’s Beach
property and the awarding of their property back to the heirs, others have come forward with
questions regarding their family properties. Scholarship has shown that there are a multitude of
other properties that were unjustly taken. As reflected in this work, eminent domain is a policy
that has been used as a tool to displace. It becomes abusive when the criteria of eminent domain
are not met. Scholarship has shown that in many cases African Americans if they were
compensated for their property, it was not just or fair compensation.
Summary of Study
According to Derenoncourt et al., (2022) “studies of Black wealth accumulation and
racial wealth gaps in the decades after Emancipation paint a picture of remarkable progress by
83
Black Americans against a backdrop of equally remarkable hostility” (Derenoncourt et al., 2022,
p. 6). However, the present-day African American wealth gap sits at roughly 6:1 (Derenoncourt
et al., 2022). This present study presents further insights through firsthand storytelling to
understand the variables that have led to the existing African American White wealth gap and the
financial impact on individuals.
The literature shares that land is power and a vehicle for wealth. Losing that stream of
power can be devastating. Peeling back the layers and peering into those personally impacted by
displacement, the purpose of this qualitative research serves to provide a channel to heighten the
voices of those African Americans who were victims of land theft in the United States. The
primary objectives were for the participants to provide the researcher with their lived experiences
through thick rich stories guided by the following four research questions.
RQ1: What were the lived experiences before being displaced due to eminent domain?
RQ2: What were the lived experiences after being displaced due to eminent domain?
RQ3: How has being displaced financially impacted the participants of the study?
RQ4: How did the eminent domain policies affect their generational wealth legacy?
Research Question 1 explored the living experiences of participants prior to being
displaced by eminent domain. While Research Question 2 examined the lived experiences after
losing their family land/property. Additionally, Research Question 3 interrogated how being
displaced financially impacted the participants of the study, and Research Question 4
investigated how eminent domain policies affected the generational wealth legacy.
Through an analysis of related historical artifacts and 12 open-ended questions conducted
via Zoom, the researcher was able to identify emerging themes. Namely, a) Thriving community
84
prior to eminent domain b) Tight-knit community prior to displacement c) Owned land/housing
d) Resilience e) Poverty.
Summary of Findings
The researcher was able to establish findings that showed that eminent domain was the
driving force behind the participant’s lack of generational wealth. Overwhelmingly, the
participants were able to describe the lived experiences prior to displacement as one of a thriving
community, in which they owned their land and homes. After being displaced, the families were
dispersed and forced to find new housing with little to no funds. As P1 recalled: “Families, when
we get together and talk about this, they feel that they didn’t get anything, and they felt that their
family was torn apart”.
All the participants were interviewed separately, but all possessed distinctly similar
responses. The respondents shared that their communities, which were acquired in the early 19th
century, were all thriving self-sustaining communities. Through their storytelling, themes
evolved. Research Question 1 themes centered on the thriving, tight-knit community. While the
participants owned land, they acknowledged being poor but self-sustaining against the backdrop
of federal racist policies and laws. During the interviews, the participants responded to the
corresponding interview questions, with such pride, knowing that their family had owned land
and understood that it was a path to wealth building.
Research Question 2 delved into what life was like after being displaced. The tone of the
interview switched with each of the five participants when discussing life after eminent domain.
However, all believed that their families were resilient. The theme for this research question was
resilience.
85
It is important to note that the interviews were all conducted via Zoom and all
participants chose to have their cameras on. The researcher took note of not only verbal
responses but the body language including facial expressions. Research Questions 3 and 4
centered on financial and generational wealth and probed with interview questions that would
ultimately draw out their authentic responses regarding how being displaced financially impacted
them. The powerful findings in this study are the participants, who used their voices to speak up
and out against the injustices that have had an impact on their generational wealth.
Implications of Findings
This study looked at the present-day African American White wealth gap, juxtaposed it
against discriminatory policies, and examined the financial impact of these policies on African
Americans while giving the selected participants space to tell their stories. This research is
important to the body of literature on eminent domain as it gives voice to the otherwise muted
voices. Just like the land ownership that was taken away, their stories regarding their lack of
generational wealth because of stolen land would have been erased and gone unheard if it had
not been for this study and the growing body of literature.
Further, this study is important to the eminent domain scholarship because in 2023
communities and properties are still being pilfered. The fight continues throughout the US to
protect the rightfully owned land from the powerful from taking it. Recently, USA Today
published an article entitled Messing with the Wrong Lady (Myers & Twiggs, 2023), which
highlights the story of a 93-year-old African American woman whose Hilton Head, South
Carolina, property has been in her family since the Civil War, approximately, 150 years. Her
property consists of 1.8 acres and the developers offered to pay her $39,000 for the property,
86
including her home that sits on the property. Because she refused to give up her property, she is
now being sued by the developers who tried to buy her out and are now suing her for the land.
In another article that appeared in USA Today, on July 11, 2023, entitled Black Farmers
Have Lived Here for Generations. Now, a Ford Plant is Changing the Landscape (Puente, 2023),
the author shares that with the impending Ford plant, the state is preparing to take the land that
belongs to another African American. The author shares that “in a push to build a new highway
to the impending Ford plant, the Tennessee Department of Transportation is using eminent
domain to seize the land from a group of Black farmers and landowners in Stanton and
surrounding Haywood County” (Puente, 2023). Further the author argues that “the farmers,
including some whose families have owned their farmland here for generations, say the state is
taking their land while offering them a fraction of what it’s worth” (Puente 2023). James Boyd a
fourth-generation farmer and President of the National Black Farmers Association is quoted in
the article: “Black farmers have long struggled with discriminatory laws and federal lending
policies, as well as land loss” (Puente 2023).
As evidenced by recent news regarding eminent domain abuse, there is a need for
continued research on this subject area. Future research would expand on this study and uncover
additional land outside of the Washington, DC area during the early 19th century through to the
1970s and additionally expand to cover periods from the mid-1970s to the present day.
This study has presented a historical narrative leading into the contemporary period of
how one system of systemic racism has worked and continues to work to restrict African
Americans from narrowing the wealth gap. This dissertation speaks to structural racism and what
CRT tries to highlight. This body of research not only lends itself to the greater conversation of
reparations but adds the often-muted voices and true foundation of the African American wealth
87
gap. As outlined in this study, historic racist housing policies, coupled with displacement through
disproportionate eminent domain abuse in African American spaces were used to strip and
prevent African Americans from sustaining a mechanism of wealth. It is for this reason, that this
research offers a substantial contribution to African American White wealth gap scholarship.
Contribution to The Literature
The African American White wealth gap is a nationwide issue, as well as eminent
domain. This study lends the voices, and the personal reflections, to give a subjective view on
the financial impact eminent domain has had on the participant’s lack of generational wealth.
This study adds to the academic literature surrounding the African American wealth gap, and the
scholarship surrounding eminent domain as well as adds to the limited body of qualitative
research that centers on the voices of those financially impacted by eminent domain. This
research and subsequent research serve as a resource to amplify voices as well as a form of
resistance against the atrocities of pilfered land and the smothering of generational wealth, one
that aids in furthering of the true discourse about the atrocities faced by those while benefitting
others.
Contribution to The Communication Field
This study adds to the field of communication a body of work that utilizes voice as
resistance to stock stories, stock stories that are often birthed by the narratives that are created by
mainstream media. It counters stories of the dominant status quo while offering a glimpse into
the lived experiences of those personally impacted by eminent domain who, as scholarship has
shown, often go unseen and unheard through the lens of mainstream media. As demonstrated in
this research and highlighted by the omission in the Washington Post article, entitled
Montgomery’s Affluence; Plight of Suburban Poor Worsens in Downturn (2010) this research
88
allows the true lived experiences of African Americans who have been impacted by eminent
domain in the Washington, DC/Maryland area, to be heard.
Limitations
Methodology
The historical analysis was extremely effective for this study, coupled with the personal
reflections through interviewing those personally impacted, which gave legitimacy and a sound
foundation to their claims for redress. And most importantly, a space to share their lived
experiences. For this present study, there were five participants. While five is sufficient for this
study, there were opportunities to have even more. Due to the sensitive nature of the subject
matter, some participants, who initially agreed to speak openly about their plight, shied away.
There were talks of people coming in and making money off their stories, the county continuing
to rip them off and one person even stated that while they wanted their story heard, they wanted
to tell it themselves. One 80-year-old resident even concluded with the statement that the county
was just waiting for them to die off.
Age of Participants
Another limitation are the ages of those impacted between land acquired in the 19th
century and lost during the height of urban renewal in the 1970s. The age range for this
participant study ranged between 60-81, however; there were additional individuals aged 93 and
97 who were not available to participate in the study. For this matter, there is a sense of urgency
to capture the stories of heirs of land that were acquired and eventually stolen throughout the
U.S. In an age, where true African American history is being erased, it is paramount to capture
these stories and provide a stage for their voices to be heard and ultimately, to be compensated
for the land lost.
89
Suggestions Future Research
This study covers the time period between the early 19th century through the 1970s.
Eminent domain is still impacting African Americans, and to this day, communities are still
being desecrated. This study focused on just three areas within the Washington, DC Metropolitan
area, including Montgomery County, Maryland. However, as P1 pointed out:
“Over all these years I’ve talked to people from different states that has happened to
them that they built a big highway right in the middle of their community, that they
knocked their community down so that they could build a shopping mall or, you know, or
maybe a stadium”.
Future research can include scouring the DC area and throughout the United States to
uncover additional land takings from the 19th century through to the 1970s and ultimately, grow
the research to the present day and include discriminatory housing policies like HOPE VI a
federal program created under Congress, which was conceptualized in 1992 and other policies
which aided in the displacement of African Americans after 1970.
Recommendations
The African American wealth gap is staggering. There have been discussions regarding
narrowing the gap through education and/or reparations, however, with the latest vote against
Affirmative Action, the existing racial climate, and disproportionate resources to urban schools,
education, would be a slow path, and having the United States agree to a reparations model that
would satisfy all in narrowing the gap would be even slower. This research suggests, in the
interim, to begin to redress those who have been financially impacted by eminent domain abuse.
When referring to the African American wealth gap, Rothstein acknowledges that the
problem runs so deep that it can never be completely untangled, but also argues that partial
reversals are possible and can be encouraged by sound economic and housing policies. It starts
90
with knowing how it happened. (da Costa 2019). Quoting Economic Policy Institute Fellow and
author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America,
Richard Rothstein, da Costa shares:
If we understand the accurate history—that racially segregated patterns in every
metropolitan area like St. Louis were created by de jure segregation—racially explicit
policy on the part of federal, state, and local governments designed to segregate
metropolitan areas, then we can understand we have an unconstitutional residential
landscape. And if it’s unconstitutional, then we have an obligation to remedy it,” he adds.
We must build a national political consensus leading to legislation, a challenging but not
impossible task, to develop policies that promote an integrated society. Until then, the
legacy of racist housing practices will remain a fact of life in most American cities (da
Costa, P, 2019).
Dissemination
The findings of the research will be shared with stakeholders such as funding agencies,
policymakers, community leaders, and workshops, academic conference presentations, and
possible publications in academic journals. The National Communication Association has
several thousand members who are communication professionals, educators, and graduate
students. Its Economics, Communication, and Society Division is where the research project
aims for submission for presentations. As a critical communication scholar, the researcher for
this present study looks to bring about change and is deeply committed to social justice issues
and raising awareness of the social and financial impact the eminent domain policy has on the
existing African American wealth gap.
91
Conclusion
There are a myriad of individuals, groups, and organizations that are making a case for
reparations. However, this study is more than just a call for reparations. It is a strategic call for
retribution directly to the owners and descendants of land that was stolen in an effort to narrow
the present-day African American wealth gap, starting with the communities identified in this
study.
During the interview, Participant 2, spoke with such passion and frustration regarding
how Tobytown dwindled from 100 acres to “about 11 or 12”. He lamented how the land was
pinched away by:
Swindling Whites who would I think that's something like the time during the Civil War
and some of that land got away from them. People come in and. And and uh, if they have
a problem with their kids, they would have to go to court. And the fee for that, that that
helped them in court. that they didn't have the money to pay them for the price that they
wanted, they have to give off some of their land so that little by little that's how a lot of
that land has gotten taken away, I'll tell you. You know, when I look at 160 acres of land,
which covers a lot of Tobytown and now I think we're down to close to those 11 or 12
acres of land.
His authentic voice, often muted by mainstream media, was able to counter the status quo
discourse and share how the rich land in one of the wealthiest counties was stolen from his
family and other rightful owners.
Ultimately, this study gives the participants a seat at the table by amplifying not only
their voices but their needs and demands for redress while contributing to the greater African
American White wealth gap discourse. These stories are invaluable as they are often overlooked
92
and not considered in mainstream media and beyond, as exhibited in Annie Gowen’s
Washington Post article. As noted previously her article examined the plight of the poor
residents of Tobytown during the economic downturn but failed to examine the undercurrent
which caused the intergenerational poverty. One of the young Tobytown residents quoted in the
article when referring to his rich classmates who live in affluent homes nearby:
We just bought a bike, they just bought an RV. We just paid our [utility] bill, they just
got their house redone. It sucks (Gowen, 2010).
The author further noted that the “60 or so residents” of Tobytown, which is still
occupied by the original descendants who purchased land in 1875, have struggled to break free
of poverty for generations, and their circumstances have worsened in the recession (2010). The
researcher of this present study finds this ironic and perplexing that the author of the news article
did not dig deeper to uncover the root of the descendant’s plight. No mention of stolen land, no
mention of Montgomery County, Maryland taking over the land and rehousing the former home
and landowners into modern public housing with no recourse of housing appreciation, like their
affluent neighbors enjoy.
This study underscores the importance and highlights a greater need for those impacted
by eminent domain to tell their stories. These authentic stories bring their lived experiences out
of the shadows and resist the status quo stock stories through oversimplified narratives, while
illuminating their plight. In doing so, those impacted give voice to the data that makes up the
African American wealth gap in an effort to bring about change and ultimately restitution.
93
APPENDICES
Appendix A 1890 ATLAS MAP
Statistical Atlas of the United States Based on the Results of the Eleventh Census. Plate 11.
Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1898. Lithograph. Geography and Map Division,
Library of Congress (5–18) www.loc.gov/exhibits/african-american-
odyssey/reconstruction.html#obj5
94
Appendix B TOBYTOWN DOCUMENTS SHOW SALE of a PLOT for $10.00 in 1974.
95
96
Appendix C FAMILY TREES of PARTICIPANT 3 & 4, WHOSE FAMILY LIVED in
CHEVY CHASE, DC BROAD BRANCH
97
Family Tree of Participant 3 Whose Family Owned Land in Chevy Chase DC, Broad Branch
Neighborhood
98
Appendix D TOBYTOWN DEEDS
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
A
106
Appendix E PICTURES of CHEVY CHASE, WASHINGTON, DC BROAD BRANCH
HOME and FAMILY PHOTO of PARTICIPANT 4
107
Appendix F PLAT of CHEVY CHASE, DC BROAD BRANCH NEIGHBORHOOD
108
Plat of Tobytown neighborhood
109
110
111
112
113
Appendix G PLOT of TOBYTOWN NEIGHBORHOOD
114
Appendix H EVENING STAR 1931 ARTICLE
115
Appendix I INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Can you tell me your family story about being displaced because of eminent domain?
2. What happened to your family after being displaced? What challenges have your family
experienced since the displacement?
3. How was your family notified about eminent domain and that your property would be seized?
4. How do you define just compensation? What kind of compensation has been offered for your
property which was seized?
5. How did you and your family deal with the situation after you experienced displacement?
6. How has eminent domain impacted you financially?
7. How has eminent domain impacted your family’s generational wealth?
8. How has eminent domain impacted your personal life?
9. Has your community done something to protest eminent domain? If so, what has been done?
What did your community look like prior to eminent domain? What does the community look
like?
10. Do you know anyone else who has been affected by eminent domain?
11. If eminent domain policy were to be revised, what do you want to see in change? Who
should be the key person to speak for your concerns?
12. This last question is an opportunity for you to provide any additional information on your
thoughts and feelings on eminent domain?
116
Appendix J SCREENING QUESTIONS FOR RECRUITING PARTICIPANTS
Age: 18+
Gender:
What is your race: African American
Educational level
Employment/Income
Resident or descendant of a resident of a community that was impacted by eminent domain.
Knowledge about eminent domain:
117
Appendix K RECRUITMENT MESSAGE
118
Appendix L CONSENT PREAMBLE
119
TRANSCRIPTIONS
Transcription Participant 1 C.T.
Via: Zoom
Community: Emory Grove
00:00:10 Speaker Terri Davis: OK. CT thank you so much for taking time out to speak with me.
As you know, we're going to ask about 12 questions. About your experience living in Emory
Grove. But before we start, I have to read the consent preamble. OK, wonderful.
You have been asked to participate in this interview via Zoom, a similar video platform, or
phone interview as part of a research project being conducted by Dr. Wei Sun in the Department
of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University. My name is Terri Davis, a
Ph.D. student assisting Dr. Sun on this study. The study is designed to increase our
understanding of the impact of eminent domain you or a direct legal heir experienced and to get
your personal reflection on the financial impact of being displaced. The interview will take
approximately 30-45 minutes.
Your responses are entirely voluntary, and you may refuse to respond to questions we ask, as
well as to stop participating at any time, without jeopardizing your relationship with Howard
University. The interview/oral history is confidential and none of the information you share were
identified with you in any published reports.... Your answers were aggregated with those of
others we interview in our study. Data from this study were stored on a password protected
computer in the Principal Investigator’s office, accessible only by the investigators and Howard
University Institutional Review Board (IRB). Although there are no personal benefits associated
with participating in this study, your responses will assist in expanding our understanding of the
impact eminent domain had on you and your community.
The risks associated with your participation are minimal, no more than you would experience in
your daily life when talking about something you care about. However, should you experience
any discomfort associated with the subject matter during the interview, you may stop responding
to the interview, or request a referral to a mental health professional through one of the online
referral sources we can make, such as FindaPsychologist.org. By participating in the study, you
agree that you are at least 18 years of age and self-identify as Black or African American and a
descendant of formerly enslaved Africans. You also agree to be audio recorded for purposes of
accuracy. If you have any questions before we begin, please contact Dr. Wei Sun at
Wei.Sun@Howard.edu. If you have any concerns about the study, you can contact the Howard
University IRB at theorrc@howard.edu or call 202- 865-8597.
And with that, if you don't have any questions. We will move.
00:03:22 Speaker Participant 1 CT: No questions
120
00:03:25 Speaker Terri Davis: OK. And with that, we'll move forward with the first question and
the first few questions are really just generic questions, just demographic information. And so
we'll ask and you have to respond your gender.
00:03:41 Speaker Participant 1 CT: I'm a female.
00:03:43 Speaker Terri Davis: And for your age, you can give a range if you don't feel
comfortable, you could say.
00:03:47 Speaker Participant 1 CT: I was born In 1950, I'm 72 years old.
00:03:51 Speaker Terri Davis: Wonderful. And your educational level.
00:03:53 Speaker Participant 1 CT: I only graduated high school. I did various other studies, but
I didn't get any other degrees.
00:03:59 Speaker Terri Davis: OK. All right. What is your employment? I'm sorry you
mentioned your educational level and what is your current occupation?
00:04:14 Speaker Participant 1 CT: : Well, I'm a government retiree, federal government
retiree, but I took a I was retired for five years, but I just took a part time job a year ago. I'm a
receptionist at a law firm in Montgomery Village, MD.
00:04:29 Speaker Terri Davis: OK. So the first question, can you tell me, your family story about
being displaced because of eminent domain?
00:04:41 Speaker Participant 1 CT: My family was living in a community that had been
developed in the 1860s. After slavery, the property was given to a group of people. Who have
been slaves in the region and they formed the community and my family was part of that
founding group.
00:05:03 Speaker Participant 1 CT: They established churches, schools. They established their
own businesses and my family was, I guess, the largest family in the community. But I did have
my great grandmother who was a slave in the house with me. Until I was about four years old,
she. Died at 102. And the House that I lived in was very under my circumstances, very unusual
because my grandfather had seventeen children. He built a big house which in the community
everybody knows that's the big house and a lot of :people lived in that house. It was a 13 room
house. Three stories, plus a basement. And so that's how I grew up. I grew up in a village that
was contained within one home, and we had a strong impact on the community. So there was a,
121
you know, I'll just let you know that if we were very active community, a very vibrant
community who touched many lives along the East Coast, the Mid-Atlantic area.
00:06:16 Emory Grove is known, most famously, for the camp meeting that took place at Emory
Grove, where thousands of people came from North and South to attend the camp meeting,
which was once a year in August. The year the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Sundays of the year and there
you would have religious services about four times during that day. On Sunday you would have
music and you had people who set up. Tents a stalls and they would have their burners and their
cookers and they would be their cooking and they would bring their baked goods and even ice
cream and stuff like that.
00:07:01 And they stayed there that you know, for that day cooking all day long and selling their
products. And you could hear the, the sermons And the singing. Over the whole park, as a matter
of fact, over a lot of the community and I'm not sure.
00:07:18 Speaker Terri Davis: What year? What year was this?
00:07:22 Speaker Participant 1 CT: The camp meeting was from early 1860s and until I I think
1960 something is when it stopped because urban renewal came in. The community was found to
be even though I had running water growing up, it was well water and the community was not
connected to sewage from the city of Gaithersburg. So the people there had their own gardens.
They had their own livestock. And they. Took care of themselves. We had one of my cousins had
a store there and people went there. Of course, when we really needed something real special, we
could go to the Safeway. So that was. And I and I think that we moved out of our House in about
1970, 71. Yeah, and many, many families, of course. The promise came back. We're going to
move you out. We're going to improve it. We're going to build new houses and you're going to
move right back in your businesses, your store, your Barber shop, your beauty salon, your clubs,
2 clubs. All of that is going to be rebuilt. And of course, none of that ever.
The people were put in public housing and people who did have money and who did own land
individually were able to buy property elsewhere. You know, in the in the county, unfortunately,
because my family was so big at that time. I was. Maybe 20 years old and there was a whole
there was my grandparents. My grandfather was still living. And then his children. So that lay.
Or, you know, did not of course, trickle down to me with any funds. So they didn't give them
very much money anyway for the land. So basically we had to just go out and find housing, you
know, and I know that a lot of people, we've had lots of meetings about this and a lot of people
are very, very bitter, even still and upset. That their lives were pulled apart because it was a very
close-knit family community.
00:09:37 Speaker Terri Davis: Thank you for that. And that actually you touched on a little bit
about the second question that I'm going to ask you and it is what happened to your family after
being displaced? And then the second part of this question is, you know, what challenges have
your family experienced since the displacement?
122
00:09:59 Speaker Participant 1 CT: I think the greatest. The fact that it had on my family and
every other family was. Breaking up the the bond when we had to disperse. My my mom. Moved
into a townhouse that was, you know, new townhouse development that was moved. I moved
into another townhouse development. I had two children at the time. There were people who
were moved into apartments that were built specifically for these people who were displaced,
and there were other people who just moved out of the community to places like Germantown.
Frederick, whatever of Washington, DC. So the only thing remaining in that community is the
church. And so we're still connected by that, that church and the the history of our people being
in there. I I have a picture of my my great grandmother who I mentioned she's 102.
I have a picture of her with a group of people in about 1950. All the people from the church
standing out there. A group picture, and that's a very precious picture. What else did you, what
else? Did you ask?
00:11:16 Speaker Terri Davis: And the second part was what challenges have your family
experienced since the displacement?
00:11:24 Speaker Participant 1 CT: : Well, of course you know, we didn't have any economic
resources after that. Everybody worked. They always, everybody always worked. But finding the
support that we were able to give each other living together. Just taking care of each other.
I think it's the main thing. I think the usual, the usual displacement kind of thing you have to start
and make a life together. You know Grandma died and Granddad died.
And so then, you know the level of, you know, family unity and guidance that dispersed and
everybody was on their own. So we tried over the years. To keep on coming. Together, you
know, and I think that we did a pretty good job for a long time. We were having family reunions
every year and we haven't had one. Well, of course, COVID upset that we haven't had one in
about 3 years.
00:12:23 Speaker Terri Davis
So I want to go back to two things that you mentioned. One, you mentioned the big house was
this house owned by your grandfather.
00:12:31 Speaker Participant 1 CT: Yes, the he originally had a house on land that's that's right.
Beside the church on Emory Road. Then he he built another house on property across the. Street
this was, you know, the property was owned by the people at that particular time. As a matter of
fact, I have. I did some research and I found out that my grandfather. And his brother were 18
and 16 years old when their mother died. She was a widow at the time, and when I looked at the
records, her land was taken from her by the attorney who helped her to settle her husband's
affairs. He charged to her land. So that is a hurting, hurting, hurting thing, you know. But the
land was was owned by the people.
123
00:13:26 Speaker Terri Davis: Yeah, the people who. Lived on the land is what you're saying?
00:13:29 Speaker Participant 1 CT: That's perfect.
00:13:30 Speaker Terri Davis And then, so your grandfather owned the land, owned the house,
and then what you're saying is when eminent domain came in, then you guys were all dispersed
and you were put into public housing because that, OK, OK. And then so when we talk about
eminent domain, oh, is there anything else you wanted to add to the second question?
00:13:55 Speaker Participant 1 CT: No, go ahead.
00:13:57 Speaker Terri Davis: So you talk about eminent domain, how was your family notified
about the eminent domain and that your property would be seized?
00:14:09 Speaker Participant 1 CT: I think it happens the same way in every community they
the county, Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission, notify. Prominent business
people in the community and you know, maybe 5 or 6 and ask them to come and meet and they
made all these promises to them and told them to to let everybody else know. And these
individuals came out with their own land, their own houses, somewhere else. They each had, you
know, had they came out on top. But they were businesspeople to begin with. So then meetings
were starting to be held and at the Church, of course, informing people. And then folks from the
county came out and. Assessed land and offered people the money that they thought they should
be given and then they told us that ohh, we have some place for you to go in the meantime until
we can rebuild and you know, do all the infrastructure that's needed and you can come back, you
know, and live in this community. And of course if you ride down Emory Grove Rd. There's lots
of housing. And there's lots of mainly predominantly White and Indian people live there and the
across the street where they made their original public housing. There's lots of Latinos. So that's
how it looks in the community now.
00:15:37 Speaker Terri Davis: OK, so let's revisit that. You've mentioned that there was a
promise they came in to, they. They told you? They were going to seize the land they wanted to
redevelop it, I guess bring it up to. Road and they gave. You money or they were promised
money based on the value of the land, the home that was assessed with the promise that they
would come back and you could move back, but that never that has not happened, OK.
00:16:05 Speaker Participant 1 CT: Right. I'd like to emphasize before you go on. That this was
choice land. A beautiful place our rolling hills lanes, pathways every house had flowers in the
front. There was fruit trees all throughout, which is why it was called the Grove Emory Grove,
because if you went out like we've been saying, if you went out for the day. You didn't have to
come home to eat because you could eat off the trees. You could eat off the berries. Can eat, you
124
know, off the grapes off the vine. You know, and when you look at it now it's it's a beautiful
place.So it it was prime land.
00:16:53 Speaker Terri Davis: And so when the property was assessed, did you guys have any
representation on your side or was this just Montgomery County representation?
00:17:01 Speaker Participant 1 CT: I wasn't involved in that well. The only representation that I
know was the people from the community who were asked to work with the county. I don't know
about legal. I don't know. About that. Right.
00:17:14 Speaker Terri Davis: OK. All right. And so you mentioned that they offered, I guess,
some of the former land owners, home owners compensation. And so we know with eminent
domain, you know there's that piece that they could take it probably with just compensation. So
how how do you define? Just compensation.
00:17:40 Speaker Participant 1 CT: I I think that it that they should have kept the promises that
they made.They they gave the contract for rebuilding the homes to contractors who were
interested in making money and they did not have a plan to put any kind of housing in there for
people. Who were low income? A lot of people may have in low income. They did not put any
kind of plan together to help these people to get back or to own homes, you know, get back and
to buy buy back into the community. So I think that they should have gotten more monetary
compensation, but like I said, my family was unusual. There were too many people. I know that
other. Families, when we get together and talk about this, they feel that they didn't get anything
and they felt that their family was torn apart and some of. Them are still there. You know, and
we have a a development going on right now called Heritage, Emory Grove, which is trying to
rebuild some houses and to get people back in. It's looking like kind of like the same thing, but
they're they're planning for. Planning with Habitat for Humanity Housing Commission with
Montgomery County Council, which have has approved this project to half a billion dollars,
actually so. And groundbreaking will start in 2024. As far as I know. And so we've seen.
All the all the.
00:19:23 What they what they are proposing is how it's going to look. And of course it's not. In
the community, it's now on a friend's side, like where the church was. There was land there,
which was not actually the community that we lived in. So, the church has purchased the land
and on that part we're going to be building our own, you know, for heritage and we grow, which
we've formed the Corporation nonprofit.
00:19:48 Speaker Participant 1 CT: And then across the street, where the public housing was.
HOC is going to be building houses and apartments over there and then on our side of the street
Habitat for Humanity. Were working with us to build affordable housing for people.
125
00:20:07 Speaker Terri Davis: Now you mentioned, OK, so this started in 1970 when the land
was seized. They promised to rebuild. And so now you're saying 2024. So from 1970 to 2024 it
looks like. From 1970 to 2024, they're now beginning to rebuild or act on the promises that they
made to you all.
00:20:29 Speaker Participant 1 CT: Well, we'll see. But you know, that's what. That's what it
appears to be. But we're not on the original land. Of course. It's a whole new strip of land.
00:20:40 That was in the community, but. And was home by, as a matter of fact, the homes that
the church bought were owned by citizens of Emory Grove.
00:20:50 Speaker Participant 1 CT: So there's like 1-2 three, maybe 4 houses that people owned
that the church bought those houses and they were torn down when the development be when the
new building begins.
00:21:02 Speaker Participant 1 CT: And a new community were built on that side of the
highway. So you know, on both sides of the highway now, Emory Grove Rd. That's already
built, you know, so there's.
00:21:14 Speaker Terri Davis: How much are those houses going for over there.
00:21:23 Speaker Participant 1 CT: I don't. I really don't know. I can't.
00:21:25 Speaker Terri Davis: In one of your answer’s you mentioned HOC. Can you just
explain? The Housing Opportunities Commission. And their role in Montgomery County.
00:21:35 Speaker Participant 1 CT: So Montgomery County, which, who are the ones who came
in and said we're going to displace you and you know improve the community and let you come
back in. So they're working with us right now on this new project. Of course, in that time frame,
many people have died. Many people have gone on the descendants who. In my family, the
young people, they have their own houses, they've been to university, they, you know, some of
them moved in different parts of the country.
00:22:07 Speaker Participant 1 CT: They're like, oh, yes. Aw, whole lot of people going to
come back and try to live in Emory Grove, but. I don't. I don't see. You know, I don't see that
happening. I hope it will happen. I'm encouraging people to come back. The younger generation
who are descendants. I'm hoping they will come back. Yeah, we get the word. So HC is the
Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County.
00:22:36 Speaker Terri Davis And they manage public housing in Montgomery County as well,
right?
126
00:22:41 Speaker Participant 1 CT: Right.
00:22:42 Speaker Terri Davis: OK, OK. So moving along, thank you for that. How did you and
you kind of touched on this also, how did you and your family deal with the situation after you
experienced displacement? So how did you guys deal with this? And I'm going. Back to you
know, I guess from when you guys were first notified that you'd have to move out. Of the big
house to you know, present day. Well, people began moving out into different apartments in
Gaithersburg, Rockville. Different places like that. While the family was moving and getting put
up my, my my little townhouse was already built and I was living in it. And I think it was about
1971. The house was still standing. It had a lot of, you know, we had huge antique furniture, you
know. In their big tables that nobody could possibly take in to an apartment, or even into a
townhouse. So a lot of that stuff was still sitting there and a little boy in the community burn the
house down. And I remember getting ready for work one morning and hearing all the confusion
of somebody, and I could actually look out my window and see.
And when I went up there, the whole community was standing there. Watching the house burn
and a lot of people were crying. So that.You know, my grandfather was still alive, you know, and
of course, that hurt him very much.
00:24:16 Speaker Participant 1 CT: But we just try to keep the unity, you know we, we we had a
very close connection we we had established criers in the church. We had established leadership
in the community we had established, you know, just I mean, a lot of the parties and things that
went on, you know, we were organizers. You know, so we still try to keep a presence at my age.
Right now, I'm still still working in the church, still trying to keep a presence. Still dealing with
people who need me because they were from Emory Grove and so many deaths had occurred and
I'm a a person who was a little child, who visited everybody in the community. So, I was
constantly called for so many funerals just to give the history of the person.
00:25:07 Speaker Participant 1 CT: So that has been my role and I'm not. I haven't given that
roll up. I'm still being called even now in 2023, you know to please give some words because
you know, you know this person personally, even though we live in Frederick now, we live in
Pennsylvania now. We live in so and so now. When we get together, could you please say
something that talks about Emory Grove?
00:25:32 Speaker Terri Davis: I can feel through your words, the sense of community for Emory
Grove, right, and how it was all interconnected and it's centered around the church. How do you
think eminent, eminent domain impacted you financially? And so I know you were a little girl.
And so when I say you, I mean, like you and your, your immediate family.
00:25:53 Speaker Participant 1 CT: But we didn't have any. No wealth was able to be passed
down, you know. So without land, you know, you really don't have a lot, you know. And so
127
when you're trying to rebuild you, you don't have the land to assure your loan or you know those
kinds of things, so. Right now, I mean the young people are homeowners, but a lot of my aunts
and uncles. And stuff like that. You know, they look. My mom lived in. She lived in in public
house the same as me. She lived in one community. I lived in one right beside her, and then I
know my a couple of few of my aunts lived in apartments.: You know, I had one uncle who was
a homeowner. Then at that particular time when it occurred. And so he, you know, he was able to
buy a house and raised his family. But it's the wealth that's not passed down, you know.
00:26:48 Speaker Terri Davis: That that's the next question and that's excellent. And that that is
what I was going to ask. How has eminent domain not only impacted you financially, but how
has it impacted your family's generational wealth?
00:27:01 Speaker Participant 1 CT: Well, for one thing, is trying to get the message across to
young people about trying to build something, trying to hold on to something, trying to. Take the
young people about how to how to how to build wealth, how to take care of themselves, how to
take care of their future generations. Those are things that. I personally didn't have training in.
They don't teach it in school. The only people who taught it to us was, you know, the parents and
the grandparents and the business people in the community. So I feel that that connection was
lost. That element of being educated and groomed by people who were your family, your elders,
your ancestors, all of that. That was another impact of the wealth that I'm talking about is the
spiritual wealth, which is for me. I always say Emory Grove is a place of the heart.
It's never gonna come again, and we don't want to go back, but we want to go forward with
knowing that we have a heritage, that we have a history, that we've made a great contribution to
the county, to.
00:28:16 Speaker Participant 1 CT: The state our people served in the wars they worked, they
were government employees. They were preachers and teachers and athletes. They served in in
the in the military, we've made a contribution and we need for the young people to feel some
pride in that. And to feel that the challenges that were overcome by these people were very great.
And so therefore the challenges that they face today, they can. Make it. They can make it if they
can hear the story of what their ancestors went through.
00:28:53 Speaker Participant 1 CT: They can have the strength and the coverage to go ahead
and strive for a better, better future for themselves and for their children.
00:29:01 Speaker Terri Davis: And and so just to be clear, you were saying initially that because
of the land and the housing that you didn't have to pass down to your younger generation and
that impacted the generational wealth. Within your family?
00:29:16 Speaker Participant 1 CT: That's right.
128
00:29:18 Speaker Terri Davis: OK, OK. And then so we talked about how eminent domain has
impacted you, how it has impacted you know your families, generational wealth, how it
impacted you financially. Well, what about your personal life? How has eminent domain
impacted your personal life and you actually have talked about it for every question, you've
actually gone back to the community, right? And the strong ties. And so I guess with this
particular question.
00:29:50 Speaker Terri Davis
You know, you could, you know, tell me how eminent domain has impacted your personal life,
although you've touched on it, you can expand on it here as well.
00:30:08 Speaker Participant 1 CT: I think that the thing that I've been saying is the cultural
heritage, the spiritual heritage, the teaching. I didn't walk away with any kind of wealth and
because I had children at that time I married when I was 16 years old, I went into public house.
00:30:26 And I didn't have any wealth passed down to my children. I taught them ethics. I taught
them work ethics. And so they've always worked. One of them actually graduated from college.
She has 2 masters degrees. My oldest daughter passed away at 40, but she did attend Howard
University. For a short time. But she didn't get her degree, and my youngest daughter, she's a
federal employee and and they all have children. I have 6 grandchildren. So what I can pass
down to them is the lessons that I learned. About striving about, you know, trying to knowing
that we have to really strive much harder than a lot of people around us, even though we have the
intelligence, you know, that doesn't count well and and we get into jobs and we have to train
people who, you know, I went to work at IBM. In 1974, and there were. A lot of people there.
As soon as I got there, they started asking me how do you do this? And I'm sure this is a story
that's all across everywhere. How do you do this? How do you do that? And suddenly I was
training these women who, you know, who were Gaithersburg women. And I'll say White
women. And I looked at them and I looked at the level of questions that they were asking and the
things that they couldn't understand.
00:31:53: And I were like, my mother could be their supervisor easily. But that's that's life for
us, you know. That's the way things are. And so I feel like I did pretty well, you know, and I was
in management. At IBM for 10 years, and then when I went into the federal government, I was in
management. So I'm satisfied with what I did, even though I know that I feel that with the more
education I could have done a lot more and I could have been able to establish. A financial
foundation more secure for my children.
00:32:29 Speaker Terri Davis: Nice, nice. Thank you. Question number. And we've got three
more after this, OK? So thank you so much. Has your community done something to protest
eminent domain?
129
00:32:51 Speaker Participant CT: They haven't done anything.
00:32:57 Speaker Terri Davis And you talked a little bit about what your community looked like
prior to eminent domain. I understand that. I guess they're houses that are down the street from
Emory Grove
00:33:04 Speaker Terri Davis Is there anything built on the Emory Grove property where you
guys live? Did they ever build anything on that land?
00:33:13 Speaker Participant 1 CT: On the land where my house stood? There is a pool. And
right beside it, they have a rec center, which is being used when I'm looking over there, it's
usually Asians who are going in and out of there.
00:33:26 Speaker Participant 1 CT: The pool is a community as a community pool that's being
used, you know, by some, you know, some Black folks are using it, but it's not then. One thing
that I told you about the camp meeting, there was a few acres of land that were owned by a
gentleman, a park which the county took that park over it. Was the where the camp meeting was
held, but also baseball games were there. It was the first park in Montgomery County to have
Night Lights. And so when urban renewal came, they took our white lights. Our lights and put
them in a White recreational park.
00:34:08 Speaker Participant 1 CT: We still have our park. They renamed it. I don't know what
they named it, but we put it. People did petition to have it named back to the original person's
name, which is Ed with Johnson. So it's named Johnson's Park. And it's it's a big park and there's
a a baseball diamond that folks are just amazed. I've met with the folks from the county, the
people. Who want to? Start making that park active because they will. They Black baseball
leagues out there and very famous baseball players.
00:34:44 Speaker Participant 1 CT: They played there and all I can remember right now is
Satchel Paige because I'm too young to know all those names, but they give off a lot of names.
00:34:51 Speaker Terri Davis Right.
00:34:56 Speaker Participant 1 CT: At the joints they we had James Brown, we had, I can.
Tina Turner, we had best Domino's. We had Little Richard. All those people came there, and so
you can imagine the hundreds of people who came to Emory Grove for that. I so I I don't know
how I got on this. But but there was.
00:35:15 Speaker Terri Davis Yeah, but, but let me stop there for one second. Since you're on
there, do you want to talk a little bit more in detail about as you called it, the joint cause?
130
00:35:28 Speaker Participant 1 CT: That was a very famous gathering place. It was developed by
a man named William Duvall and his wife Irene, and the they named it do drop in. And because
Mr. William Duvall's nickname was Bub, we people always said I'm going to Bubs and. He had
all of those talents there. He was a very shrewd businessman. He had those talents. There he had
security there. He had soul food, he had movies, and the younger in the younger days, when my
older sisters were little, they could go down to an upper room and look at TV and look at movies.
There was all. There's a baseball diamond behind that place where lots of people play ball out
there. And you're looking at I'm thinking about for me to navigate, to go down if I didn't go
down to the straight road and micro Rd. I could go through a path.
00:36:23 Speaker Participant 1 CT: And when I'm going through these paths, I'm walking past
pigs. I'm walking past goats. I'm walking past chickens. I'm walking past people's gardens. You
know all of this, that's just part of ours. Our land was in front of the park. So you could go up
Emory Grove Rd. Go up to Washington Grove Road and go to the park.
00:36:46 Speaker Participant 1 CT: But people didn't want to go that far. They came through
our land. To go to the park, so we all the time, you know, people who just made that path
through the yard, you know, so. The joint was a place where, you know, I I think I talked about
this on Saturday, where you really what happened was that there was only one black high school
in the county. So everybody who was black was there, so they knew each other's families. They
knew each other intimately. They worshipped together. They signed together. They play
together, and so all of that was part of what the joint represented and growing up. I would see
the, the, the ladies and men in my house when I was just a kid getting dressed up and being so
excited about going to the Joint, you know, their hair, you know, and their nails and the
stockings and, you know and then fussing I had, I had. I was. I'm one of nine girls.
00:37:47 Speaker Participant 1 CT:
So there's women, you know, just getting dressed, putting their outfits out and practicing their
dancing. And we had music all day long in the house.
00:37:56 Speaker Terri Davis What year is it?
00:37:58 Speaker Participant 1 CT: In the 60s, we had a little record player. You know, that
played 40 fives and every day somebody would stacking depending on and to me this is this is so
interesting. Every day somebody would put their playlist on. My uncle or somebody would come
in and depending on what kind of day they had, they would put those 45s on there and stack
them up to what they wanted to hear. And we sit and we listen. And then somebody else will say
hymn, and they get up and put their playlist on there.
131
00:38:27 Speaker Participant 1 CT: It was just and there was lots and lots of records. I mean,
you know, there was so much music and, you know, we just got, we got in touch with so many
people and so much culture through the music. I think that that was just such a wonderful time,
you know, and the people who came. Uh, the guys had the processes.
00:38:50 Speaker Participant 1 CT: I don't know what if you know what that that means the
process is the hairdo that James Brown had. The pumped up hair and was the Jackie Wilson's. So
the girl did their hair for them.
When they came to perform. They came into their houses and had their hair done, you know, so
and then I remember, you know, Tina Turner, she came into the park out there. And I remember
seeing her. I wasn't allowed to go.
00:39:14 Speaker Participant 1 CT: But during the day, you know, I could walk through the
woods and get a peep. The bustles out there and she was getting out a little skinny legs and there
was like you know, and we had to be hushed away before the show started, but those are the
exciting times that. I remember.
00:39:30 Speaker Terri Davis Oh yeah. Sounds like a wonderful time. And so you talked about
your community. You've talked about the impact on your family. Do you know anyone else? I
know we've kind of talked about this loosely and this is just a standard question, but do you
know anyone else who has been affected by eminent domain? And how do you feel about their
experiences? Have they shared their experiences with you?
00:39:56 Speaker Participant 1 CT: Someone from our community.
00:39:59 Speaker Terri Davis Anyone else? Anyone that do you know anyone else that may have
been any other African American that was impacted by eminent domain? And if they've shared
their experiences, you know, or their...So the question is, how do you feel about their
experiences? Are their experiences similar to what you've described here?
00:40:21 Speaker Participant 1 CT:
Over all these years I've talked to people from different states that has happened to them that
they built a big highway right in the middle of their community, that they knocked their
community down so that they could build a shopping mall or, you know, or maybe a stadium.
And there's and people were not. Definitely not company. Say that and their lives were very,
very upset by the community being split in half by a highway being in the middle of it.
I've talked to those people who are very bitter, you know, who feel like that.
00:40:57 Speaker Participant 1 CT: The chances that they had for growth were minimalized
because of this and a lot of that. This comes from the. The feeling of being worth you know your
132
worth, your value, your pride. You know, feeling of being in control of your life, with taking
away from you so. To me, that's the impact is that the community that you had where I could
walk anywhere a day or night and not worry about.
00:41:34 Speaker Participant 1 CT: Being hurt or I could go through the woods at night from the
from the park to my house and pitch blackness cause there weren't any electric lights and never
even considered somebody hurting me. And for, you know, these people to be now put into
positions where there's a lot of crime, where there's a lot of people coming in that they don't
know, where there's a lot of, you know, violence because people are angry and it just trickles
down to the next generation and, you know, there's robbery. There's drugs out of helplessness
and hopelessness. I think that these are the impacts of being displaced. Unceremoniously, you.
00:42:20 Speaker Terri Davis; Know right? So. Eminent domain, as you've outlined in all of
these, all of your responses has really disrupted lives.
00:42:32 Speaker Terri Davis If the eminent domain policy would be revised, what do you want
to see in the change of eminent domain?
00:42:42 Speaker Participant 1 CT: I would say that the dignity of the people needs to be
preserved by giving them opportunities to build a future. Based on their opportunities to have
financial wealth, to have education, to have health services, those kinds of things need to be
provided for people. To give them a chance to to just build and grow and to develop a future for
themselves and their child.
00:43:19 Speaker Terri Davis And then this last question, well and the second part of that is. So
you've given your response about how eminent domain should be revised, and so who should be
the key person to speak on those concerns.
00:43:37 Speaker Participant 1 CT: Well, it needs to be the descendants. They need to organize
and we're working on that a little bit now we. We have, like I said, Heritage Emory Grove, which
is nonprofit. That's that was that was set up by our pastor, who came into the community from
Philadelphia and who sees the need reserve the history before that, we established the historic
and member of Rotary Club, which I'm the President. Right now and bringing together folks
around, helping and supporting people in need. I also established a program called. I remember
that time where I had people from the old community come in and be interviewed and to talk
about the history and to remember and to laugh and to just talk about the days gone by. So it has
to be people who have a stake in the old Emory Grove to make sure that.
00:44:46 Speaker Participant 1 CT: The people who are here now, the Latino people, we are
hoping that we can help them to rise up out of their circumstances, the same way that we will
help to rise out of ours, you know, because we're facing a lot of the same things that we had to
133
face. They're in the same public housing buildings that we were. And we reach out to them. I
mean, I'm always knocking on doors over there when we have special events and inviting them
over and doing food delivery and and having clothes, you know, inviting them over to get
together for communication or whatever.
00:45:25 Speaker Participant 1 CT: But we realized that. It's it's gonna be a universal thing. Of
more than. Lots of races hopefully.. Right now our church has had we have Latinos, we have
Africans. We have people from South America we have. We have some White folks in there, so
this is how the future is looking, how the President is being building for the future and. I just
hope that we can instill some of the principles. The dignity that we learned into these people.
To help them make their way.
00:46:06 Speaker Terri Davis And this is the last question and this question is pretty much an
open question. And it's an opportunity for you to provide any additional information on your
thoughts and feelings on eminent domain.
00:46:23 Speaker Participant 1 CT: Well, of course we learned about eminent domain way
back years ago in school and. It didn't. It didn't feel right. It still doesn't feel right now. You
know, because there were indigenous people who were murdered, slaughtered by the thousands
because people wanted to have their land, they wanted to have their property. They wanted to
live on the hill in a big house or whatever.
So I don't know that's that's something that's around the world. I don't know what the solution is
to that. All unfair. It's people with power running over people without power and not giving them
anything in return.
00:47:10 Speaker Terri Davis: All right, hold on one second. Well, thank you so much for your
time and your responses. Your outlook, your thoughts, your reflections are such an important
part of this Howard University study. So I want to thank you again. For your responses so.
134
Transcription Participant 2 M. M
In-Tobytown Interview Transcript
Via: Zoom
00:00:11 Speaker 1 OK. Well, good afternoon. Thank you. Much for meeting with me today.
You know, as I mentioned before, we talked a little bit about. My research efforts and what I
plan to do. As far as my research is concerned and my partnership with Howard University, and
again thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me, we should be meeting maybe about 3540
minutes, but it's all based on your responses to the questions that I'll ask, OK. And before we
start. I do have to though read a short preamble, it's a consent, all right.
00:00:54 Speaker 2 OK.
00:00:55 Speaker 1
And so here we go. You have been asked to participate in this interview via Zoom, a similar
video platform, or phone interview as part of a research project being conducted by Dr. Wei Sun
in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University. My
name is Terri Davis, a Ph.D. student assisting Dr. Sun on this study. The study is designed to
increase our understanding of the impact of eminent domain you or a direct legal heir
experienced and to get your personal reflection on the financial impact of being displaced. The
interview will take approximately 30-45 minutes. Your responses are entirely voluntary, and you
may refuse to respond to questions we ask, as well as to stop participating at any time, without
jeopardizing your relationship with Howard University. The interview/oral history is confidential
and none of the information you share were identified with you in any published reports.... Your
answers were aggregated with those of others we interview in our study. Data from this study
were stored on a password protected computer in the Principal Investigator’s office, accessible
only by the investigators and Howard University Institutional Review Board (IRB). Although
there are no personal benefits associated with participating in this study, your responses will
assist in expanding our understanding of the impact eminent domain had on you and your
community. The risks associated with your participation are minimal, no more than you would
experience in your daily life when talking about something you care about. However, should you
experience any discomfort associated with the subject matter during the interview, you may stop
responding to the interview, or request a referral to a mental health professional through one of
the online referral sources we can make, such as FindaPsychologist.org. By participating in the
study, you agree that you are at least 18 years of age and self-identify as Black or African
American and a descendant of formerly enslaved Africans. You also agree to be audio recorded
for purposes of accuracy. If you have any questions before we begin, please contact Dr. Wei Sun
at Wei.Sun@Howard.edu. If you have any concerns about the study, you can contact the Howard
University IRB at theorrc@howard.edu or call 202- 865-8597.
And with that, if you don't have any questions. OK.
00:03:46 Speaker 1 That's just standard procedure, OK, and I just.
00:04:09 Speaker 1
135
OK, so let's just start with the. Basics and you can tell me your name. Your gender, your age, and
you don't have to give the exact age, but to start off the interview, we just have a few basic
questions and it's just basic demographic information. Mail and your age.
00:04:31 Speaker 2 M.M ( Name redacted) 81 years old.
00:04:36 Speaker 1 OK. And your educational level?
00:04:44 Speaker 2 Of science and business education. Of art and music education.
00:04:54 Speaker 1 Where? Where did you? Attend. Where did you attend?
00:05:00 Speaker 2 I went to one of the teacher college business college, Washington DC
Blackwell College, Washington, DC, and our miners teachers called. That's in the House of
facility. It was. Very hard, very difficult. But I did achieve that.
00:05:38 Speaker 1 You were saying it was difficult.
00:05:39 Speaker 2 Yeah, right.
00:05:39 Speaker 1 Do you want? To talk a little. Bit more about that.
00:05:43 Speaker 2 The experience. From from getting getting a college degree because I think
I'm the only one in my family to get a college degree, it was hard enough to get through high
school that I'm. I'm from the 40s and the 50s in the 60s.
00:06:01 Speaker 2 So and also I have two years of military service. I was drafted right out of
high school, into the military that they introduced 2 year and I did my two years and then it got
out. So, but after coming out of the literature, I had a chance to work in the federal government,
you know, in the some of the private sector. So the experience was really good, I think I was
consider myself lucky as. And in my family of to attend college because nobody hit that chance,
nobody else didn't get to. So my life after this point has been pretty well good to me. And I have
to thank the good Lord above for that, for that chance in my way.
00:06:59 Speaker 1 OK. So you started talking a little bit about your family story, right? Your
background a little bit. Can you talk a little bit more about, you know?
Where you lived and the impact of being displaced, talk about the unique.
00:07:15 Speaker 2 OK. All right. OK. I'll give in Tobytown, which is a historic community. I
think it was founded in 1875 by by something like about 12 slaves come from out of Tennessee.
136
00:07:16 Speaker 1 Area of Tobytown.
00:07:32 Speaker 2 The Board of the Land in A and it did very well on the land, such as as
farming. Or just like apple orchards and things, and building their own houses and then mixing
waste through woods and things to to grade all that land down for for. So they could plant other
things that that are like like all I would say for the descendants to to build their houses on.
00:08:10 Speaker 2 From what I learned from my parents and what they learned from their
parents was go down to their ancestors that Tobytown, once upon a time, had accumulated up to
to over 100. And something like 60 acres of land that's beginning from Pennylock Rd. river Rd.
to all the way down to the sea and Old Canal, which is the Potomac River.
00:08:42 Speaker 2 And but what excites me is that that during that time back in 1875, which I
could imagine they dying up to then for I think like $20.00 an acre from what? From what my
parents told me that their parents told them. It it makes my heart rejoice that our him would
descend from there, you know. You know, but we still running into problems. Like they did
during that time that between 1870. Five on the. I think that's something like the time during the
Civil War and and and and some of that land got away from them. People come in and. And and
and uh, if they hitting the problem with the with their kids. They would have to go to court.
And and and the fee for that, that that helped them in court that they didn't have the money to pay
them for the price that they wanted. They have to. Give off some of their land so that little by
little that's how a lot of that land have gotten taken away, I'll tell you. Further the underline how?
How the land is still being taken. You know, when I look at 160 acres of land, which covers a lot
of Tobytown and now I think we're down to, we're down to close to that 11 or 12.
00:10:24 Speaker 2 Acres of land. Now that's a lot of land and taken. My main concern is that.
OK.
00:10:35 Speaker 1 I just want to cover a couple of quick things. You mentioned that Tobytown
was 100 acres.
00:10:46 Speaker 2 Yes, not before you. Grand is. His brother. William Davis because my friend
David is Henson David William Davis. When he accumulated something like 83 acres of land by
himself. And our and and that our state is in front, the land runs from River Rd. From Pennfield
River Road and Pennfield Lock Rd. all the way down to the sea and whole canal.Which is
Potomac River? That's how much land that they own and that and all. If if if you could see
Sophiatown. The way that cover them was, it was. On both sides of Pennfield Rock Rd. Which
running from River Rd.
137
00:11:43 Speaker 1 It was on both sides of what?
00:11:44 Speaker 2 Vote that field, tennis field lock Rd. that runs in down to the C&O Canal.
From from River Rd. So, but Tobytown was land on from both sides and the road divided the
land. But my concern now is, is the land still being taken? From a you know her? It's a historic.
Which have the graveyard which have a church. Whenever you, whenever you have a church
behind a church, most during that time they have graveyard behind churches. You know, you
know, so. I'm trying to. Keep this in order, put it in order but.
00:12:47 Speaker 1 Don't worry, I'm going to ask you questions in order and we can always
come back.
00:12:50 Speaker 2 But it.
00:12:51 Speaker 1 Just take the time and it's all good.
00:12:51 Speaker 2 Yeah, very good. And yet I'm I'm I'm trying on nervous of it.
00:12:54 Speaker 1 No worries.
00:12:59 Speaker 2 How to try to keep? Keep one thing in in in a, in a, in a. Good single file
order but anyway.
00:13:05 Speaker 1 We'll be able to put. It in order, don't worry.
00:13:07 Speaker 2 OK, OK.
00:13:09 Speaker 1 Don't worry and I'm just taking notes then.
00:13:11 Speaker 2 OK, OK.
00:13:12 Speaker 1 We're done. I'm going to.
00:13:12 Speaker 2 OK. Very good, very good. Oh, oh oh. Now, Tobytown.
My main concern is in in in all of our thinking to really make sure that this Community still
historic. Community as not to be so lost, you know, so we we are we are.
We work with them, but we are we are with the Housing Opportunity Commission. That’s
Montgomery County Housing Opportunity Commission. We're still affiliated with. You know,
we had hurt was in the future.
00:13:59 Speaker 2 So what we're saying is.
138
00:14:10 Speaker 2 I guess long term thing we, but it is a it is a cool thing because it's other.
It's other residents that are that are going through the same thing I'm doing. They're afraid to that
they're going through that so. I'm going to. Be concerned about myself. You myself, for example,
and then try to speak for the other when I when I see them. We are the main thing we now we are
concerned about keeping the land, not losing any more land in the in our.
00:14:49 Speaker 1 So let's let's let's back up a little. Bit OK because. You started out, started out
100. And we talked about the different ways in which the land was pilfered, Tobytown was
stolen again.
00:15:02 Speaker 2 Right.
00:15:03 Speaker 1 Right. And so now you're saying it's about down to 12 acres.
00:15:08 Speaker 2 Both clearly.
00:15:08 Speaker 1 And we'll figure that out. We'll we'll be able to figure that out you also
mentioned Montgomery County office of. How not to Commission Montgomery County?
00:15:20 Speaker 1 They manage that.
00:15:22 Speaker 2 Well, they own.
00:15:23 Speaker 1 Your own the land.
00:15:25 Speaker 2 Don't know how. We do know how we do know how because they got how
they got there and we do know how they got it.
00:15:29 Speaker 1 Look at there. So OK, so let's rewind a little bit and let's go back to when
you lived in Tobytown, what life was like before 1969, 1970 before the urban renewal came in.
So let's talk about that and then we'll get to.
00:15:48 Speaker 2 OK, OK.
00:15:53 Speaker 1 What it was like once they came in?
00:15:55 Speaker 2 OK. OK, well, well. Everybody that can afford it and I can remember 40, 50
in the 60s. That's my time, really. Until I finished track the school or finished high school and
then went on to the service and then. But during that time people hit their houses. The houses ran
from four to five bedroom, but then the family started grown. And then so when families start
139
growing. They the ones that are that were younger, and had to get out, you know. Because they
started having family and they just built little shacks onto onto the property. Which which made
other houses high store to the main houses. Good constructive, solid built housing with like I say
with a head, head, head, head, head of vineyard that. Paying the teachers and thing.
You know, great thing grapevines, but the little houses that start stringing up towards those
houses kind of gave those people growing so fast.
00:17:31 Speaker 1 These are houses that you owned. And that you own.
00:17:37 Speaker 2 See this? This is one thing that is really is really, really a concern about if
they land, they own that. They pay taxes on it, you know. But we know.
00:17:58 Speaker 1 So you mentioned that. You grew up there in the. 1940s and this your
parents lived there.
00:18:04 Speaker 2 Whole year before, so there you go. My parents go back to the 20s and 30s,
you know. I was going 41.
00:18:13 Speaker 2 So but give me a chance to to grow from 40 to the 50th and to the and into
the 60s, you know? So but.
00:18:25 Speaker 1 And the parents grew up there.
00:18:28 Speaker 2 Right.
00:18:33 Speaker 1 So tell me a little bit more about the community there before the urban
renewal.
00:18:41 Speaker 2 Or before they ever knew coming they are.
00:18:45 Speaker 1 So everybody's the one about 100 acres.
00:18:51 Speaker 2 Everybody, you know, everybody owned into it, but they all paid. They had
their own lot where each. The only thing that was missing before the revenue, there was no
running water. They had pumps. In our, in our outside of facility, that bathroom with no running
water in a spring. Talk to defend strength spring water with with the vehicle with spring water
gets automated should about the ground and maybe have a have a have a tree or something over
top of it close by but but then they start building. Each house will get a pump. And then they for
the for the best facilities outside, they head outside toilet with no running water, no plumbing.
That was in the 40 to 50 in the 60s. Right now.
140
00:20:03 Speaker 1 And so Talk a little. Bit about, you know, we're going up to the 60s now.
So now we're getting up to the urban renewal era. Tell me about this whole. When Montgomery
County came. In and took over the land.
00:20:21 Speaker 1
What happened to your family after?
00:20:23 Speaker 2
It started. It started in. It's early in. And 1968 as they. When I say they from outside People
County Council, I got a flat lot of this stuff. I'm trying to pull from here, but I got a lot of
documentation to about eight people. Two was original Toby Tanner and other was outside
They did a task force study. This is 68. Of of what Tobytown need as far as housing and who's
going to get what. And what size of housing going to be built? The urban knew haven't come in
yet. This is these are people that worked with the county because one there were two people,
maybe three people on the county. In the county, you know on the County Council. They're
working to do this task, force credit because they know that the housing situation had gotten so
bad because the the the family put up these little checks and things.
Toward River, now running from from. Keep in mind from Penfield Rd. From River Rd.
Penfield Rd. Goes all the down to the Seeno Canal. Both side Tobytown was on this side and on
this side this is Pennyfield Lock. Everybody on Pennyfield lock Rd. could have the electric so
they had let the light telephone. People, people, that, that that wasn't on the road was considered
in the bottom where they did. They couldn't hear. There was no electric poles, anything were
there so they could get elected lights or what? But it was good for the people that lived on, on,
on, on Pennfield, off road, going down all the houses elected. In telephone, the thing now I live
down in the bottom. Which have to use lamp light. In a in a like if they no running water, they
had a pump either the spring. So what I did was. I was the first one started to to get the electric
down in the bottom because I ordered a telephone so when they when they. You know. When
when you order telephone, you have to. Put the poles. Down to the telephone walls to rent to
your house. Then everybody that gave us a chance to get elected like, you know, elected, you get
elected and some of us got telephones. That was a breakthrough doing on. The one with the.
00:23:21 Speaker 1 What year was this? What year?
00:23:24 Speaker 2 That was that was that before I went to Washington that was. Before, after,
before I went to the 32nd, 5058. 50 into 50.
00:23:41
Speaker 1 About 1960.
00:23:42 Speaker 2 Right, right. Or so that was a good breakthrough. You know, I I needed that
so I could. If if I could. I lived in Washington. Got close to 20 year. When the school day that
141
into the service, I can't I I came back to station station 2 year service and then came back to
Washington in a in a in A and so so I attended. So that's when I started.
And I don't know. Have you ever heard of cortex fees and business card? Never heard of
champion Titan at his own school?
00:24:27 Speaker 2
You know, when you go there for, you could go there for. He'll get us. Get a certificate. Where
you go for two year. No, you get one of the year, you get a certificate that will call. It was off a
youth St. You go there for two years you get associate degree. You get associate in business. So I
went to vote. For we got. I've got a two got associate in business education that was taken.
Oh, everything good. Shorthand speed, right? Bring that dog back in the day. Bring that memory
in me. A little country boy, knowing that I hate it very hard, I struggle a lot of students. Help me.
I got a lot of help with. I struggle. Hard to get an education, but I wanted to better myself. And so
paid off because back then, keep in mind that IBM was was a tough. I think.
00:25:30 Speaker 2 In the field IBM programming, IBM COBOL program for training the
mainframe computer. The data processing, key punch and all that. All that was floating big out
there and so order to to to get into federal government. Or private. You have to have those type
of skill and or so.So believe me, I was how I was going to get there and I made it.
00:26:05 Speaker 1 And you did.
00:26:05 Speaker 2 I made it. I made it, you know.
00:26:12 Speaker 1 When Montgomery County came in or the city came in. How did they notify
your family? Like, OK. Look, this is what we're going to.
00:26:20 Speaker 2 Do well when? When they did this task force. They had made a decision that
they were going to build. How they're gonna be 26. Family housing. Now they hit them. The
bottom down in the bottom that was that that was that where most of the people living down in
the bottom. Then you head up like if the Long River Rd. along long Pennyfield lock Rd you have
people that live along there. So what they did was they got all of the people. Out of the bottom.
Which is bottom the bottom part of toboggans, and then they had a front the front.
October County River Rd. You know, and all this is church property.
00:27:15 Speaker 2 One person that is was connected to the church property name was Rob
Martin. I got ordered.
Speaker 1: What does it say?
00:27:22 Speaker 2 Rob Martin, rob. Martin, he got I got. I got pictures of he got documentation
to him. I didn't bring any of that stuff. But he he was connected to the church property. Now he
142
was getting welfare. Assistant and so and then he also was getting a he's working for a man
named Cleveland. She always I got. I got you got to read the documentation because all this stuff
went to court because the land, this land that tried to get through and for his. Land because he.
Because he said he paid him a lot of money. So we got, we got all this in documentation. I have
to show show this to you bring bring it to show it to you. We will give. But anyway.
There is no bill of sale for for the church.
00:28:40 Speaker 2
That we have seen and we did have a what we do have a deed to the trade property.
We do. I got to get one of the lady that worked for the county named Arlene Mcguckin. She had
She showed me the deed and she leave out for conference or gave me a copy of it.
00:29:03 Speaker 1 What's her name?
00:29:04 Speaker 2 Arlene, ask me how to spell it. Arlene Mcguckin hauling magaling
Mcguckin. I think I'm from them, right? Sometimes people's name. But she gave me.
00:29:24 Speaker 2 She's not gonna count. She's a historian. She's she's in charge of all of the
graveyards that she goes around in a yeah, in a in every graveyard. And we're going. So but but
anyway, the the new tower Cam, which from the bottom. It's built on it in the front of cover
town. There when you when. You come off. River Rd. Turn down Pennyfield road. You'll you'll
see the the new tower down. All that in front Community Center. 26 houses around in a color
that so but. They got the people out of the bottom and our city was going to was going to take
that and make a park, but they didn't do that. It would.
00:30:25 Speaker 2 They made a park out of some of it. And it sold a lot of it to develop so you
could develop. And build a lot of that on land on. Some of that 160, some land there were going.
Right, but this? These things that I'm I'm not just saying from if I got proof thing that
documented for sure because I went there along with other people to the 18 census.
And the county record, and it was showing you what the land were back in 18 then how much
land? I have a different take there. I didn't bring it with me. I have it showing you. That one
person. Only 83 acres of land and in other people 18-18 census. That that's the county record
that's in it. It's county open to the county. That's county record,. 18 census.
You know and.This day we don't have that kind of land. Now it's got it got away from us.
And how down or down the line, how did all this land, you know, with this, what I'm really
concerned about this. You know.You know.
00:31:58 Speaker 1 So when they came in. Maybe just that, OK. We're going to take your
houses, we're going to build some new ones. How did?
00:32:07 Speaker 1 They tell you guys.
143
00:32:07 Speaker 2 Well, what they did, they went on and.
00:32:10 Speaker 2 They went on and you know. Build a house.26 family.
00:32:17 Speaker 1 Home moved you from?
00:32:17 Speaker 2 And then they move in. Doing that they have hit. So you know, so doing
that, but they do, the house doesn't have a basement because of that, they could not put a
basement that because it would be hitting graveyard. There's no basement, you know people
wanted basement, basement, all 26 houses does not have. So what? What the to 26 houses?
00:32:49 Speaker 2 Run from one bedroom. Two-bedroom, 3 bedroom and a four bedroom fire
and six only 262 house, two single family houses or six bedroom. That's hard enough, but only
20 a total of 25. When they did the task force study, they were talking. Who? Who's gonna get
what? In a cul de sac that, like a horseshoe. But they're nice. People back then was excited
because there was running water. Electric heat that has kept them more wood.
Now it's going to be excited. In 72 we got pictures of there, I mean 1972. I may have bought that
picture with. Now that's one of one of the main things that you can get a general idea with.
00:34:14 Speaker 2
Yes, I did yesterday.
00:34:19
Oh, you don't get this.
00:34:21 Speaker 2
That's 72 new houses.
00:34:25 Speaker 2
Those with the with the, with the with the bottom.
00:34:33
Take a picture. Yeah, yeah. And so you see the things that people thought of building. Most of
your houses. Doesn't show. Good to hear from hear from houses. There are there are. There are
different.
00:35:04 Speaker 1 Let me say. It again this is.
00:35:10 Speaker 2 Perfect. But 72 they they build the death of that was considered the new toll
return. The new total town town.
00:35:26 Speaker 1 To go until after I do all my interviews.
00:35:31 Speaker 2 OK. OK, but it it.
00:35:33 Speaker 1 I don't want to influence any other, yes.
144
00:35:36 Speaker 2 Yeah, right. Oh, he, he he would be big outbreak. That was that.
The housing, the housing moved to the houses were just like this. But these are little shock to the
right. They all grow. They just put up something, accommodate their family. Right.
00:35:59 Speaker 1 But the key is. They own the.
00:36:02 Speaker 2 Land they own the land lock, stock and pay taxes on it, you know, and a lot
of their descendants, you know, I guess you got kids, you think? But I'm gonna leave it to my
child, my son and my daughter, you know? So I consider they're all with only. But the grown.
Up paid the taxes. If not, you couldn't pay. You would have to pay that.
00:36:24 Speaker 1 Did you guys own the new houses from the?
00:36:27 Speaker 2 That's where the problem comes in HOC. HOC. I took my did bring in.
I found a little carpet or something. The Montgomery County. Maryland, the Housing
Opportunity Commission. Now they own. The how not to the Commission, how not to
community, which is good, heard whole lot. But but. To hold health training for whole life. Well,
they. They did 26. They did 26 though. Unit which gives considered 26 lots. You have a House
26 class you own so much of the life you have to give away for cable calming the ground and all
that they give away for that that they had a word. I can't think. Of a word that they use, you must
find to agree to that. Can't think of it, but anyway. Some of the old people. How they vote? 13 of
the original. You had a 30 year. Plan it a 30 year plan. I hope I bought something. 30 year
mortgage. Oh yeah. This is just. Kind of. We found a whole opportunity agree with you sign
agreement for that and I think that goes down to 30 years.
00:38:23 Speaker 1 Can I get together the next question?
00:38:27 Speaker 2 I got I got. Documentation that you can make copies of. At least you know
that you know. What I'm concerned about is is the. The main thing I was concerned.
Hopefully the very important part of this, they gave a 30 year to pay off the house from 72 to
2002 at 30. A lot of people stayed. And a lot of people moved out. You know.
If you want that state to hold the automatic, go to them after 30th because that's it.
00:39:16 Speaker 1 Goes where? After 30 years, it goes where.
00:39:19 Speaker 2 Every 30 years, right?
00:39:21 Speaker 1 Who has?
145
00:39:21 Speaker 2 It goes to the one that that was a 30 year 30 year term.
00:39:30 Speaker 1 Could they sell it for 30 years?
00:39:33 Speaker 2 With the one that the one that lived, it went back to HOC.
The county doc is the county because the article of incorporation was in their name. The article
and cooperation in the Declaration of Government, all that's in the county name.
00:39:59 Speaker 1 So this house here. And your mortgage. But could you sell the house like,
let's say, five years after you signed this or? Or did or. Could you only stay in this house for 30
years?
00:40:15 Speaker 2 Everything you own the house.
00:40:16 Speaker 1 After 30 years.
00:40:17 Speaker 2 After 30 years.
00:40:18 Speaker 1 But you didn't own it like they wouldn't allow you to sell it.
00:40:19 Speaker 2 No, no, thank you. No, no.
00:40:21 Speaker 1 They're saying because the land and.
00:40:24 Speaker 2 If you sold it, they would get so much of 100 percentage of it. You know, if
you sold it for 30 years, you know they didn't kick if you did.
00:40:34 Speaker 2 But the thing of it people that moved out of the houses and after 30 years.
People that honestly from start to send it start to send some people because the houses that
people moved out, they rent them again and then somebody will get rent again.
00:40:51 Speaker 1 Wait, they being Montgomery County?
00:40:55 Speaker 2 Commission did. This right here. Before the county came in cover Town
Association this going back to 1960, these were the people that were that hit the association,
these people today. I think the field is still living.
00:41:26 Speaker 2 Today to this day. These people are still living. But they were the one did the
task force study? Now I don't know what rank were they made with with the county.
To to for the county to be involved, to bring in urban news or whatever. I don't know.
146
00:41:50 Speaker 2
I think because the housing condition with the little shops and things on it, you know, but
anyway.
00:41:57 Speaker 1 So quickly real quick, because that you made-up, I'm taking notes here and
you make some really good points. I want to make sure I understand. So they came in and they
built these 26 houses in the cul-de-sac. I'm trying to. How did they notify you guys? They give
you, like, OK, in 30 days. This is what we're going to do. Or did they just? You know.
00:42:21 Speaker 2 No, but when when they did the task for study, these people did. They were
the one decide who's going to get. Those holes in the closet.
00:42:30 Speaker 1 How many houses were there at this at this point? Before they came in, right
when they came in for the task force study, how many houses were in Toby County?
00:42:41 Speaker 2 They were just over.
00:42:45 Speaker 1 Right. How much? How many existing houses?
00:42:49 Speaker 2 You say I say about.18 of 89 or 20 hours I would say.
00:42:57 Speaker 1 With their plan.
00:42:59 Speaker 2 Pay taxes on now. Right now. Now, now the new which was the bottom.
And the neutral ground, which was was up in front, which is. In a in a dose of a 26.
Hours from start, from one bedroom up to six vehicle. Now prepare the final agreement before
they could go into them and and then it was all their agreement and they all go on on 26 lots and
I'd like to coach you.
00:43:30 Speaker 1 That's theater.
00:43:36 Speaker 2 You don't, you you, you. You got a lot, but you don't own all the lot because
so much of it have to be. Given away to common. Water type things you know, you know you
know and stuff like that.
00:44:01 Speaker 1 OK. All right, so they came in. And it's 26 and at this point, do you know
how many acres? But I'm trying to understand trying to understand so you have. 100 acres. Plus
and then you have all these other things that are going on, which is eating away at.
The total acreage that you have, so I'm trying to understand when the task force came in, are you
guys still on that 100 acres or?
147
00:44:40 Speaker 2 We're doing that when the test, when they did the test for started, they're
going back to to 60. 60 Go back to I'll get all. The way to 60. They had they they had.
00:44:54 Speaker 2 That's a good question. I'm trying to think I know doing a doing the 1875,
some of the some of the some of my ancestors got in trouble. I think one person I read and my
friend told me that they hit, he hit their horse and buggy and hit hit a kid and he got sued.
Yeah, through your day. Didn't have the money to to go to court with to get a lawyer.
00:45:17 Speaker 2 So they had to give the land away. That they then they would swap for the
land. That's how most a lot of land got away with, and that's also in the record. The Washington
Post did that did a story on that. Somebody told personal folks. About it. OK. All right. OK, I'm
making a note of that too. OK. And then so you said the task force notified you guys at this
point, right? Just trying to understand that.
00:45:58 Speaker 2 Right, right.
00:45:58 Speaker 1 Did they give you guys any money? You know when. They came in. Did the
task force give you guys any compensation? For moving you from one particular.
00:46:07 Speaker 2 One day I've got to find out. I'm the one one person named Garthim. His
mother, Luisin Luddism.
00:46:21 Speaker 2 I got he's he's very good because he also helped community. Then got I got
to find out from her. What rank. What did they made when they digitized for study. With, the
county could just go back to 68 to her name was Judith Simms. And as soon as gas in I got the
product from, it's something that'll.
00:46:49 Speaker 1 Just trying to understand if they gave you guys compensation. Like each
family, each person that lived in. When the task force came in, they offer any compensation to
themselves. What was that like? And so how did your family deal with the situation?
00:47:12 Speaker 2 Well, well, well, well, I'm trying to. I'm trying to. I'm trying to find the the
article. Oh yeah. I was on I was on. I was the President of the association.
00:47:37 Speaker 2 I noticed one thing on and I didn't catch this when I when I when the signal
that they were on trophy them, but they the article of incorporation was from that. Article
Corporation the Declaration of Company. All that stuff was in was in HOC the housing
opportunity name. That means that if that if they if they're in corporate, then they own it to right
to right. OK. I don't know how. I don't know. How could have missed that or what?
I think I think? At a meeting to that effect where nobody would wouldn't go along with it, you
know?
148
00:48:38 Speaker 2
You know, nobody would would actually would concern at that time with what with what?
00:48:46 Speaker 1 I'm going to take a picture of it, you'll.
00:48:48 Speaker 2 Go here right here.
00:48:49 Speaker 1 When we get together, I'm going to make official copies. I I just wanna make
sure I'm. Gonna review this. So then you. Have a violation from the homeowners association.
You just. Went through you? Had a community of your own, and now you're being governed by.
00:49:24 Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, right, right, right, right, right, right.
00:49:26 Speaker 1 See this violation letter here. And this is 1980. This is 1980. This is 1880.
This is 1980. Just right down. Wow. OK.
00:49:33 Speaker 2 Right, right, right, right. Right.
00:49:44 Speaker 1 So OK, so how did your? Family deal with this whole.
00:49:56 Speaker 2 God, my uncle and grandparents, are they all gone? They live to get into the
new truck with them.
00:50:03 Speaker 2 But you see, they died out. Before the 30 years was up, they that once they
fail the house, go back to rent again. I hope you didn't.
00:50:50 Speaker 1 All right, so you were saying that they were dying?
00:50:57 Speaker 2 They they they all gone. When they in this agreement, if you if. You look at.
The they could leave. If this if this is correct, because leave the person they want, they could
leave the house. After 30 years. Know or if something happened to him. They could be different
because they're real, they're real. But if you if you read that correctly, I don't know, maybe a lot
of things, a lot of stuff in that is very tricky.
00:51:47 Speaker 1 I know it is.
00:51:49 Speaker 2 You know, you know, you know, she, she, she. But she cause cause my
grandmother left me her house and they wouldn't sell. It to me. They they would know where
you got already got a house. We can't or you have to be living with your grandmother.
149
If anything, before we that was not that doesn't. I don't think that's in agreement saying that it's
it's successful. I thought it's almost the 5th. It was sitting out there. I could pick up where she left
off, you know. Good on her back. And I wanted to buy it out, but they wouldn't sell it to me.
00:52:31 Speaker 1 OK.
00:52:31 Speaker 2 They would not sell. It to me.
00:52:33 Speaker 1 Do you have like information on the plot? Do you have information on the
land that she had? Per house, do you have information on that owner?
Do you know where it is on?
00:52:44 Speaker 2
Yeah, right. Right. Yeah, right. A map, right.
00:52:55 Speaker 1 So was your grandmother, and they wouldn't let you.
00:52:57 Speaker 2 No, they're no good.
00:52:59 Speaker 1 Talking about Montgomery County, what's? Who would not let you well.
00:53:18 Speaker 2 I would, but I didn't. I got documentation of it where I put a down payment
on it and they called me for the interview. I signed a contract. HUD note about the contract. Her
agreed to it. They agreed to.
00:53:37 Speaker 2 Then they admitted that I couldn't buy. I got this definitely I didn't bring.
00:53:41 Speaker 2 It with me.
00:53:45 Speaker 1 When you say. Because there's so many different people involved, is it the
Commission, the Housing Commission?
00:53:50 Speaker 2 OK. To deal with because you got two or three. River Road. And then you
got Scotland. All of them there.. OK.
00:54:27 Speaker 1 I want to get it because.
00:54:31 Speaker 2 Right. OK.
150
00:54:36 Speaker 1 OK. So you don't know? If they were, you were going to find out if you were
compensated your. Family was compensated or not.
00:54:46 Speaker 2 They were. They were not. They were not OK. If any type of, I wonder if.
Were conversated to test like a reparation. If any bit would. I don't know whether we owe
history. And since the land was something new, 26 units were built on on grave site. Will that
will they? Will they? Will that be something like a reparation to pay for that or I don't know.
00:55:19 Speaker 2 It's good to sign up to look into.
00:55:27 Speaker 1 The recording, yeah.
00:55:28 Speaker 2 Oh, OK, OK. OK, I'm sorry.
00:55:32 Speaker 1 So so OK, so. You started with land that you own your family owned.
From the 19th century, right? Montgomery County comes in 19601970. Whatever we see
paperwork from 1980. We know that wealth is. Gained through real estate through land.
Seems like there was an interruption in the generational wealth because.The property you
weren't. Able to pass down because Montgomery County came. In with a different model. How
do you think? Excuse me, this whole process has impacted generational wealth. Now keep in
mind. Toby to have some Potomac? And think about. How much land is worth in Potomac, MD.
That people own the houses and work. You guys had this swath of land that has been dwindled
down and then you have Montgomery County coming and taking the land and creating a model
where now you have a mortgage on the House where you don't actually. Own the houses straight
out. Well, how do you think that has impacted? More generational well.
00:57:08 Speaker 2 A performance team I didn't hear Which is.
00:57:14 Speaker 1You guys live for you have your.
00:57:16 Speaker 1 Land you owned your land.
00:57:18 Speaker 2 Don't give him.
00:57:18 Speaker 1 And all of a sudden, they're. Saying here if you're going to.
00:57:21 Speaker 1
Live here on your land that you once owned.
00:57:24 Speaker 2 Yeah, right. Right. Now you have to pay 30 years on this and you don't own
the land.
151
00:57:31 Speaker 1 So how has that impacted?
00:57:34 Speaker 2 Well, well, what I understood.
00:57:35 Speaker 1 Your family financially.
00:57:37 Speaker 2 We're honest to what they came in. And gave each family. I think you're
gonna come to family. Uncle and, my grandfather, Uncle deuce. I think 6 family. They gave each
one of them. The county came and took what I understood and gave them $12,000 for the plan.
With that, then, no one knows the value of that land market value of that land back then could
been worth. Way more than which kind of the fox. Kind of dangerous. Black coats and red
Transit and had alot of Fox Dog, both about 40 or 50. They would they considered that fox
hunting territory, they would come down through the that's what they use.
00:58:52 Speaker 2
Put the put the whole bar until you come to for you to come to.
00:58:57 Speaker 2
You have to get out the way, because horses and things are flying and dogs and things so they.
To get Tobytown.Down through the graveyard and all that, they use it as a so therefore they
Friday. But during that time when they came in and wanted to see the park and planning want
their land, you know they bought all at the bottom. The bottom was more. With more land than
what you see, I showed you the codes that land there. Therefore telling and they sold it to them.
What they they use a little portion of it to for a little. Small part there. And then they sold it to
develop developers, you know, develop made million now you got million $2,000,000.
00:59:53 Speaker 1 So let's let's pause there and let's think about that. You just said.
00:59:57 Speaker 2 You're right.
00:59:57 Speaker 1 It right, you know, homes that are two, three, $4 million right on land that
your family owns.
01:00:02 Speaker 2 Very very general.
01:00:07 Speaker 2 I'm going right?
01:00:09 Speaker 1 And you mentioned Members received what, $12,000? And then when was
that 1970?
01:00:16 Speaker 2 That was that was that was. I lived with, went to the service.
That's like that was going into. No, that was.
152
01:00:31 Speaker 2
Oh God, I gotta put on my thinking cap.
01:00:34 Speaker 2
Because they didn't move into the houses into 72, so they had to be somewhere in the in the early
70s or round about 70, right?
01:00:44 Speaker 2
When they did it right because they want you somewhere, they want to get you off of that land.
01:00:50 Speaker 2
Did they wanted their lay in bed, but even back then that sin, that land was way more worth than
from 1212. Seven. You can spend that in. You know, but. See, that didn't did not know the too
much value of money. OK. They they took it. And then with the farmers. The sad thing about it,
they were phone or we're going to build your new house and then something to the to the track,
the nerve. Then when it started. They made him stop feeling tough digging, you know, tough to
construction, but somebody have somebody got got it going again. You know.
01:01:40 Speaker 1 OK. So let's talk about this. We're almost to the last question. You talk a
little bit about. Scotland and we talked about. Macedonia, Macedonia and so this question is, has
your Community done something to protest eminent domain? If so, what has been done and?
Then you know. We talked a little bit. More about what your community looked like prior to
eminent domain. We talked about the. Closeness. We talked. About, you know. The families that
lived there. But talk a little bit more about. The resistance, the protests that you guys are have
discussed. And when I say protest. I've been walking around with signs, but you know the.
Resistance of how the land was stripped from.
01:02:52 Speaker 2 Yes I went to several process with Macedonia. But I didn't go over there, but
maybe we should have did move through, but we had. We didn't do any not protesting. Is a big
thing to. Fight from you. I mean, you're going to have to have a good lawyer. And then then
then. Still no guarantee when? I mean, that's cost. Money, money, money, money. But it's fair to
say. If we don't protest the fight. Sit back and let and let this go right now. What's happening in
our community right now is that. We have. Three Asian people going to bought houses in a
historic 3 Asian three Asian.
01:04:02 Speaker 1
In Tobytown?
01:04:03 Speaker 2But they don't live there. They buy the house to rent, to make a profit.
01:04:10 Speaker 1 In Tobytown?.
01:04:11 Speaker 2 Over there, you got one Ethiopian there. You got one Black Afro African
lady for her. All these houses are rent to make a profit. Now, now. Now it was somewhere in the.
153
01:04:30 Speaker 2
So get home on the.
01:04:34 Speaker 2
Is a nonprofit organization nonprofit.
01:04:39 Speaker 2
Hope they've dealt with with our we can't even stop, can't have nothing do with stocks are gone.
01:04:47 Speaker 2
The association cannot.
01:04:49 Speaker 2
Generatively before the sociation.
01:04:55 Speaker 2
That's kind of scary.
01:04:56 Speaker 2
I I I don't know what's going to what's going to be coming.
01:05:00 Speaker 2
I really don't know when, when, when.
01:05:06 Speaker 3
Yeah. Let me ask you.
01:05:06 Speaker 2
Come on.
01:05:06 Speaker 1
A question.
01:05:10 Speaker 1
The people who live there.
01:05:13 Speaker 1
Because if outsiders are coming in and buying up the property and now they're renting it to all
these other people.
01:05:19 Speaker 1
Who are not heirs of the initial land.
01:05:23 Speaker 2
Great, great, great.
01:05:25 Speaker 1
Is there a way to identify those individuals who?
01:05:30 Speaker 1
Our heirs, or aunt, whose ancestors may have purchased the land because when we have this
greater conversation.
01:05:38 Speaker 1
Those are the ones any.
01:05:40 Speaker 1
Any property that's sold any any profit.
154
01:05:44 Speaker 1
Seems to me should go to.
01:05:46 Speaker 1
The individuals and own the land.
01:05:47 Speaker 2
Right.
01:05:50 Speaker 2
That's what we had a meeting on that here's what happened.
01:06:02 Speaker 2
And I got proof.
01:06:04 Speaker 2
It's not just my words.
01:06:05 Speaker 2
What I got proof.
01:06:08 Speaker 2
You got.
01:06:10 Speaker 2
You got two houses.
01:06:15 Speaker 2
With thoughtful.
01:06:18 Speaker 2
And they were sold again.
01:06:21 Speaker 2
The two houses after 30 years.
01:06:24 Speaker 2
Anybody any house?
01:06:26 Speaker 2
That in that that lived there for 30 years and we got we got attacker agency.
01:06:33 Speaker 2
From her, from even from each of feet saying the house is trade off.
01:06:39 Speaker 2
If no more get paid off, well, how can you?
01:06:43 Speaker 2
How can you take put the house off again, fulfill and make another profit over it?
01:06:55 Speaker 2
And then and sometimes you sell it.
01:07:01 Speaker 2
Of market to go to a real advert.
01:07:05 Speaker 2
And that's market value, you're getting better.
155
01:07:10 Speaker 2
Same thing with my grandmother.
01:07:11 Speaker 2
Her grandmother helped with paid off.
01:07:14 Speaker 2
And then the foot on.
01:07:17 Speaker 2
Through real estate all again.
01:07:20 Speaker 2
For market to market value?
01:07:22 Speaker 2
Somebody's parking money. You know, I have somebody making big off money.
01:07:31 Speaker 1
How many?
01:07:32 Speaker 1
How many original?
01:07:33 Speaker 1
I mean, can you?
01:07:34 Speaker 1
How many people do you know are direct heirs to?
01:07:40 Speaker 2
We get both both 15 people.
01:07:45 Speaker 2
Out of the 26 now that are really original descended, they're still there.
01:07:51 Speaker 1
Let's get a let's.
01:07:53 Speaker 1
Get their names and maybe we can get, you know, we'll talk to to maybe two or three more and.
01:07:54 Speaker 2
OK.
01:08:00 Speaker 2
That's good.
01:08:01 Speaker 2
Then we could have help with your good argument.
01:08:03 Speaker 2
I'm glad you said there of.
01:08:05 Speaker 2
Your good argues.
01:08:06 Speaker 1
And maybe we could meet here since it's closed, right?
156
01:08:09 Speaker 1
Right.
01:08:14 Speaker 1
We talked about eminent domain because essentially that's exactly what happened, right?
01:08:23 Speaker 1
What would you like to see changed as far as the policy for eminent domain?
01:08:33 Speaker 2 I like to see a platform put where we can actually get answers to to the
question that we would lot of questions and answers when I look at the. Somebody had to tell me
this. When I look at the lady and I wonder why it'd be, I beat my brains up when I looked at laid
it at the whole scale and she's gone for. Is it because she seems so much stuff that was wrong or
she don't want to see no more wrong stuff that cause a lot of stuff? It's very good. I want, I want
that platform built where I can ask the question to whoever is the County Executive, where I can
get a straight answer, you know, to to either somebody, somebody has been researched this and
got that answer to it to give me these answers you know because because right now I really don't
want to see. See, I really don't want to see my community. Be stolen away from me no more. It's
a historical low income community. I want to see if if it's if it's going to be taken from it. Little
vote to send the get it. You know, let them have a free choice, you know. Fair, Sir. I'm very fair
about that.
01:09:57 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.
01:09:57 Speaker 2 You know.
01:09:58 Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't have the money to get our get our get our expensive lawyer,
our marriage. This thing could be tackled, but it takes money. Money can can get you a good.
Smart lawyer, somebody that knows how to deal with it. But I just, I just don't. Don't ever, you
know.
01:10:20 Speaker 1 And that's. A good place to end this because the the. Problem statements for
this research is that we're examining the black White.
01:10:34 Speaker 2 Right.
01:10:35 Speaker 1 Right. And the irony of this is now we are talking about land that was stolen
and and now you're saying you don't have money, right? For yours, and I think that's a good
place to end.
01:10:52 Speaker 2 OK, good.
157
Transcription Participant 3 J.F. & T. H.
Chevy Chase Broad Branch
Via Zoom:
Speaker 2: T.H.
Speaker 3: J.F.
GMT20230418-180923_Recording.m4a
00:00:00 Speaker 1 Before we start. You have been asked to participate in this interview via
Zoom, a similar video platform, or phone interview as part of a research project being conducted
by Dr. Wei Sun in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard
University. My name is Terri Davis, a Ph.D. student assisting Dr. Sun on this study. The study is
designed to increase our understanding of the impact of eminent domain you or a direct legal heir
experienced and to get your personal reflection on the financial impact of being displaced. The
interview will take approximately 30-45 minutes. Your responses are entirely voluntary, and you
may refuse to respond to questions we ask, as well as to stop participating at any time, without
jeopardizing your relationship with Howard University. The interview/oral history is confidential
and none of the information you share were identified with you in any published reports.... Your
answers were aggregated with those of others we interview in our study. Data from this study
were stored on a password protected computer in the Principal Investigator’s office, accessible
only by the investigators and Howard University Institutional Review Board (IRB). Although
there are no personal benefits associated with participating in this study, your responses will
assist in expanding our understanding of the impact eminent domain had on you and your
community. The risks associated with your participation are minimal, no more than you would
experience in your daily life when talking about something you care about. However, should you
experience any discomfort associated with the subject matter during the interview, you may stop
responding to the interview, or request a referral to a mental health professional through one of
the online referral sources we can make, such as FindaPsychologist.org. By participating in the
study, you agree that you are at least 18 years of age and self-identify as Black or African
American and a descendant of formerly enslaved Africans. You also agree to be audio recorded
for purposes of accuracy. If you have any questions before we begin, please contact Dr. Wei Sun
at Wei.Sun@Howard.edu. If you have any concerns about the study, you can contact the Howard
University IRB at theorrc@howard.edu or call 202- 865-8597.
And with that, if you don't have any questions. So we're going to start, we're going to start with
just your basic demographic information. And so we'll start with asking what what is your
gender? OK. And your age?
OK. And your educational level?
00:03:46 Speaker 3 I don't know.
00:03:48 Speaker 2 Jay will not answer it, OK.
158
00:03:50 Speaker 1 Did you? OK, so let's he graduated from high.
00:03:56 Speaker 3 Education technical school education. I have some college course, maybe
two year college course graduating technical school, so. I don't.
00:04:10 Speaker 1 Know I agree. OK, that's great. All great information. And are you a
homeowner?
00:04:17 Speaker 3 Yes, I have a mortgage.
00:04:18 Speaker 1 Yes, OK. OK. Let's see. Can you tell me your family story about being
displaced because of eminent domain?
00:04:37 Speaker 2 OK. I guess the.
00:04:44 Speaker 1 So can you tell me?
00:04:49 Speaker 3 You want me to talk about? Excuse me? You want me to talk about what
now?
00:04:54 Speaker 1 So your family story about being displaced because of eminent domain.
00:05:02 Speaker 3 OK. In plain terms.
00:05:12 Speaker 1 Before you tell me that you can share some information about. The the
community before you were before the displacement. How how you obtain the land? When you
obtain that.
00:05:30 Speaker 2 OK, so you should say she wants you to to start back to the beginning. When
did we first get that property in broad branch and how your family grew there.
00:05:43 Speaker 3 OK, I don't have the year of mine. Right. I can get that. You know for you
because it's a quite a few documents. That have been amassed. Or you can get a copy of the book
and it has details of of of all the information. But for most of the information.
00:06:17 Speaker 1 So the family got that land around 8 late 1840s, early 1850s.
00:06:22 Speaker 3 There you go.
00:06:23 Speaker 2 You can start there.
159
00:06:28 Speaker 1 Tell me who acquired the land?
00:06:31 Speaker 3 Yes, they purchased it. I guess. I believe I read somewhere that it was from
another black. Who had owned it? And before that, I believe it was White White on on, but I
believe they purchased it from a a Black person. It was a farm. And the whole community.
It was during that time there were. Very few Black people who own land.
Or property and then and DMV area and so that was quite an accomplishment and to have land
and For what, 90 years? Yeah, they had the land for almost 90 years. I believe. Of doing that,
that that period, Blacks were actually thriving in that area, they had networking and support
systems for people who may be. Come unemployed so they had something like a insurance
system set up. So they were really thriving. Your wife is needed. As I said earlier, their wifes
needed housing and the community for the influx of Whites coming in the area.
So as usually as usual, they selected the most vulnerable. To take the land from. The developers
had already. Had in mind that once they they. Took the property. They would keep Black people
and Jews out. So that's how they came to price the the, the, the, the housing in that area. So it
was a plan, my community. It's probably best you ask me a question or or something?
00:09:28 Speaker 1 Now this is good. So can you talk specifically about where this land is
located? And then also tell me the year when the land was confiscated as well?
00:09:47 Speaker 3 Land is is, is, is. Currently, Lafayette Park, Lafayette Point and Park.
00:09:59 Speaker 1 It's Chevy Chase area, Chevy Chase, DC.
00:10:00 Speaker 3 You haven't changed. Yes, yes.
00:10:04 Speaker 1 And so you mentioned your this is your great, great grandfather.
00:10:15 Speaker 3 Wasn't George pointer? He's a he's almost a another story.
00:10:22 Speaker 1 But your relative and your land, they purchased it in 1850 did you say?
When did they purchase? Whoops, you're muted, you're muted to you. You're muted. Ohh she's
still muted.
00:10:51 Speaker 2 OK, I'm sorry. Oh there. I was looking at some information as I was listening
to you all talking to help with that.
Speaker 1 You are.
160
00:10:56 Speaker 2 So his great his granddaughter George Corners granddaughter was Mary
Harris, so I'm not mistaken and I I was actually going to. There's so many people on this tree.
But she can you still hear me? Can you see me?
00:11:16 Speaker 1 Yeah, I can. Yeah.
00:11:18 Speaker 3 OK, good.
00:11:19 Speaker 2 So Mary Ann Porter, excuse me, Mary Ann Pointer was the was the daughter
of George Pointer. She had a daughter named Mary Ann Plummer, who with her husband. They
were able to get that property. And as J (name redacted) said, it was conducted by another man
of color, who had the property and he was able to to give it to them. It was community. The
community had maybe three other. Black families there, all of whom suffered from having their
land taken from them around the same time 1928.
00:12:01 Speaker 1: 1928 OK. That's the year, OK Next question. OK, so Mr. And so how does
Mr. Fisher fit into that family tree you mentioned?
00:12:14 Speaker 2 OK. So therefore you said, how does how does J (Name redacted)? Yes, fit
in the. OK, so his father, the George Porter, was his.
00:12:19 Speaker 1
Tree that you were just.
00:12:22 Speaker 2
He's the 8th generation. J (Name redacted) is 8th generation straight of a grandson of George
Porter. So a direct descendant as as are his sisters. And cousins, he has cousins there. Are all so,
so they're all, yes.
00:12:39 Speaker 1 Perfect. Perfect. OK. So the land was purchased around 18401850. I believe
we can get the exact date and then 1928 was when eminent domain came in and they took the
land and how was the family notified of?
00:12:54 Speaker 2 Right. It is interesting because there during that time I can't remember the
gentlemen's name, but he wasn't very nice White man. He was a racist. Newland was his name,
Newland James, can you remember the name of that man, Newland?
He was one of the persons involved in the. I call it a club, but it was the group that was trying to
determine how they were going to have Blacks out, Jews out and Whites come into that property.
161
00:13:28 Speaker 2 So they were sending letters back and forth to themselves. And we actually
have copies of those letters. That was shared by another young man who's been doing work on
the history of how this all. Happened and the.
00:13:40 Speaker 3 Well, you had the land developer.
00:13:44 Speaker 2 Yeah, his last name was Newman. I can't. Newton, I think Newman.
I'll have to look that up, because right now they're actually thinking about taking that there is a.
A fountain right in the middle of Connecticut Ave. right where it comes off of. I can't remember
the road, James. It goes down to Connecticut Ave. and then goes across. You can get to Chandler
Town and where the school is, but there's there's this.
00:14:15 Speaker 2
Place that's been something that they've been admiring and and put it out there for Newland.
And now then the Park Service is the sign they're going to take it up because he was such a
racist. So that's it's a big news and some folks are upset about it. That just came out maybe two
or three days ago.
00:14:32 Speaker 1 Hmm. OK, are you?
00:14:33 Speaker 2 But he was. A part of a group who was trying to manage them, getting that
land away from her. In a in in a sneaky way, kind of. And was doing that with everybody. I'm
sorry, I can't remember that name right now.
00:14:46 Speaker 1 No worries. Well, we can. We can circle back and get and get that name.
That's that's important.
00:14:54 Speaker 2 Can is.
00:14:54 Speaker 1 And so.
00:14:54 Speaker 2 Is there a lot of noise behind you all? Because I have someone in here
putting the toy, another toilet in and they're hollering. So if I can't, I can move. It's making noise
and I make. You can't hear that.
00:15:04 Speaker 1 I didn't.
00:15:04 Speaker 2 OK. OK, good you.
00:15:06 Speaker 3
Know I can't hear it.
162
00:15:08 Speaker 2 I know, Jay.
00:15:11 Speaker 1 OK, OK. So we're we're going to go back to the how was the family notified
that the property would be seized? And so.
00:15:24 Speaker 2 If I'm not mistaken, she received.
00:15:24 Speaker 1 You mentioned there were letters back and forth.
00:15:27 Speaker 2 She received letters saying that the the property was going to be taken for the
school and how much she was going to get.
00:15:35 Speaker 2 And if I'm and I believe that information is in the book the ticket and
Barbara put together, they have the specifics on what that date. And what that looked like so we
could go back and see if we could find that for you.
00:15:48 Speaker 1
OK, perfect.
00:15:48 Speaker 3 Let me correct you. Let me correct you the book that we four put together.
Yes, please.
00:15:55 Speaker 2 Ohh exactly true. I'm sorry, that's very true. He did do that.
00:16:04 Speaker 1 OK. And and so Tina, you mentioned a very important piece and you
mentioned something about. I think you both mentioned it right. And so with eminent domain,
you know one of the parameters is you know just compensation or for public use and.
How how would you define just compensation in relation to the property that you guys are
descendants of?
00:16:36 Speaker 3 Not enough compensation. That's how I would. I would not enough
compensation. That's right. I believe I heard when we were talking about it that it was still
below. It's value. Exactly, yeah. And and and when you factor in the human element, it was way,
way way below.
00:17:09 Speaker 1 When you talk about the human element, can you can you expand on that?
Are you referring to community or the community that was there?
00:17:22 Speaker 3 It I I used the word destroy. They're destroying. It's it's a benchmark that I
have been looking for to find out.
163
00:17:35 Speaker 3 Why my family was so? Separated and.
00:17:45 Speaker 3 Struggling. We lost connection. We lost.
00:17:54 Speaker 3 That cohesiveness, that, that, that, that bonding, we lost our safe place, yes,
yes. We lost jobs. And you know in the documentation. It said that. You know the most of the
people. That were displaced. Move to. Or southeast? I read that and that was my story.
That was my family story. We moved to. Near the Howard University area.
And then we moved to Southeast and I was basically raised in Southeast. Because those were
only places you know at that time that that was affordable. And that was good for, you know,
you all a lot of the other family members were struggling even more than that.
00:19:09 Speaker 3 Because it was immediate there the the loss was immediate. They didn't have
a lot of time to prepare or make plans or anything. And just like one of the descendants was
saying how in the world did they go from Chevy Chase living in Chevy Chase, a wonderful place
with a wonderful home to the ghetto? Just immediately they were just sent out to now.
00:19:30 Speaker 3 And that's what they they said it just it baffles them and especially to think
about it now and now understanding how they have become so separated, finding out about this
and having the the only reunion they've ever had on that property in 2015 was an opportunity for
that family to come together.
00:19:51 Speaker 3 After all those years. And recognize and understand who they are and and
who they've been missing. And and it's still a process of trying to.
00:20:00 Speaker 1 And what path they were on prior to being?
00:20:03 Speaker 3 Exactly. Yes they are.
00:20:04 Speaker 1 This their community. The the the housing in southeast and New Northeast,
where those public housing.
00:20:15 Speaker 3 You had a mixture, of course, my mother. Very well to be uneducated.
And to keep us at least one block from the get up the ghetto was across the street.
Everywhere we live. But we we were out of together, we, we. Wasn't ending it.
00:20:42 Speaker 2 Or public.
00:20:42 Speaker 3 But there were those who were. Those, those are the cousins and other
family members who they they were, you know. There were. Exactly. Exactly. Well, I mean, I
was just talking about. My family, yeah. Yeah, because we were separated. I didn't know their
situation.
164
00:20:58 Speaker 2 Right.
00:20:58 Speaker 3 I mean, we took in some. My first remembrance. Ohh. Is being in a house
with three generations in A and not a house, but an apartment and us having so many had to
sleep in the same bed. And it wasn't. No boy, girl divide. You know, we didn't even have that
selective process.
00:21:27 Speaker 1 What year? What year do you think this was?
00:21:30 Speaker 3 It was in the 50s. It was in the 50s.
00:21:37 Speaker 1 So how do you think so let's let's think about Chevy Chase.
Multi $1,000,000 houses that they have there, very small houses.
Let's think about Chevy Chase and let's think about what you just mentioned being I I used the
term warehouse to a certain.
00:21:58 Speaker 1
Area of the district right during that time or maybe before there were restricted covenants cause
so Black people couldn't live just anywhere. And so that's why the ghettos were formed. There's
a book. Called the forgotten history of how our government segregated America or something
like that, by Richard Rothstein, which it talks extensively about. How communities were built,
right, and I'm hearing.
00:22:30 Speaker 1 Similar stories is what you're seeing, so you lived in this area.
They took your land and forced you back over into another side of the town. How do you think
that eminent domain experience impacted your families? Generational wealth.
00:22:49 Speaker 3 Ohh, I mean it it. I used the word destroyed and destroyed my family.
You know, there is this.
00:22:59 Speaker 1 Yeah. Oops, sorry.
00:23:01 Speaker 3
I don't have to. You know, I don't have to, you know, speak it a paragraph. It it it?
Was, you know, it destroyed our family of it, robbed us of of, of you know that wealth that
would have came because I mean. And unless we were forced. To give up that that property.
You know because they had been in our family for 89 years. You know and.
The way they used the land when they used it. We wouldn't have, we would have held on to that
and and and from that land from that world.
00:23:44 Speaker 3 And you could borrow and whatever we would have acquired more.
165
00:23:50 Speaker 3 You know, 4 generations of of our family, you know, so.
00:23:56 Speaker 3 I mean. You know, it was heartbreaking. You know, I'm proud of my family.
But it was heart heartbreaking. To to to discover. That we did have land and it was taken.
00:24:18 Speaker 1 You did have a vehicle for generational wealth, and it was taken. You're
saying, yeah.
00:24:24 Speaker 1 OK. And so the 8th, we're almost done. The 8th question is you pretty much
answered it because it's how has eminent domain impacted your personal life?
And so if there's anything else that you want to add to what you just stated, you could fill that in
here.
00:24:48 Speaker 2 You know, I I think it's important too to understand when we think about the,
the, the land and what the family had before it was taken from them. It wasn't just one house, it
was five houses every time. One of the children got older and had a farm. Family the mother,
Mary, was breaking down the the land to be able to build another house. So you know this was
truly their community and think about how much it would have meant for them all to be there.
And that land never be taken away. And they have those five, you know. House is a place where
they can come and be, but just they would have grown so much everything would have been
wonderful.
00:25:30 Speaker 2 So it. Was it was everything they could have wanted. And then it have it all
been taken away. In a month, yes.
00:25:40 Speaker 1 Do you know how many?
00:25:41 Speaker 2 Two and a half, two almost 3 acres. Wasn't it J (name redacted)?
00:25:46 Speaker 3 About two. Maybe a little over 2 acres.
00:25:51 Speaker 2 Yes, a little over 2, that's right.
00:25:53 Speaker 1 And then so how uh, and this is question #9 and 10 and you you'll probably.
Be able to answer this one too. How has your community done something to protest eminent
domain? If so, what has been done and what did you? OK. I don't want to run on, I'll just ask us
to how how has your community done something to protest eminent domain? If so, what
has been done.
00:26:22 Speaker 3
It's not our community.
166
00:26:24 Speaker 1 That community where you got the land that you.
00:26:29 Speaker 3 We had the name change and and it's a collective effort.
Some of the residents in the community embraced the story, learn the story, embraced it and
they're part of a crew of us that been able to help us get quite a quite a bit done.
00:26:50 Speaker 3 Because you're talking about one story human in intimate domain in that
land.
00:26:57 Speaker 3 We started from George Pointer. Had to we had to get acknowledgement for
his contributions because they wanted to bury that and I lost my place.
00:27:19 Speaker 1 What you're talking about?
00:27:19 Speaker 3 Oh, oh, oh, we we had the park remain. We have several, you know, projects
going to get the word out regarding our story. The story you know, like you, you know, said you
will, you know get the word out about. What has happened specifically happened in in, in
neighborhoods and intimate domain in the way they rob us of our generational wealth and et
cetera. I think we are doing all histories. Ohh we have one coming up. So there there's branches
of activity around, you know, my family. That's that's happening. And I'm glad you're on board
now. Thank you. Thank you. As I just kind of want to circle back quickly and ask. The
community look like before eminent domain. What was it? What did it look like? Was it? So
when we think about Chevy Chase now, we have a clear understanding.
00:28:41 Speaker 3 It was ruled it was ruled and.
00:28:43 Speaker 2 Right.
00:28:48 Speaker 3 You know it. Was a place where Blacks could come. You know, and and as
you as. Buy property if they could. And be a bit freer, I would imagine. You know, I mean I
when when I walked the property, we knew that there were slaves. Insight of you know our
property. Right across this road.
00:29:18 Speaker 3 You know, I just just and you know, my ancestral children running around
free. In that on that property. And you know the slaves coming out and seeing that and being
inspired by that and being hopeful.
00:29:39 Speaker 2 So, you know, that was one of the first things that, you know, I imagine
when I was on that property. And another thing about that particular area, too was it was the one
place where free persons of color had decided to to live in, because surrounding that if you look
167
at the old maps, those are all White folks and plantations. So somehow we were able to gather
that information, you know that, I mean not information be able to choose that land right in the
middle in that spot and have it for the 123. It was probably about two or three other families,
black families as well, who lived within the area where where J (name redacted) folks were.
00:30:26 Speaker 1 So where are? OK. So it's Chevy Chase.
00:30:31 Speaker 3 Let me say this. Let me just say this too. There was enough Black folks up
there for them to have a Black school built.
00:30:41 Speaker 2 That they can. Most definitely. Most definitely.
00:30:46 Speaker 1 So it was thriving and they removed it all.
00:30:51 Speaker 3 They took it all.
00:30:54
So I can.
00:30:55
Look it up.
00:31:01 Speaker 1 OK. How do you ask another question after that? That was that was
powerful. And so we know what the Community looks like now with sprawling houses.
On your particular line.
00:31:22 Speaker 3 White. Look White.
00:31:30 Speaker 2 You know it's it's funny because we have we have to give the props to
historic Chevy Chase. See and their organization because they have really pushed to support us
in this story and and you know, sometimes you gotta have other folks in your in your party to be
able to get things going. So they they've been really trying hard and right now they're talking
about trying to get together a community. An afternoon for community talk or whatever they
really want the community. That the people who've lived in those houses all that time, those who
thought no one ever lived on the land, because that's what they've all been told.
Practically every person that lives there now, as they came through and we had the picnic, the
reunion, and then when we had the change of the the name of the of the park, they keep saying.
But they said this was nothing. This was dry land. There was nobody living here.
Ohh, everybody thought that they had no clue that that was a fam that those were families that
lived on that property. Guess what? How many would admit to knowing?
168
00:32:37 Speaker 2 Well, I you know, that's true. Some of them might, but I I think because of
the age of the group that we communicated with when they first started talking about it, now I
think their parents might have known and just didn't share it.
00:32:53 Speaker 1 So that's a possibility too, huh?
00:32:54 Speaker 3 Two, do not trust me. Know it, I know.See they have.
00:32:59 Speaker 2 Well, they know now.
00:33:00 Speaker 3 They're kind of.
00:33:01 Speaker 2 Like they they put you.
00:33:02 Speaker 3 In this is the limit situation OK. You know because they living in the houses
so. All is right with them. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, there's. Nothing they have to
worry about this. Until you ask for reparations. When you're asking for something, just point
blank blank.
00:33:24 Speaker 1 Wait, you got?
00:33:25 Speaker 2 They lose their voice.
00:33:27 Speaker 1 Hold on. Say that again, because for whatever reason, it paused.
00:33:31 Speaker 3 I think that's what he was doing. He was pausing to say they. Just shut up
immediately. We don't know anything then.Yeah. Well, we, we. We keep reminding them that's
for sure. We keep reminding them. I'm. I'm glad.
00:33:47 Speaker 1 I'm gonna pause for one second there cause.
00:33:47 Speaker 3 OK, OK. OK, look, look, I can be a racist here, OK, if if I. If I can be a
racist?
00:33:58 Speaker 3 I mean, please, I mean. 99.9%. What they put out to us? OK. It's
underhanded. Hmm, they'll say wait. Three generations we might get to you in the facts, that
everything that. They've shown me in my lifetime. Is underhanded. Is disrespectful, it it? It tells
us they do not respect us.
00:34:38 Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah, that's.
169
00:34:39 Speaker 3 And they're not going to give us anything. OK, nothing easy. Nothing that's
true.
00:34:48 Speaker 2 That's true.
00:34:51 Speaker 1 Let's finish the interview. I just wanna say.
00:35:02 Speaker 3 Broad Branch. Up to the what you call it.
00:35:05 Speaker 1 Right. Broad Branch. There's a Broad Branch market over there too, right off
of Western.
00:35:11 Speaker 3 Exactly which, which did they kind of took from us too? We we are putting
together the fact that that. Was run by a Black woman back in the day, but now they're saying
ohh no, this was a White guy. He's been there forever. This and the other. So that's something
else that we're pushing back on. But yes, there is a little store on the corner.
00:35:31 Speaker 1 You know exactly the area because I had a friend I was telling Mr.
F (name redacted) before you came on that lived Black family that lived. There was one that
lived on. At the corner of Western and I can't think of the name of that street, but then another
one was on 34th St. You know where 34th Street is over there? Off. OK. Anyway, I'm there. I
know. OK, OK. OK.
00:35:52 Speaker 2 I'm not sure I'm not good with numbers. And there's actually. Yeah, you
know, with with this information that you're trying to put together, Terri, too, I'm going to give
you someone else to contact and that's J (name redacted).
00:36:08 Speaker 2 J (name redacted) is the last name J J is one of our persons within the the
Black Broad Branch Pro project we're working on. She's also a family who had a family who got
their land taken away, too. They were right next door to Mary Harris James people.
Right next door, we just came across this with them, though about a year and a half.
But she has a lot of good she's been doing this kind of genealogy work on her family, not
realizing Broad Branch was part of it until recently.
00:36:42 Speaker 2 Excellent resource. Eminent domain has happened three times.
00:36:44 Speaker 1 You want listen.
170
00:36:46 Speaker 2 They've but gotten their land taken away from them three times.The last time
they were in broad branch. It started at National Cemetery. Yeah, where they had some land and
it was taken from them. And then somewhere else and then broad branch.00:37:00 Speaker 3
It's someone else too.
00:37:03 Speaker 3 But Tanya, who's the Black guy that I love? He's a nice guy.
00:37:09 Speaker 1 Hold on one second. Hold on.
00:37:13 Speaker 3 Who's the Black guy that's been with us? Been helping us. Young guy
young. Guy Tory and talk about Corey.
00:37:25 Speaker 3
Sorry, yeah.
00:37:27 Speaker 3 Yeah, he was telling me about them they're trying to destroy his.
00:37:37 Speaker 2 Yeah, down in North Carolina, yeah.
00:37:41 Speaker 3Yeah, for sure.
00:37:42 Speaker 2 So those would be definitely two people that she could talk with.
00:37:49 Speaker 3 Yeah, I was. I was trying to remember the a guy that, you know, he's a part
of our group. He's telling me about a A N he's from North Carolina, and he was dealing with
them trying to put a highway across. You know his ancestral land or something like that.
00:38:13 Speaker 3 So that's someone else.
00:38:14 Speaker 2 Yeah, here's another one.
00:38:15 Speaker 3 You can you can deal with.
He actually, I thought he was doing something with with Howard Law, Law School, something
Howard loves something.
00:38:17 Speaker 1 Yeah, if you.
00:38:25 Speaker 3 But Corey actually here, he's another dynamite.
00:38:29 Speaker 3 Dynamite, when it comes to having information in maps and he is an
excellent, excellent person to talk to, so I can give you that information.
00:38:38 Speaker 1 Oh, that'd be great.
171
00:38:38 Speaker 3 Rory and Jocelyn, both of them, would be very helpful for what you're
doing.
00:38:42 Speaker 1 Yeah, that'd be great cause the next step I would like to gather maps and any,
you know, copies of maps and any documentation that I can include.
00:38:55 Speaker 3 Well, I I think it might. Maybe join one of our zooms or get in touch with
Tim. He has a lot of. Of documents readily probably readily more readily than I do, I have to go
through a dungeon to get, you know, running all of all the documentation that's accumulated over
the years. So, but he would be a good. And and you you have to have time because he'll tell you
the whole George Porter, the whole fishing thing, someone.
00:39:31 Speaker 2 Yes, he will.
00:39:33 Speaker 2 He talks to.
00:39:34 Speaker 3 You someone you can just sit back and record. You know, look it, it'll it'll
spit out a book for you. He knows he has been one of the he's been. A very faithful. A helper he's
always ready to. Yeah, he has. He's done a whole lot for us. We've gotten us into many doors,
gone for Congress everywhere.
00:39:54 Speaker 1 So will. Oh, that's wonderful. Will you be able to put me in touch with him?
Give him my.
00:40:00 Speaker 3 Sure, I definitely will.
00:40:01 Speaker 1 E-mail address.
00:40:03 Speaker 3 And then, you know, we have an event coming up. I think it's in, let me say,
June must be the beginning of fall, but we're going to have Doc. I mean, Reverend Lamar, who's
the the preacher at that big metropolitan Church in Georgetown, I think. He has agreed to.
Support us and have a like a round table discussion about just what you're talking about.
So what they're going to what we're going to do first is video, various descendants and how they,
you know, their thought, what they think about what happened, what could have been.
And then they're going to have that stream for a little while and then actually have the talk where
Reverend Lamar will talk with each of the descendants, so I need to find out. I know June the 9th
is when they're going to put that part together. I don't think June 9th.
00:41:01 Speaker 1 I would love to.
172
00:41:02 Speaker 3 I'm positive it's not June the 9th because I'm not ready, so it's not going.
Be too nice. Nothing about. It, but as soon as I find out that I think what we're doing on June the
10th is that we're going to put it all together. So it'll be ready for the event. And and sorry, Chevy
Chase DC does this frequently has zoom events in the evenings. This time the UNC is actually.
Supporting this and we were shocked this they wanted to support this happening, so sounds like
the communities. Oh wow. Are wanting to finally hear what? What's this? What's going on and
what's been making so much happen? They haven't been paying attention to before so.
00:41:40 Speaker 1 Excellent. Wonderful.
00:41:41 Speaker 3 We can get that information, I'll I'll find out.
00:41:43 Speaker 2 Those two people.
00:41:45 Speaker 1 Thank you. I appreciate that. And let's see. So last two questions. So we
talked about eminent domain, right and so. If let's think about eminent domain as a policy right.
And so if eminent domain policy be revised, what would you want to see in change?
What would you want to see it? How would you want it to change?
00:42:14 Speaker 3 Well, if you're asking me. I like for the meaning of it changed. Chunks of of
United States. A block dog for black people who are descendants of slaves. We want.
A port so we can transport goods out of on the East Coast and on the West Coast. We want
something similar to what the Indians. The natives of this country receive. And we want support.
To make sure it happens. So that's planning. That works because often if they give us something.
They can't enforce it.
00:43:23 Speaker 3
It doesn't have to work.
00:43:28 Speaker 3
So we just left holding the bag confused because the planning isn't there, wasn't there?
00:43:35 Speaker 3
So that's.
00:43:36 Speaker 2 What I think.
00:43:37 Speaker 3 Element domain. It should be a black word. Referencing all that I've said.
Well, that you know, I understand what you're saying, Jay too. However, I want to go a little bit
further and just go back to eminent domain and and what they've been using it for and the the
whole system needs to change. You know if something comes up that they need land for. To me,
the first thing that they should do is talk with those people who are already on the land and talk
to them about how.
00:44:14 Speaker 3
173
How this would affect them, how it wouldn't, and that kind of conversation that never happens,
it's just it's just thrown on people all of a sudden you get a letter saying.
00:44:24 Speaker 3
We're taking your land, you know.
00:44:25 Speaker 3
You got 30.
00:44:26 Speaker 3
Days or whatever.
00:44:29 Speaker 3
So I think on top of what you were saying, James, that if they do take it, we want this, this and
this.
00:44:34 Speaker 3
But I think it also needs to start from the beginning.
00:44:37 Speaker 3
You can't do this.
00:44:38 Speaker 3
Eminent domain cannot take.
00:44:41 Speaker 3
It cannot happen until those persons who are in the area that are gonna be affected have have
been talked to.
00:44:47 Speaker 3
They're the first ones that should be talked to.
00:44:49 Speaker 3
And then then then be reasonable and honest about how they're going to support those people
losing their property.
00:44:58 Speaker 3
So it it's it's huge.
00:45:00 Speaker 3
I mean, there's so.
00:45:00 Speaker 3
Many facets to that. None of which I thank anybody. Changing reaction. We know that change
reaction cause. OK, I do believe that there's enough Black people in the United States that want
their own land in the United States. They want their own chocolate city. In the United States,
OK. I mean when Trump said he was going to build that wall.
00:45:34 Speaker 2 OK.
00:45:36 Speaker 3 And those White folks said no, you're not. He said I'm gonna use eminent
domain and I'm gonna take that land.
00:45:45 Speaker 3 OK. I'm gonna take your land. The White folks said hell no. He couldn't do
anything about it.
174
00:46:02 Speaker 1 That goes back to what you said in the very beginning of the interview when
you talked about, you know, them coming for the most vulnerable people.
00:46:11 Speaker 3 Yes, we have always been that. That's right. The Indians in US. But they
gave the Indians. They gave they. They messed up the mess with Japan. They gave them
something. They mess with another group. They had a country supporting them. Anyone come
over here that has a country supporting them? Have more clout than us if their birthplace is
another country, they have more clout than us because they have a resource alright and the White
folks here. Is gonna take into consideration. Did they do something to? It it gets back to the
country. They don't want to happen. We are the only ones here.
00:47:05 Speaker 2 They, they, they, they.
00:47:10 Speaker 3 Pull energy or diplomacy they have. There is no threats coming from Africa.
They're not threatened. John has taken over Africa. For the only way we gonna gonna gonna
regain respect. Yes, economically, yes. And we're doing that. But for the average Black folks?
We need to to have land. We need land, land, land and we need our own. Our own thing. We
need to rise up in total blackness or that land.
00:47:57 Speaker 1 And I think that's a good place to end the official interview, because my last
question was.
00:48:01 Speaker 3 I'm sure.
00:48:06 Speaker 1 It gives you an opportunity to provide any additional information on your
thoughts and feelings on eminent domain, and I think that is, you know what you said kind of
encapsulates the last question, not unless you want to add more to that.
00:48:23 Speaker 3 No, I don't.
00:48:24 Speaker 3 I don't I. Don't want to fall.
00:48:24 Speaker 1 But I think.
00:48:25 Speaker 3 Asleep. I do not. But I could go on, yeah. Well, you can put sugar on it.
Dang it. Go ahead. Put your sugar on it. Say what? Say what now? Put some sugar on.
00:48:41 Speaker 1
175
It and for the last question, you, you you want to add some more like so this last question is an
opportunity for you to provide any additional information on your thoughts and feelings on
eminent domain.
00:48:41 Speaker 3 I'm just listening.
00:48:42 Speaker 3
You're right.
00:48:43 Speaker 3
It's only true.
00:48:57 Speaker 3
Well, eminent domain was, you know, a White invention.
00:49:01 Speaker 3
So we actually talking about White folks.
00:49:04 Speaker 3
And it takes from those who can't afford anything else.
00:49:07 Speaker 3
You know it.
00:49:08 Speaker 3
It takes from, and even if it's a nice, you know, I think about.
00:49:13 Speaker 3
Excuse me, I think about when the highway.
00:49:15 Speaker 3
Was made to go to Reston when Reston and the airport was being built in Northern Virginia.
00:49:21 Speaker 3
They came through.
00:49:23 Speaker 3
There was a Black neighborhood very close to the highway where that was going to be built.
00:49:29 Speaker 3
My grandmother lived there, friends and everything, cause only there were only two little Black
communities in McLean in that area. My grandmothers, which was close to where they're
building that road, and then we lived a little farther down the road, but these were nice homes.
With land. But they decided to go down that side of the road. Instead of which was across the
street. Was, which was woods. You know, so it's just all about always taking from us always.
00:49:57 Speaker 1 Is that E Arlington?
00:50:00 Speaker 3: No, that's in McLean. That is closer to Tysons Corner area. So Spring Hill
Rd. We lived in between Spring Hill Rd. and Lewisville Rd. going towards Route 7. Farther than
I'm trying to think, but it wasn't on. It wasn't in Arlington.We were we were down closer to the
Tysons Corner area, but back.
176
00:50:27 Speaker 1 We could have talked about that Community too.
00:50:30 Speaker 3 Yeah. So the two, the two houses on the side, yeah, there was two houses
that got land taken from that. Yeah, but but what? And what amazed me was like I said, it was a
little too two lane road. We were on one side. The woods were on the other side. They took.
00:50:47 Speaker 3 They took us they didn't take the words like don't care about people at all,
you know, and especially not us.
00:50:56 Speaker 1 And and that's what I'm saying.
177
Transcription Participant 4 J.J.
Community: Chevy Chase DC Broad Branch
Via: Zoom
Transcript
00:06:36 Speaker 1 Oh, I can't hear you for some reason.
00:06:40 Speaker 2 Can you hear me now?
00:06:42 Speaker 1 I'm muted, OK. Can you hear me?
00:06:45 Speaker 2 Now yay it works.
00:06:45 Speaker 1 I could hear you your face. You know, I I don't know if you remember that
commercial Verizon, can you hear? And so now we're back to that with with.
00:06:58 Speaker 2 Can you hear me? Now, right. Right.
00:07:02 Speaker 1 How are you?
00:07:03 Speaker 2 I'm good. How about yourself?
00:07:06 Speaker 1 And it's such an honor. They're to be able to speak with you.
00:07:12 Speaker 2 I appreciate that. It's it warms my heart to know that there are people out
there who good people out there who want to hear the story and are interested in in, in, you know
what my ancestors went through.
00:07:28 Speaker 1 Your story is so powerful. Well, thank you so much for joining me today.
And before we can move forward with the research questions, I've I've got to read the consent
preamble to you. So if you'll just give me a few minutes just to go over this and then we can
proceed with the 12 questions that I have for you sounds good. Alright, so you have been asked
to participate in this interview via Zoom, a similar video platform or phone interview as part of a
research project. Being conducted by Doctor Wei soon and the Department of Communication
Culture and Media Studies at Howard University. My name is Terri Davis. I'm a PhD candidate
assisting Dr. Sun on this study. The study is designed to increase our understanding of the impact
of eminent domain. You were a direct legal heir. Experienced and to get your personal reflection
on the financial impact of being displayed. The interview will take approximately 30 to 45
minutes and your responses are entirely voluntary, and you may refuse to respond to questions
we ask, as well as to stop participating at any time without jeopardizing your relationship with
178
Howard University. The interview or oral history is confidential and none of the information you
share were identified with you in any published reports. Your answers were aggregated with
those of others we interview in our study. Data from this study were stored on a password
protected computer in the principal investigators office, accessible only by the investigators and
Howard University Institutional Review Board. Although there are no personal benefits
associated with participating in this study, your responses will assist in expanding our
understanding of the impact. Eminent domain had on.
You and your community, the risks associated with your participation are minimal, no more than
you would experience in your daily life when talking about something you care about.
However, should you experience any discomfort associated with this subject matter during the
interview, you may stop responding to the interview or request a referral to a mental health
professional. Through one of the online referral sources, we can make such as fine
psychologist.org. By participating in the study, you agree that you are at least 18 years of age and
self identify as Black or African American, and a descendant of formerly enslaved Africans.
You also agree to be audio recorded for purposes of accuracy. If you have any questions before
we begin. Please contact Dr. Wei Sun at way, which is Wei.Sun@howard.edu if you have any
concerns about the study, you can contact the Howard University IRB at vorc@howard.edu or
call 202. 865-8597. OK. So before we start, I know I had mentioned I had 12 questions for you,
but we just have demographic information. So if you could.
And I know the answers to some of these, but we're going to just follow the script here.
00:11:20 Speaker 1
Can you state your gender, please?
00:11:22 Speaker 2 Sure, gender female.
00:11:24 Speaker Your age is 60. Educational level is bachelors. OK.
00:11:32 Speaker 2: And employment is office of the state's attorney.
00:11:37 Speaker 1 OK. And are you a homeowner now?
00: 11:41 Speaker 2 Yes
00:11:43 Speaker 1 OK. So the first question. Can you tell me your family story about being
displaced because of eminent domain?
179
00:11:58 Speaker 2 And thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate that. My family begins on
Broad Branch. Roughly latter part of 1800s my excuse me, my second great grand Aunt, Lord
Dorsey and her husband Robert purchased land and built upon it a dwelling, the home.
Shortly after they built this home, they were asked to raise their nieces and nephews. Because
their mother, my second great grandmother, died. So they took the. Children in and raised them
as their own. They housed them, clothed them, fed them and educated them. My that would be
my great grandmother, Rosa Shorter. Excuse me, Rosa shorter. Brennan shorter, I should say.
And they were raised there on broad branch Rd.
00:13:12 Speaker 2 My Aunt Laura, my great aunt Laura. Great Aunt Laura had a format where
she grew her own fruits, vegetables. And had a store that she operated. And according to my
grandmother, kept all the numbers. So they were thriving.
They were self-sufficient, self-sustaining, being educated, went to church, did all those things
right there on broad branch. So it was generational. And so my great grandmother grew up.
She was educated, and ultimately got married. Had her children right there on broad branch
there, her aunt Laura sold the home to them to her and her husband, Richard Shorter.
And they raised my grandmother and her siblings. It was roughly the. Latter part of the 1920s.
Where rumblings began with taking over the land to build a park and a school. They were
offered money, as they were the other black owners. There, on a broad branch, but they didn't
want to sell. My family did not want to sell. They wanted to stay there. They had been there.
For their entire lives. But it began begin to get really sticky. There was and I wish I had it at my
fingertips. I was trying to find it before I got on. There was a a story in a local paper that talked
about. How it would be? Not advantageous for the black families that were there on broad
branch to remain. Next to an all White school. And I were more than happy to furnish that for
you. But it was very clear that they did not want to have. The African Americans, the black
families that were there to remain. So my family was the last to remain. They finally moved out
in 1931, accepted nominal amount for their home and their for their land. And it ended up being
less than they were originally offered. Yeah, it was less than they originally offered, but they
were the last black family to go. They just couldn't hang on anymore. It was very. And very
uncomfortable for them. So they finally left and moved to the Northwest DC area on Irving
Street. And everything that they knew, everything that my great grandmother and grandfather,
my grandmother and her siblings knew lost. As it were, my grandmother worked for Chevy
Chase Club. Was there and and walked and and took a bus there and and worked there. And she
had to leave because where they moved was just too far. So they had to start a whole new life.
Find new work.
00:16:55 Speaker 2 Get settled as best they. Could and and leave behind all that they knew?
It's sad because the new house that they they left too. Was also taken through eminent domain, so
they had to live through that twice. At least in their lifetimes, they had to endure that twice. The
odd thing about that is, is my aunt lower? My great aunt Lou. Great, great aunt Laura and her
180
family lived on. Arlington House with Robert E Lee and and their family. They were given
property there, where now? Now Arlington National Cemetery is is housed, but they had
property there. Her father, Laura Dorsey's father, Guy Henry, had property on there and raised
his family. Right.
00:17:54 Speaker 2 Of course, that was also assumed after the Civil War, and they were
displaced and had to move, but they had been there for years, was given the land by George
Washington Park Custis, as you know, is George Washington's adopted grandson with Martha
Washington.
00:18:16 Speaker 1 Can you give me the year? I'm sorry to interrupt. Can you give me?
No, that's OK. You share like what year you think this?
00:18:25 Speaker 2 The the year starting in Arlington. Yes. So that was the 1860s, shortly after
the Civil War.
00:18:32 Speaker 1 OK. And then you mentioned Arlington, so I want to go back, I want to
make sure that we capture the years also and so when they were forced to move from broad
branch, you said that was.
00:18:46 Speaker 2 1931.
00:18:48 Speaker 1 1931, OK.
00:18:49 Speaker 2 1931 Right. But in any event, so you know, when I look back on on
historical data of my family. We have been displaced. A myriad of times starts with my my 4th
grade grandmother Caroline Branham. And I and I mentioned her. This would be my great
grandmothers second great grandmother Caroline Brandon was George and Martha
Washington's personal slave maid there at Mount Vernon in in Virginia. And she, of course,
toiled. But she toiled of course, day in, day out, and after George Washington's death.
And then Martha Washington's staff, they were uprooted from Mount Vernon and displaced to
Arlington. So it's it's it seems to be a continuum. Up until again, my great my grandmother's day.
And that's only two generations away from me. Well, I take that back. Now it's only one
generation because my father was displaced as well because he and he and my grandmother and
great grandmother, and and their their families all resided on Irving Street.
So it was multifamily. It was a beautiful home, beautiful home, 3 levels, three and and if if well,
I guess you do know about DC. Obviously it was a beautiful home. And their house was taken
because they wanted to build a school for black children because they didn't want the black
children going to school near the White children. So they obliterated the block and built the built
181
the school. And so my father had to endure that. And this, I think the saddest part of that and that
was about. 40s that was in the 1950s where that took place. So they'd been there for some time.
But the saddest part? You know, there's sadness. In all of it really.
00:21:37 Speaker 2 They're too sad. And I'm trying to grasp the words.
00:21:46 Speaker 2 Two sad points. That will probably never leave me, and that is when my
grandmother in a shorter chambers died. Before she died, rather, she died at 102. But shortly
before that, as her memory began to fade, she would always pine to. Go back home.
And I said. Well, you know, where is that? Is home and she said it's Chevy Chase. It's broad
branch. Sometimes she call it Tinley town. But it was there at broad branch, and she would pine
and pine to go back home. You know, take me back home. And that was the only place that she
longed to be. And I couldn't.
00:22:29 Speaker 2 I couldn't do that for her. Couldn't do that for her. My father when they lost
the Irving Street home. He recalls going back in after they moved their personal belongings out,
trying to. Get remnants from the home architectural features of the home that they wanted to
bring with them, whether it be a a hanging chandelier. It was a a fireplace mantle.
00:23:05 Speaker 2 Just to bring some remnants of home the last grab if you will. And there
were some things that they had to leave behind that ultimately was scrapped. So yeah, so I'm
only one generation away from eminent domain. So it's hit very close to home, very, very close
to home.
00:23:32 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's OK. Alright, let's move on to the second question.
You kind of touched on it quite a bit. So this will give you an opportunity to kind of expand on
it. If you have anything else you want to add so the second question is what happened to your
family after being displaced, which you really touched on? And then what challenges have has
your family experienced since the displacement?
00:24:06 Speaker 2 So I could it's it's two pronged really. I can look at it psychologically.
I can look at it emotionally and physically. The psychological effects I don't think ever went
away. That feeling of impermanence. I think remained is certainly remained with my
grandmother. Certainly remained with my father. Not being too comfortable if you will. My
father, unfortunately, had to endure many more hardships as it pertained to something as simple
as renting. Buying buying a house because of redlining, steering, etc. Through the real estate
market. So he had to endure. At the hands of those oppressors.
00:25:27 Speaker 2 Just to live somewhere so I don't know that he ever. Really got over. All that
he endured so that psychologically and emotionally.
Physically, we were torn apart from our families. Everybody had to scatter.
182
I reconnected, I say reconnected, I connected with my third cousins. Who were my great
grandmothers? Sisters, great grandchildren? I did not know them, never knew them growing up.
They grew up in DC, but we never knew them. Because when my great grandmother and and her
siblings were displaced, they they scattered and tried to eat out a living they could no longer sit
at the same table under the same roof.
00:26:28 Speaker 2 And commiserate about their day, or share their their day-to-day activities.
They were now in different households. So our families were torn apart, so there were loads of
family members. I don't know. Did not know growing up. And the irony to that is I always
longed for large family, large family gatherings and did not have that. Basically, I didn't have
that except for one side of the family, but with this side close to me 20 miles away, I didn't have
that.
00:27:14 Speaker 1 Thank you for that. So you you've talked about eminent domain. And its
impact. But how was your family notified about eminent domain and that the property?
Would be seized.
00:27:32 Speaker 2 So they were. They were given a. A kind offer. There were discussions. It
was. Was a land very large Land Management company. Chubby chase lamb.
Chevy Chase and Land Chevy Chase title Chevy Chase land company. Very big organization.
Families were given the opportunity. They were, you know, had a conversation with the family
members and give an opportunity to sell their land so that they could develop the area.
Well, there was a lot of pushback, no doubt, and certainly pushback from from my family.
They didn't want to sell. They were situated. They'd been there for years, years and years. But it
was but. But but they made it very difficult. They made it very difficult, they were ostracized.
Badgered into to selling.
00:28:51 Speaker 2 And as I said, as I mentioned earlier, my family sort of buckled under once
all of their friends had left. It just became too uncomfortable, too unbearable. And they no longer
had their community, the community was gone. But it began with with dialogue with the Chevy
Chase Land Company. And I need to verify that name. You may want to put in on that. Need to
earmark that.
00:29:22 Speaker 1 I'm going to transcribe it.
00:29:23 Speaker 1 So we'll it'll be marked. Each time do they give you guys, do you know is?
There a name.
00:29:32 Speaker 2 I mean once the deal was set. Almost immediately because remember, my
family was the last holdout. And so they were. They had, in fact, they'd already begun the
digging they'd already begun. So it was immediate. So they gathered their belongings and left.
183
00:29:58 Speaker 1 And this is 1920.
00:30:08 Speaker 2 1931
00:30:13 Speaker 1 And you mentioned broad branch and then you mentioned Irving.
So the broad.
00:30:19 Speaker 1 Branch eminent domain is what we're talking about now, which occurred in
1931. And this property had been in your family since the 1800s. OK. And then you say your
father.
00:30:29 Speaker 2 Right.
00:30:33 Speaker 1 You guys moved to Irving Street or your family moved to Irving Street?
And the same thing occurred during when they wanted the land, they were ready. OK.
Do you know? And and and do you know the date? 1950 I believe you said right.
00:30:48 Speaker 2 Right 1950s.
00:30:50 Speaker 1 And then do you know how they were notified?
00:30:53 Speaker 2 They were notified via mail.
Certified obviously that they they needed to obtain the land to build a school.
And now I'm not sure how long they were given more of advance notice there to vacate.
And knowing what they knew they got right on it. And the irony is they moved, right?
00:31:18 Speaker 2 Around the corner. But it was a move nonetheless, yeah.
00:31:25 Speaker 1 OK. And so how do you define just just compensation, so we know with
eminent domain you know? There's two criteria. Just compensation, which are fair compensation
and then you know. It has to be for public good. How do you define just compensation?
00:31:56 Speaker 2 In a word. In words, in a sentence giving the land back.
00:32:04 Speaker 1 Now if they have to, if they're giving you compensation for the land, right
you mentioned in broad branch, they promised compensation for the land, right? So it's
supposedly fair compensation. So how would you determine or how would you define what fair
compensation?
184
00:32:31 Speaker 2 You know, I I. To start, they were originally offered 12,000 for the house
and. Land. They were only given $7,000. Land values at that time were well over 20,000 and and
beyond. Now there were. The White counterparts but in the same area nonetheless.
Would it be? Would it be fitting? To ask for fair compensation in today's. You know, price
market. I don't know. But the only way that I could see. It being just is to give the land back.
I know I stick to that, but. You know that's that's. That, to me would be fair.
00:33:36 Speaker 1 So if I'm hearing you correctly. You're saying that broad branch. They
promised you a certain amount of money. $12,000, which was less than. Fair market value.
But they still, when they gave when you guys moved, then they gave you less than what they had
initially offered.
00:34:07 Speaker 2 Right. So do they, you know, should they be required to to, to compensate?
The point is kind of moot now. Because they're all gone. You know the harm has been done.
Could could I say it just compensation would be the fair market value of of the land now.
Not sure I could ask for. That, but then what? We're still lost without our generational wealth.
I have no land to give my children or their children.
And to me, that's what's unfair, because that's how we began. We were generational. We didn't
abandon our families, we stayed together.
We stayed close. That was the intent. And they they broke all of that up.
00:35:13 Speaker 1 OK. OK, so how did you and your family deal with the situation after you
experienced displacement? And again, you talked at length about this and the 1st, I believe it was
the first question that we we talked about. But again you can you can expand here if you'd like.
00:35:35 Speaker 1 And again, the question is, how did you and your family deal with the
situation after you experienced displacement?
00:35:46 Speaker 2 Like the generations before them, they just. Gone on with it.
What does that mean? Ohh, they worked, they toiled, they laughed. Well, let let me back that up.
If they cried it. Was in private. But they just they just got on the best way. They knew how.
They got different jobs. Was not easy, but they got different jobs. And just got on with it.
We were very. It's not without its faults, though.
00:36:33 Speaker 2 I think that there was lasting psychological effects. My grandmother had
anxiety. I believe my father did, although he did not talk about it. Occasionally he would. Mask
it with alcohol. Yeah, I think psychologically it had great impact. I know my grandmother's
brothers. Two in particular. Never wanted to leave the house.
You know, they were afraid to venture out for fear of losing, so they were quite the opposite and
stayed and never, never moved. So they would psychologically it it had great impact.
185
00:37:31 Speaker 1 Thank you for that. The next question you talked about psychologically, let's
talk about question number six, which talks about or asked how has eminent domain impacted
you financially? And when I say you, that's you and your.
00:37:52 Speaker 2 Family. Understood. Understood. So. There was no generational wealth
really, we didn't have. We didn't have anything to give to our our children. Nothing to build
upon. That land now is worth millions. Millions, you know. And not to mention the land in in
Arlington. You know that's priceless. This is stork.
00:38:32 Speaker 1 Can I pause you for one second? You in Arlington twice.
Are you referring to East Arlington? The East Arlington neighborhood?
00:38:41 Speaker 2 Do you know where Arlington National Cemetery is?
And the Arlington house. Robert E Lee Memorial.
00:38:48 Speaker 1 OK. All right.
00:38:50 Speaker 2 So my family was enslaved there under George Washington Park, Custis and
Robert E Lee.
00:38:58 Speaker 2 And and George Washington Park Custis gave my family property to live on
before the Civil War. And so that's the property of which. I speak right there. There was also free
town free Freemans village was there. Which is now part of gum springs, I believe, yeah.
00:39:24 Speaker 1 OK, let me make sure I understand this. So your family lived in Arlington?
Then they moved to Broad Branch branch. Is it broad branch and then they moved to.
00:39:41 Speaker 2 Arlington and then to broad branch.
00:39:44 Speaker 1 So they were moved from Arlington. OK, so let's count this in Arlington was
what year?
00:39:55 Speaker 2 That was before the Civil War. Nineteen. Well, they had lived there prior to
the Civil War. Once the Civil War ended, they left so 19 1865 1866, thereabouts.
00:40:12 Speaker 1 And then, OK, so they had to move and then? They end up in Broad Branch
and settle there in 1865.
00:40:21 Speaker 2 A little little time after that, I think there was a stop, but I'm I've not been
able to determine where they went. They were lost.
186
00:40:28 Speaker 1 OK, that's that's fine. OK, 1865. And that's powerful what you just said. OK
and then. Eminent domain, Arlington eminent domain and Broad Branch eminent domain in
Irving. Now I just want to make sure.
00:40:53 Speaker 1 18 about 1865 Arlington, about 1860 and we'll say 1860 late and then in
1950s over in Arlington, excuse me, Irving.
00:41:13 Speaker 2 Right, Irving. But don't forget the 1931 broad branch. So you have
Arlington. Right Arlington, VA. To Irving street.
And then 1931, I mean, excuse me and I'm saying it myself. Yeah. Right. So from 1931, from
Broad Branch to Irving Street and then?
00:41:39 Speaker 1 So gotcha 1931, they moved to Irving, right. And then in 1950 they moved.
00:41:48 Speaker 2 From Irving to 13th Street, right? Right.
00:41:54 Speaker 1 And OK, OK. And do you know what happened after they moved from
Irving? They moved from Irving to what street?
00:42:02 Speaker 2 13th St. NW right around.
00:42:03 Speaker 1 13th and do you know what happened after that?
00:42:06 Speaker 2 That's where they stayed and died.
00:42:09 Speaker 1 And they own that property.
00:42:10 Speaker 2 Let me yeah. So my great, my great grandmother lived in 13th St.
and until her demise. And so she and her husband, Richard Shorter, stayed there.
And in fact, that house is still in the family. My cousin now now resides there where he has
resided. He he grew up there, so he resided there.
00:42:31 Speaker 1 And she passed in.
00:42:33 Speaker 2 My grandmother. Is she on 2010?
00:42:37
OK.
00:42:38
Was it 20?
187
00:42:39 Speaker 1 I just wanted to make sure because what you're saying it it's linear and you
know you're recalling this, right? But I'm like, wait, we gotta map this out because. And so I'm
sorry. Thank you so much for allowing me to kind of pause there and just to yeah, maybe.
OK.
00:42:59 Speaker 2 It's a lot. It's a lot, you know. You figure you're. You're putting together a
group of peoples lives. You know it's. It and it that right there that I've just captured took my
brother and I years, years to find them. Just you know and and and I'm. I'm grateful because my
grandmother was a great orator. Passed along oral history as much as she was comfortable in
sharing. But I'm grateful because without that.
00:43:41 Speaker 2 Terri, I don't know that I would have had this much success in finding. I
mean, there's still big pockets, like I said, from the time they left Arlington, I'm not sure where
they went because nothing's documented. I don't know where they went.
I just have no, I don't know where there's there's a family under Guy Henry. That was Laura's
father. I know not. I don't know where they came from. I don't know where they went afterwards.
Yeah, and for some, I don't even know where they're buried. But I digress.
There's so much more. OK.
00:44:29 Speaker 1 Now I'm going to ask this question again. Well, not again, but it you've
answered it in your other responses, but this is question number 7 and it says how has eminent
domain impacted your families, generational wealth. So now we talked about how it's impacted.
You and your family financially. How is it? Impacted your family's generational wealth?
00:45:01 Speaker 2 Yeah, it's nonexistent.
00:45:07 Speaker 2 When my father died. He didn't have. Anything but what he was able to gain
in the last years of his life. Same with my grandmother. She'd had nothing to really of any any
great great value. To pass on to my father when she died. And so on and so forth.
It's almost like they were never able to catch up. You know what I mean? Had to start all over
later in life with everything. And make do really they just may do. My third cousins that I
mentioned earlier. Julie and Robert Sumner. They are the great grandchildren of my of my great
grandmother sister.
00:46:17 Speaker 2 When they left, they didn't stare quite as well, and the story breaks my heart.
They had to they with they moved.
00:46:28 Speaker 2 Into a very poor section of Washington, DC. In a house that already had
many families in it and they were able to share one room, so they did not fare nearly as well.
188
And so much ensued because of that. But that's my family. And those are the families that I
didn't know. And because of that, we lost that connect connectivity.00:47:02 Speaker 2
So generational wealth is not always about money too.
It's also about family ties that we lost. That's that's the biggest part to me. And I can always. I can
always go out there, find a job.
00:47:17 Speaker 2 And you know, I can always do that. My father, very resourceful.
But it's the family that we lost. That's the connectivity is huge.
00:47:34 Speaker 1 OK, you know it is and and you talked about this, you really just mentioned
that it's interesting how your.
00:47:44 Speaker 1 Your responses are kind of like leading into the next question, which is
excellent. So question #8, how has eminent domain impacted your personal life?
00:47:56 Speaker 2 I I I can't emphasize enough the loss of family connections is immense.
And it sort of left us out there to. Sort of fend for ourselves because. Every, every group, every.
Nationality at some point had a group. You know the indigenous peoples, they had a group,
Africans. They had a group. You know the clans in in Scotland. Everybody had a group, but
when? When Africans were brought over and enslaved, we lost that. We lost all of that and it
continued systematically for a reason. And when they pulled us apart from our homes, it was just
a continuation of that. Because then you know we we didn't have the means to say. Ohh let's go
get a big house and you know and pay the market value when what we got was below market
value as you can see.
00:49:18 Speaker 2 And and keep us all together. So all of that was was was lost. Yeah, because
we can't. We many of us, I'll say many of us. Relay back our family lineage.
Like the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, the Kennedys, the you know, those who can go back,
generation generation, generation, generation.
00:49:56 Speaker 2 Yeah, it it's it's it's.
00:50:00 Speaker 2
There have been some families who've been able to maintain that close contact. Yeah, but many
of us haven't. And and unfortunately. You know my half my dad's side of the family is is victim
to it. We're victims of that.
00:50:21 Speaker 1 Has your community. This is question #9. Has your community done
something to protest eminent domain? And if so, what have what has been done?
189
00:50:34 Speaker 2 So we're we're quietly working. I happen to be involved not only with the
Black Branch, but also with the league of descendants at Mount Vernon.
As well as conducting ethno history studies at Arlington.
00:50:55 Speaker 2 With those initiatives were quietly working to.
Give one or two one.
00:51:05 Speaker 2
To make sure that they are not our ancestors are not forgotten. To create change.
00:51:15 Speaker 2 To implement educational programs and curriculum in schools for school
aged children. And and in so doing. Give voice to those who didn't have a voice back then.
So it's it's a, it's quiet protesting. I don't know if I should call it protesting, but. Yeah, maybe in a
way it is.
00:51:43 Speaker 1 You could you so resistance.
00:51:46 Speaker 2 Sure, absolutely. Resistance and education.
00:52:03 Speaker 1 OK, great. Alright. So thank you for your response to the question #9. And
we have three more to go. So thank you so much for hanging in there with me and.
00:52:12 Speaker 2 My pleasure. My pleasure.
00:52:13 Speaker 1 Yes, such a rich dialogue here.
00:52:18 Speaker 1 Do you know anyone else? And this is question 10, do you know anyone else
in your ethnic group has been affected by eminent domain?
00:52:26 Speaker 1 And I know you mentioned your family, but do you know anyone else?
00:52:31 Speaker 2 I'm trying to think if I know of. The only people that I know right now are
are my family and obviously those with whom I associate with a black broad branch.
Obviously they're victims of eminent domain and the sad part when I think about this and as
you're just asking me this question.
Oh, I probably do, but they probably don't know, you know, because.
00:53:03 Speaker 2 Or maybe they do know and just didn't. Don't talk about it. You know it.
It wasn't a conversation at our dinner table. You see, when we got together with my grandmother
and great grandmother, for instance, we didn't talk about eminent domain. We that wasn't a topic
of conversation. And I'm sure many other households that suffered this same. Didn't sit around
and talk about it either. We just and I mentioned this earlier. We just got on with it.
190
00:53:36 Speaker 1 Right, and probably didn't even use the terminology eminent domain.
00:53:41 Speaker 1 Just know that you were being moved or displaced.
00:53:50 Speaker 1 So let's talk a little bit about eminent domain policy. So you kind of
understand what that is. It's eminent domain policy. To be revised. What do you want to see
changed or who should be the key person to speak for those key concerns?
00:54:11 Speaker 2 Let me understand your question.
00:54:13 Speaker 1 Yes, let me re ask. OK, because there's actually two or three questions in 1.
So it's eminent domain policy where we were to be revised. What would you like to see
changed?
00:54:29 Speaker 2 The force used the force used to to achieve eminent domain, the
underhanded politics that go on with with eminent domain and not only that, the targeted areas as
you know has historically been.
00:54:32 Speaker 1 What was that again?
00:54:50 Speaker 2 African American communities.
00:54:52 Speaker 2 You know, you'd mentioned at the onset about the highways and byways.
Ohh, his name escapes me now, but there was a a man that was really behind a lot of the creation
of the highways and byways and where they were placed. Ohh, his name escapes me.
Remind me to tell you I'll. I'll look it up.
00:55:14 Speaker 1 I yeah, I'm. I'm familiar also, but I'm trying to think.
00:55:19 Speaker 2 But but but my my point being is. There needs to be thought of, you know.
What constitutes necessity? And and where that necessity occurs. There has to be more.
I'd like to see it obliterated myself, but you know, progress for the people. I don't think anybody
should be displaced. That reminds me, and I'll just this is just an aside, but there was a lady in
Baltimore who did not want to lose her home. It was her husband's. Her late husband's crowning
achievement, to be able to afford this, this row home.
00:56:17 Speaker 2 And but University of Maryland hospital system needed the land they were
expanding. Across the street from where they were. And she was steadfast.
And the good news and the upside to this, if you could call it that, if she did not lose her house.
But if you look. The University of Maryland is this is her house was built all the way around it
like this. And there is her little patch of land. And she's standing singularly.
191
00:56:51 Speaker 2 But she's there. She did not lose the house.
00:56:55 Speaker 1 Do you know her name?
00:56:58 Speaker 2 I could look it up. I'll look it up for you and send it to you. Her name is
escape. I know all these stories, but names. Never good with but. I'll look that up in the.
00:57:13 Speaker 1 Yes, let's see. So we're at the last question. So this last question is an
opportunity for you to provide any additional information on your thoughts and feelings.
On eminent domain.
00:57:40 Speaker 2 My thoughts and feelings are. Very heartfelt when I say. I have nothing but
negative viewpoints as it pertains to eminent domain. It has historically and systematically
annihilated. Our African American communities. We have been the target of eminent domain.
For years, hundreds of years. And once not only eminent domain, but redlining steering.
Yeah, I I think that. That has impacted our current society as as we know it.
So I don't have very good things to say about him and domain, Needless to say, it hurt my
family. And as I mentioned. Listening to my grandmother cry for her home.
My dad trying to make a last grab at memories. Yeah, that's so I can honestly say that I.
Also greatly impacted by eminent domain.
00:59:07 Speaker 2 Indirectly through them. And it carries through me. Hopefully, it will not
carry through my my children, but I'm sure it has. I'm sure it has.
00:59:21 Speaker 1 Well thank you so much. I really appreciate your story of survival and
eminent domain and its financial impact and cultural impact on not just. You but your generate
your family through the generations. Your story is very powerful and it is.
One that will help me move forward in my dissertation as I continue to research and create a a
body of work that examines eminent domain and discriminatory housing policies and its impact
financial impact on. African American generational wealth.
So I want to thank you so much for your time and at this point, I'm going to stop recording.
192
Transcription Participant 5 S.G.
Community Chevy Chase Broad Branch
Via: Zoom
00:03:30 Speaker 1 Thank you so much for taking time out to speak with me. As you know,
we're going to ask about 12 questions. About your experience living in Emory Grove. But before
we start, I have to read the consent preamble. You have been asked to participate in this
interview via Zoom, a similar video platform, or phone interview as part of a research project
being conducted by Dr. Wei Sun in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media
Studies at Howard University. My name is Terri Davis, a Ph.D. student assisting Dr. Sun on this
study. The study is designed to increase our understanding of the impact of eminent domain you
or a direct legal heir experienced and to get your personal reflection on the financial impact of
being displaced. The interview will take approximately 30-45 minutes.
Your responses are entirely voluntary, and you may refuse to respond to questions we ask, as
well as to stop participating at any time, without jeopardizing your relationship with Howard
University. The interview/oral history is confidential and none of the information you share were
identified with you in any published reports.... Your answers were aggregated with those of
others we interview in our study. Data from this study were stored on a password protected
computer in the Principal Investigator’s office, accessible only by the investigators and Howard
University Institutional Review Board (IRB). Although there are no personal benefits associated
with participating in this study, your responses will assist in expanding our understanding of the
impact eminent domain had on you and your community.
The risks associated with your participation are minimal, no more than you would experience in
your daily life when talking about something you care about. However, should you experience
any discomfort associated with the subject matter during the interview, you may stop responding
to the interview, or request a referral to a mental health professional through one of the online
referral sources we can make, such as FindaPsychologist.org. By participating in the study, you
agree that you are at least 18 years of age and self-identify as Black or African American and a
descendant of formerly enslaved Africans. You also agree to be audio recorded for purposes of
accuracy. If you have any questions before we begin, please contact Dr. Wei Sun at
Wei.Sun@Howard.edu. If you have any concerns about the study, you can contact the Howard
University IRB at theorrc@howard.edu or call 202- 865-8597.
And with that, if you don't have any questions. We will move.
OK. Any questions OK. So the very first few questions are really just demographic and
demographic information.
193
00:03:45 Speaker 1 And so although I know some, I'm still going to ask just for formality, OK,
can you state your gender, please? And your age. And your educational level?
00:04:00 Speaker 2
Two years college.
00:04:01 Speaker 1 OK. And your employment? And what field were you in?
The newer OK, great. And then are you a homeowner? OK. So the first question, can you tell
me? Your family story about being displaced because of eminent domain.
00:04:33 Speaker 2 My my grandmother. Well, my grand. My, my grandmother's father owned a
shoe store in Chevy Chase. But before that. I don't know anything. About George Pointer all the
other the one I read out of the book. My grandfather was a sharecropper in Virginia.
They married has eleven children. My grandmother never worked his job, but my grandfather
always worked. His two kids family. But we always lived in poverty. We always struggled.
Because my grandmother was very well, she would want a she wasn't very educated.
My grandfather wasn't either, so that none of the none of the kids finished school. Nobody's in in
school and my my grandmothers kids not. I'm in school. So they married men and men.
Brett, you know, just live, had a hard life. You just had a very hard life. The women here are 7
girls and four boys and. They did the best they could, but because of.
All these kids and no way to sleep and you know, it was just hard. It was had a. Very hard life
and moved around moved.
00:05:44 Speaker 1 What year is this?
00:05:46 Speaker 2 This was when this was in the 50s. I remember in. I yeah, that was born.
I was, yeah, in the 50s. When I really noticed how how life was. How hard it was. And you
know. We lived over there near Howard University is now, but it wasn't how university, but a
football stadium at the time. And I remember outside toilets. And things like. That so that was in
the 50s.
00:06:12 Speaker 1 So can we travel back before the 50s? Probably talk a little bit about the land
and Chevy Chase.
00:06:22 Speaker 2 Well, the that interpretation I wasn't born then, you know, we like that was
during the George Corners that were doing the George Porter time.
00:06:24 Speaker 1 Right.
00:06:29 Speaker 2 But I wasn't born then. My grandma wasn't born then. I mean, she was one of
the grand. She was one of the grandchildren. That's that family.
194
But I wasn't born then, so I wouldn't really care about that.
00:06:38 Speaker 1 Right.
00:06:38 Speaker 2 I read about. In his not in the. My grandmother and grandfather that talked to
us about what happened in those days, we were only in a survival mode. We only had to survive,
so that was in our in our, in our everyday talk conversation. So I knew I knew nothing about that
land. All have been my grandfather. My great grandfather had a shoe. Other than that, I don't
know I. Didn't know anything about that, but I read after they wrote the book I read his the book.
Of George Corner and I. Learned from there from that point. And he owned the land and he had
a. Farm on the. Land and his child, his wife and children. What the farm? And when with with a
nice little with a nice neighborhood with a very nice neighborhood with. And farmland and you
know, right profit that they they made their the money through farming they ate through farming.
00:07:41 Speaker 2 So when the Europeans came they wanted the land. They they they had a
they they had, they had a fight basically had an argument about it. And they just took the lantic I
think they gave them $600.00 some $600.00, and that's not the farm was gone. There was
nothing else left there that mean they had, so they had. They built a community there had
nothing. Else left there. So once that happened, all the family were dispersed throughout these
seats. We went all over the place. DC, Maryland, wherever they could get a place to live.
That's where they live and they live in dire poverty because they were, they were uneducated,
they had children, they had no more farmland, they had no.
00:08:22 Speaker 2 So they had to start far. The best way they could. Speaker 2 So they had to
get menial jobs and we stayed in poverty up until two generation. We stayed in poverty because
they were education. Level was very, very skirmish. That's all I know about the spark instance.
00:08:37 Speaker 1
Can you do you know what year that was?
00:08:44 Speaker 2 No, I I it's in the book. I couldn't tell you. OK. In this in the book.
But I can't tell.
00:08:50 Speaker 1
So you are a descendant of George Pointer.
00:08:53 Speaker 2 I'm just kidding. Of George of George Corner.
Yes, my brother.
00:08:56 Speaker 1 Right.
195
00:08:57 Speaker 2 My grandmother is the ascendant.
Well, my grandmother's side, not my grandfather. My grandmother's side.
00:09:05 Speaker 1 Right, you're. But you're still a descendant of, and when he obtained this land
in Chevy Chase, which we know is a multi $1,000,000 neighborhood now. There was a thriving
community that they built, took the whole community.
00:09:27 Speaker 2 All black, yes.
00:09:29 Speaker 1 And then they came in. They wanted the land.
00:09:34 Speaker 2 And they tore all they. They tore the all the buildings down and and built
their. They built their schools and their. Homes and this took it. And and at that time.
No blacks were allowed up there, couldn't go back up there again.
00:09:48 Speaker 1 After they moved you off the land. And when I say you, I mean like your
family, George Portland, OK. And so the second question, it says, what happened to your family
after being displaced? What challenges have your family has your family experienced since the
displacement? And you actually talked a lot about that? And I know that at this point that you're
sharing with me because you're actually experiencing the ripple effect of the land.
00:10:19 Speaker 2 Yes, yes we are.
00:10:21 Speaker 1 So you were not there, but you can feel the effects of it. So if you could share
anything.
00:10:30 Speaker 1 If you know anything about what happened to your family and you
mentioned it earlier, you said they were dispersed.
00:10:36 Speaker 2 Yes, we're all dispersed. My, my grandmother, we were her husband. We're
her 11 till. Well, we didn't have that at that time. I mean, I mean, some of the relatives we never
met because they moved away to New York.
00:10:51 Speaker 2 Some they get, they they move wherever they could find a place to stay.
00:10:55 Speaker 2 So we had. Relatives in Annapolis have relatives in new. York have relatives
in Philadelphia relatives. All over the place. And we so we have never met.
But because of the lack of education, because when we were the land, the money was gone.
196
My my grandmother's sons. My uncles, they all became and she has. They all became drug
addicts and and and drunks. I mean, they're all dead. I mean, they died at a young age because of
because of poverty.
00:11:30 Speaker 2 It it's it's been hard. It's been really, really, really, really hard.
00:11:36 Speaker 1 Do you know how your family was notified about eminent domain that that,
that their property would be seized? Have you learned anything about that whole transaction and
what took place?
00:11:50 Speaker 2 No, I don't know anything about that.
00:11:55 Speaker 1 So knowing that you know they were. And through eminent domain and we
talked about just compensation, in other words, fair compensation, how would you define fair
compensation?
00:12:16 Speaker 2 Yeah, at that time at that time or at right now.
00:12:20 Speaker 1 Yeah, at that time at that time.
00:12:27 Speaker 2 I would find that if you want to move me from one place to another.
Have some place for me to go build me another house put. What I had.
On that land, put it on the other land is it is this farm land make the make another give a land for
another farm. Give it equal what you take. Same thing you took from us. Plus money to move,
plus compensation. Well, well economical conversation conversation. But to move us out and to
have nowhere to go. I mean, it was just crazy. It was just crazy.
00:13:05 Speaker 1 Would you happen to know? Like, what? How much compensation they
offered? I think you said $600.
00:13:11 Speaker 2 You would between 2 and 600 Dollars. It wasn't very much between 2 and
600 I I remember. In the book, it was between 2 and $200 or $600.
00:13:23 Speaker 1OK. And so the question #5 and so your your situation is unique because
we're going so many generations back. And the beautiful thing about your story is that. As I
mentioned before, you're feeling the rippling effects right?
00:13:46 Speaker 1 Because I know George Pointer his property was what back in the 17th.
century it was.
00:13:52 Speaker 2 18th thank you.
197
00:13:52 Speaker 1 18188 yeah. What was the year, do you know?
00:13:56 Speaker 2 18 something I I don't remember.
00:13:58 Speaker 1 Yeah, no worries.
00:14:02 Speaker 1 But we can see the trajectory, the impact from one generation. We're talking
about the early 19th century, right. And so here we are in 21st century and here is a perfect
example of how you guys have been impacted generation by generation. OK.
00:14:28 Speaker 1 So I'm gonna go to number six. I feel like you've answered this question, but
I'm going to say it again and you this will give you an opportunity to talk a little bit more about
it.But how is eminent domain impacted you financially?
00:14:44 Speaker 2 It it took everything from us. You, you, you love us. And our poverty, and I
mean, I mean our poverty. My grandfather was able to get a place for us to stay, but we all
crammed in there together. We all had to cram in there together. We couldn't live, they couldn't
live the way they used to live. They didn't have the efficient efficiency as far as food's concerned
and.
00:15:10 Speaker 2 I mean school without. And how they nobody would come there.
My grandmother left school in 6th grade, you know. I mean, it was it was. It was hard it. Was
extremely hard.
00:15:20 Speaker 1 What year was your do you know the year you said your grandmother left
school in 6th grade, do you? Know what year that was?
00:15:28 Speaker 2 I don't remember any.
00:15:29 Speaker 1 I'll circle back cause I'm going to go through the transcript and I'll any
questions, I'll just come back to you.
00:15:40 Speaker 1 So here's one that we've talked about continually generational wealth. You
want to talk a little bit more about how eminent domain has impacted generational wealth. For
your family.
00:16:00 Speaker 2 You know, I'll tell you something. This is my my it's hard for. Me to think
about myself and my family. Because I'm not, I'm the kind of person that. Thinks about all of us.
It's just not me. It's black people. It's black African Americans.
198
00:16:20 Speaker 2 That were that, that, that. People were enslaved here. We all suffered
generational wealth. We all suffered. It is not just my family, it's all of us and we're still suffering
today, even those that have made it or there's we're still suffering because we had that that
trauma is still with us. When we go out in the street and see what the White Europeans are doing
to our people, you're still suffering because when they, when I hear about a person getting shot.
For no reason healing for no reason is still paying me so that in itself. If we had money. We can
fight it, but most of us don't. We don't have money, so we. Or just thrown in jail or killed.
00:17:14 Speaker 2 So generational wealth affects us up until today, but it's not just me, it's all of
us. I think about. All of us. Not just me because I'm, I'm 75. I'm not going to be here much
longer, but look at what we're leaving behind. I'm not what? I'm leaving behind my family.
And all the kids that's growing up now in this hell of a world. It's it's, it's it's too much for me.
Just too much. I want justice. I want justice.
00:17:58 Speaker 1 OK. Thank you for that. And then you talked about generational wealth and
then can we move into your personal life? I know you said that you don't really think about it for
yourself, but for everyone. I know when we first started the interview, you did talk a little bit
about eminent domain. And how it impacts your personal life when I talk about eminent domain.
You know the displacement that impacted the family that all that ultimately trickled down to
your personal life. And you share a little bit more because your your answers are so profound
that you're really hitting all the questions before I even get to.
00:18:48 Speaker 2 What's the question again?
00:18:53 Speaker 1 You talked about generational wealth, but how has eminent domain impacted
your personal life? I know you talked about not thinking about yourself, but everyone, but can
you share? Your personal, isn't it?
00:19:06 Speaker 2 Yeah, not personalized. It has caused. My it has caused you. See, I don't
have a personal life. It has caused my family with my grandmothers, 11 children to be totally
oblivious. To what's going on around them. Because we're not a close family. Because we
struggled so hard, we we we had to, we struggled and had to be in survival mode all the time. We
never had a chance to become close and loving. I don't know. It's like. Well, right now, everyone
owns their own home right now. Their small home. And they're all secluded in their own home.
But nobody's close. You you. Know what I'm saying all the sisters because they were surprising,
just surprising they never had chance to relax and have fun. Bring the family together.
So we're we're a very dispersed family. And that's what that has happened.
199
00:20:25 Speaker 2 That's what has happened to us. We're not close. And I wish that I wish that
was different, but it's not, you know. Like and like I said, it's just not about me. It's about all of
us. It's I I can't. I can never put something just about me. I'm not that kind of person.
It's just not about me. It's about all of us. We all have that have been impacted by this. Not only
my family, but so many other families. I can't put it those. All I want is justice.
I want to see justice. I pray before I die. I see some justice on. And right now.
00:21:05 Speaker 1 What does justice look like for you?
00:21:09 Speaker 2 I can't say that online. I'll tell you, I really can't say that online. Because it
would be. I'll get in trouble. But you can imagine what dress would be for me.
00:21:24 Speaker 1 All right, so now I I know the answer to this. We could talk a little bit more
about it, but has your community done something to protest eminent domain? If so, what have
what has been done? And what did your community look like prior to eminent domain? You
don't need to. That one has your community done something to protest eminent domain, and if
so, what has been done?
00:21:47 Speaker 2 Community meeting, community meetings. Family or what?
What do you what? There's no community. What community are you talking about?
You
00:21:54 Speaker 1 Well, the Chevy Chase community, you could actually talk a little bit about
Chevy Chase, the group that you guys have now. You know you guys are. You know, you're
speaking out about it, you form it.
00:22:07 Speaker 2 They're what they're doing now. You know, is trying to they they built, they
built the the DC government been built a museum on the on the property on the at at the park.
For those that come to the park to see George Porter or his his life history, whatever. And build
up her billboard for Joyce Warner. So people can see. Not only it's not only Lafayette now, it's
Lafayette George Porter Park, which is don't make any sense to me. So what the Europeans are
trying to do now? Is broadcast to the pub, to the Chevy Chase area community. The park you
originally belong to? And that's about all that's. That's all I can hear them saying. And they've
received a grant. They no, they they got some money to do something small for this webinar
thing. We're looking for what we're looking for is the mayor. To to give reparations for the land
that was stolen from us. Or or, and Chevy Chase to put some money in there also.But I don't
know that's not going to happen.
00:23:36 Speaker 1 Well, no, no, no. We're going to be positive. So we're we're going to be
positive. So let's let's move on to. Do you know anyone else who has been affected by eminent
domain?
200
00:23:51 Speaker 2 She was next to us. She's with us also. She talked to her already.
She now she has all she has a large history. But she, her grandmother kept notes and pictures and
also her family is very close to it. And her grandmother talked to her about all that has gone
down and. They were all educated also, so their plight was not as bad as our plight.
We were seriously disperse all over the place, but they were able to keep.
Their family together, a certain kind of way, so she has a she has a paper and oral history of what
happened to her. So she has joined and she had joined, joined us. So she's nice. Nice person too.
00:24:31 Speaker 1 I spoke with her. OK, so let's talk about the eminent domain. We only have
two more questions. We're almost done. If eminent domain policy were to were to be revised,
what would you like to see change?
00:24:49 Speaker 2 You really want to help me tell you that? All the land that had been stolen
from black people getting black to back to black people and move the Europeans off the land,
that's what I want to see all. Housing all the land, all the property that were stolen from White,
black people to they should pack their bags and move out.
00:25:13 Speaker 1 OK. The last question is an opportunity for you to provide any additional
information on your thoughts and feelings on eminent domain. And so you can expand on what
you were just talking about at this point or if there's something else. Well, I'm gonna tell you
something right now. The way I'm feeling, I better not say how I'm feeling.
00:25:38 Speaker 1 Well, let let me let me tell you this I don't know if you remember in the
preamble. This is all anonymous, so you were known in my study as participant 5.
00:25:44 Speaker 2 I understand, I understand, but. I don't have a computer, right?
I'm on my phone. Right? And I know. This is going. To the clouds. You know and.
I don't want to be targeted. I got you. But I'll tell you one thing. Well, I'm not going to say that
either, so. I can't. I can't. Say no more than I've already said because. I will mark.
00:26:14 Speaker 1 That down, as you were very apprehensive about opening up about your true
feelings for fear of OK. You were that concerned. And your feelings are that strong. That got
you.
00:26:34 Speaker 1 OK. And that's fair.
00:26:38 Speaker 2 You know, you know, you know. You remember that remember a.
Couple years ago when that. Those these, these actresses and actors and giving, paying, paying
for their kids into into. What do you call? It getting them in school.
201
Their kids couldn't make past tests, so they paid money to get them in school.
Remember that all that. Is is in my head. All those things are there. How they, how we being
mistreated. I want justice how our kids couldn't go to the university. Any universe they want to
go to, they had to pay. They had to be the smartest. But these dumb fools can go to school with.
With money just money. So where's our money? Let our let our kids go to school.
The money, you know. So all that's there, everything that, everything that has happened to me
and to us. Is in my, is in my soul. I cry out every day for justice. Is in my soul. So I don't cry just
for me. All of us. All of us, and I pray, I pray for justice. That's all I that's all I pray for justice.
I want justice.
00:27:56 Speaker 2 And I tell you one thing, if there's a race war and I know it's coming, a race
war definitely coming. We got God on our side. Look at the Mexican how the the Mexicans
coming in here the the. What? What are they? Doing pushing us down further further. They're
doing it on purpose. They're doing on purpose every single time we strive a little bit to get on our
feet. They knock us down more. So now they got the, the, the, the, the, the Hispanics coming in
here. Thousands like Spanish coming in here and we still not getting anything.
00:28:38 Speaker 2 They're getting Social Security money now. Social Security checks. They
they they haven't lived here. Social Security there. We got people on the street, black on the
street that these, these people getting housing. All of this is in my head. I want justice.
00:28:59 Speaker 1 Does it take you? I'm a communication scholar. So there's a segment in the
National Communication Association that looks at communication activism. And it's really
providing a platform to amplify social ills and to bring about. Change so I'm not just researching,
I'm not just writing. I'm not just presenting my I would like to see change. And what does that
look like? Well, that's something that we're going to have to. Strategically put a plan together.
00:29:45 Speaker 1 And again, it's not just here in DC. Is throughout the US. I mean, I could
cite cases upon cases upon cases. It's it it. It's clear all of the ills you're talking about, you know
healthcare, you talk about, you know, it's all related to the design. Keeping you know, African
Americans, at a certain point. So I get it. And this is something I'm very passionate about.
00:30:32 Speaker 2 OK.
202
REFERENCES
A Lesson on Critical Race Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2022, from
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/civil-
rights-reimagining-policing/a-lesson-on-critical-race-theory/
About. (n.d.). Historic Chevy Chase DC. Retrieved April 11, 2023, from
https://www.historicchevychasedc.org/about/
Acharya, A., Prakash, A., Saxena, P., & Nigam, A. (2013). Sampling: Why and How of it? Anita S
Acharya, Anupam Prakash, Pikee Saxena, Aruna Nigam. Indian Journal of Medical Specialties.
https://doi.org/10.7713/ijms.2013.0032
Admin, M. (2019, October 11). One Million Black Families in the South Have Lost Their Farms Over
The Past Century. Equal Justice Initiative. https://eji.org/news/one-million-black-families-have-
lost-their-farms/
Aliprantis, D., & Carroll, D. R. (2019). What Is Behind the Persistence of the Racial Wealth Gap?
Economic Commentary, 2019–03. https://doi.org/10.26509/frbc-ec-201903
Almeida, L.-B. (2021, August 6). A History of Racist Federal Housing Policies. Mass. Budget and
Policy Center. https://massbudget.org/2021/08/06/a-history-of-racist-federal-housing-policies/
Alshinqeeti, H. (2014). Interviewing as a data collection method: A Critical review English Linguistic
Research. 3 (1), 39-45
Baker, D. M., Lopez, E., & Greenlee, A. J. (2021). Transit development and housing displacement:
The case of the Chicago Red Line Extension. Cities, 115, 103212.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103212
Baude, W. (2013). Rethinking the Federal Eminent Domain Power. The Yale Law Journal, 122(7),
1738–1825.
Beyer, S. (2020, April 2). How the U.S. Government Destroyed Black Neighborhoods. Catalyst.
https://catalyst.independent.org/2020/04/02/how-the-u-s-government-destroyed-black-
neighborhoods/
Black Americans Support, U.S. Majority Reject Reparations. (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2023, from
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/black-americans-support-u-s-majority-reject-reparations/ar-
AA1cKpOZ?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=b0f8616e2ab94d4097940a6f3ed2ee0a&ei=9
Black Families in the U.S. have 90% less wealth than white families. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2022,
from https://www.takeonrace.org/research/black-families-in-the-us-have-less-wealth-than-white-
families
Black farmers have lived here for generations. Now, a Ford plant is changing the landscape. (n.d.).
Retrieved July 12, 2023, from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/black-farmers-have-lived-
203
here-for-generations-now-a-ford-plant-is-changing-the-landscape/ar-
AA1dIV1S?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=63ac42f7ec8442a3b2f494f5d2a4084f&ei=15
Blackman, J. (2009). Equal Protection from Eminent Domain: Protecting the Home of Olech’s Class
of One (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. 1329344). Social Science Research Network.
https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1329344
Blazina, C., & Cox, K. (n.d.). Black and White Americans are far apart in their views of reparations
for slavery. Pew Research Center. Retrieved June 12, 2023, from
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/28/black-and-white-americans-are-far-apart-
in-their-views-of-reparations-for-slavery/
Board, E. (2018, June 6). An Exhibit on 1950s Life Reproduces Segregation. The Activist History
Review. https://activisthistory.com/2018/06/06/an-exhibit-on-1950s-life-reproduces-segregation/
Bockman, J. (2012, August 31). Sociology in My Neighborhood: DC Ward Six: The Consequences of
Displacement. Sociology in My Neighborhood.
http://sociologyinmyneighborhood.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-consequences-of-
displacement.html
Bringing Detroit’s Black Bottom back to (virtual) life. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2022, from
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2017/02/27/detroit-black-bottom-
neighborhood/98354122/
Bruce’s Beach. (n.d.-a). Retrieved October 31, 2022, from https://ceo.lacounty.gov/ardi/bruces-beach/
Butina, M. (2015). A Narrative Approach to Qualitative Inquiry. American Society for Clinical
Laboratory Science, 28(3), 190–196. https://doi.org/10.29074/ascls.28.3.190
Byrne, J. P. (n.d.). Eminent Domain and Racial Discrimination: A Bogus Equation. 4.
Canaday, N. (2008). The accumulation of property by southern blacks and whites: Individual-level
evidence from a South Carolina cotton county, 1910–1919. Explorations in Economic History,
45(1), 51–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2007.06.003
Carland, J. W., & Carland, J. C. (2006). Eminent Domain: What Happens When the State Takes Part
of Your Land? The Entrepreneurial Executive, 11, 95–113.
Carpenter, D. M., & Ross, J. K. (2009). Testing O’Connor and Thomas: Does the Use of Eminent
Domain Target Poor and Minority Communities? Urban Studies, 46(11), 2447–2461.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009342597
204
Carragee, K. M. (2016). Communication Activism Research: Engaged Communication Scholarship
for Social Justice—Introduction. 25.
Carrillo, K. J. (2016, Spring). The Freedman’s Savings Bank. The Crisis, 123(2), 6.
Chevy Chase, DC Household Income, Population & Demographics | Point2. (n.d.). Retrieved July 12,
2023, from https://www.point2homes.com/US/Neighborhood/DC/Washington/Chevy-Chase-
Demographics.html
Communicating Gentrification. (2016, July 15). National Communication Association.
https://www.natcom.org/communication-currents/communicating-gentrification
Communication scholar-activism: Conceptualizing key dimensions and practices based on interviews
with scholar-activists. (n.d.). Retrieved May 26, 2023, from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/00909882.2021.1964573?needAccess=true&role
=button
Conceptualizing the New Urban Renewal: Comparing the Past to the Present—Derek S. Hyra, 2012.
(n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2022, from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1078087411434905
Conley, D. (1999). Getting into the Black: Race, Wealth, and Public Policy. Political Science
Quarterly, 114(4), 595–612. https://doi.org/10.2307/2657785
Connerly, C. E. (2002). From Racial Zoning to Community Empowerment: The Interstate Highway
System and the African American Community in Birmingham, Alabama. Journal of Planning
Education and Research, 22(2), 99–114. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X02238441
Connolly, N. D. B. (2008). By eminent domain: Race and capital in the building of an American
South Florida [ProQuest Dissertations Publishing].
https://search.proquest.com/docview/304575926?pq-origsite=primo
Copeland, R. W. (2013). In the Beginning: Origins of African American Real Property Ownership in
the United States. Journal of Black Studies, 44(6), 646–664.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934713506010
County Moves to Restore Tobytown Cemetery. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2023, from
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2017/mar/14/county-moves-restore-tobytown-
cemetery/
Creswell, J.W., & Poth, C.N. (2018). Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing
Among Five Approaches (4th ed.). SAGE
Cultural Tourism DC. (n.d.) A Brief History Of African Americans In Washington, DC -
https://www.culturaltourismdc.org/portal/a-brief-history-of-african-americans-in-washington-dc
205
Curry, E. A., & Walker, D. C. (n.d.). Narrative As Communication Activism: Research Relationships
In Social Justice Projects.
Cypher, M. L., & Forgey, F. A. (2003). Eminent Domain: An Evaluation Based on Criteria Relating
to Equity, Effectiveness, and Efficiency. Urban Affairs Review, 39(2), 254–268.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087403255371
da Costa, P. (2019). Housing discrimination underpins the staggering wealth gap between blacks and
whites.
Darity Jr, W., Hamilton, D., Paul, M., Aja, A., Price, A., Moore, A., & Chipris, C. (2018). What we
get wrong about closing the racial wealth gap. Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity and
Insight Center for Community Economic Development, 1 (1), 1-67
Dean, J. P. (1947). Only Caucasian: A Study of Race Covenants. Journal of Land & Public Utility
Economics, 23, 428.
DeBow, M. (n.d.). Unjust Compensation: The Continuing Need for Reform. South Carolina Law
Review, 46, 17.
Delgado, R., Stefancic, J., & Harris, A. (2012). Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, Second
Edition. NYU Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qg9h2
Derenoncourt, E., Kim, C. H., Kuhn, M., & Schularick, M. (2022, June 10). Wealth of Two Nations:
The U.S. Racial Wealth Gap, 1860-2020. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
Developers and Lawyers Use a Legal Maneuver to Strip Black Families of Land | The Authentic
Voice. (n.d.). Retrieved June 21, 2022, from
https://theauthenticvoice.org/mainstories/tornfromtheland/torn_part5/
Duncan, H. (n.d.). Losing Home: Black Neighborhoods and Urban Renewal. Losing Home: Black
Neighborhoods and Urban Renewal (wuot.org)
Economic Manuscripts: Capital Vol. I - Chapter Thirty-Two. (n.d.). Retrieved March 7, 2022, from
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch32.htm
Edwards, R. (2019). African Americans and the Southern Homestead Act. Great Plains Quarterly,
39(2), 103–130.
Eliminating the Black-White Wealth Gap Is a Generational Challenge—Center for American
Progress. (n.d.). Retrieved June 23, 2022, from
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/eliminating-black-white-wealth-gap-generational-
challenge/
Eminent Domain. (n.d.). HUD.Gov / U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Retrieved July 8, 2022, from
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/public_indian_housing/centers/sac/eminent
206
Eminent Domain & African Americans. (n.d.-a). Institute for Justice. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from
https://ij.org/report/eminent-domain-african-americans/
Eminent Domain & African Americans—Institute for Justice. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2022,
from https://ij.org/report/eminent-domain-african-americans/
Eminent Domain and Race. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2022, from
https://fedsoc.org/commentary/fedsoc-blog/eminent-domain-and-race
Eminent domain still under fire—National Constitution Center. (n.d.). National Constitution Center –
Constitutioncenter.Org. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/ten-
years-later-eminent-domain-still-under-fire
Emory Grove, A Black community of Yesteryear. (n.d.). 10.
Etikan, I. (2016a). Comparison of Snowball Sampling and Sequential Sampling Technique.
Biometrics & Biostatistics International Journal, 3(1).
https://doi.org/10.15406/bbij.2016.03.00055
Etikan, I. (2016b). Comparison of Convenience Sampling and Purposive Sampling. American Journal
of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 5(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11
Examining the Black-White Wealth Gap. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2022, from
https://www.takeonrace.org/research/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap
Exploring 160 Years of the Black-White Wealth Gap. (n.d.). NBER. Retrieved April 23, 2023, from
https://www.nber.org/digest/202208/exploring-160-years-black-white-wealth-gap
Exploring Maryland’s Roots: Investigate a Slavery Timeline: Help. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2022,
from https://mdroots.thinkport.org/interactives/slaverytimeline/help.asp
Federal Reserve Board—Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). (n.d.). Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System. Retrieved March 5, 2022, from
https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm
Fishback, P. V., Rose, J., Snowden, K. A., & Storrs, T. (2021). New Evidence on Redlining by
Federal Housing Programs in the 1930s (Working Paper No. 29244). National Bureau of
Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w29244
Flanagan, N. (2017, November 2). The Battle of Fort Reno. Washington City Paper.
http://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/188488/the-battle-of-fort-reno/
Fox, L., Garraway, I., Drew, K. L., & Bernard, T. S. (n.d.). Researched and Assembled by: 85.
Freedman’s Bank. (n.d.). Freedman’s Bank. Retrieved June 30, 2022, from http://freedmansbank.org/
207
Freeman, R. (1996). U.S. Housing Policy: The 1949 Housing Act versus ‘Urban Renewal.’ 3.
Frey, L. R., Russell, V., & German, J. (2020). Communication Activism for Social Justice Research.
In The Handbook of Applied Communication Research (pp. 731–746). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119399926.ch40
Fullilove, M. T. (1996). Psychiatric implications of displacement: Contributions from the psychology
of place. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 153(12), 1516–1523.
https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.153.12.1516
Fullilove, M. T., Peterson, C. F., & Bassett, M. T. (2016). Root Shock: How Tearing up City
Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do about It. New Village Press.
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aul/detail.action?docID=5253420
Fullilove, M. T., & Wallace, R. (2011). Serial Forced Displacement in American Cities, 1916–2010.
Journal of Urban Health, 88(3), 381–389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-011-9585-2
Fullilove, M.T. (2007) Eminent Domain & African Americans. Institute for Justice, Arlington, Va.
Garnett, N. S. (2006). The Neglected Political Economy of Eminent Domain. Michigan Law Review,
105, 51.
Gold, A. S. (n.d.). Regulatory Takings and Original Intent: The Direct, Physical Takings Thesis
“Goes Too Far.” 64.
Gold, M. E. (n.d.). The Use and Abuse of Blight in Eminent Domain. 56.
Goodspeed, Robert C. (2004) Urban Renewal in Postwar Detroit: The Gratiot Area Redevelopment,
A Case Study
Gotham, K. F. (2000). Racialization and the State: The Housing Act of 1934 and the Creation of the
Federal Housing Administration. Sociological Perspectives, 43(2), 291–317.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1389798
Gowen, A. (2010, November 14). Amid Montgomery’s affluence, the plight of the suburban poor
worsens in a downturn. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2010/11/12/AR2010111201997.html
Hajek, D., Martínez, A., & Dickens, K. (2021, October 10). A Black family got their beach back—
And inspired others to fight against land theft. NPR.
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/10/1043821492/black-americans-land-history
Hamilton, D., & Darity Jr, W. (2009). Race, Wealth, and Intergenerational Poverty: There will never
be a post-racial America if the wealth gap persists. The American Prospect, 20(7), A10–A12.
208
Harris, C. I. (n.d.). Whiteness as Property. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from
https://harvardlawreview.org/1993/06/whiteness-as-property/
Harris, K. E. (2015). Because We Can Doesn’t Mean We Should and if We Do: Urban Communities,
Social and Economic Justice, and Local Economic-Development-Driven Eminent Domain
Practices. Economic Development Quarterly, 29(3), 245–261.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0891242415575423
Higgs, R. (1982). Accumulation of Property by Southern Blacks Before World War I. The American
Economic Review, 72(4), 725–737.
Higher Education Didn’t Protect Hispanic and Black Wealth | St. Louis Fed. (n.d.). Retrieved
November 8, 2022, from https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/in-the-balance/2015/why-didnt-
higher-education-protect-hispanic-and-black-wealth
Hinds, D. (2000). Research instruments. In The Researcher’s Toolkit. Routledge.
Hinson, W. R. (2018). Land Gains, Land Losses: The Odyssey of African Americans Since
Reconstruction. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 77(3–4), 893–939.
https://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12233
Hirsch, A. R. (2000). Searching for a “Sound Negro Policy”: A Racial Agenda for the Housing Acts
of 1949 and 1954. Housing Policy Debate, 11(2), 393–441.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2000.9521372
History of Lakeland. (2009, July 12). Lakeland Community Heritage Project.
https://lakelandchp.com/history/
History Of The Federal Use Of Eminent Domain. (2015, April 13).
https://www.justice.gov/enrd/history-federal-use-eminent-domain
Homeownership, racial segregation, and policy solutions to racial wealth equity. (n.d.). Retrieved
June 27, 2022, from https://www.brookings.edu/essay/homeownership-racial-segregation-and-
policies-for-racial-wealth-equity/
Home—URBAN RENEWAL IMPACT. (2021, May 16). https://urbanrenewalimpact.org/
Housing & Community Development, Maryland Department of—Origin. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21,
2023, from https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/17dhcd/html/dhcdf.html
Housing discrimination underpins the staggering wealth gap between blacks and whites. (n.d.-a).
Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved September 18, 2022, from
https://www.epi.org/blog/housing-discrimination-underpins-the-staggering-wealth-gap-between-
blacks-and-whites/
209
Housing Opportunities Commission plans redevelopment for Emory Grove. (n.d.). Retrieved
November 7, 2022, from https://bethesdamagazine.com/2022/06/27/emory-grove-to-get-
redevelopment-project/
How African American Land Was Stolen in the 20th Century | History News Network. (n.d.).
Retrieved April 24, 2023, from https://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/154232
How the “Black Metropolis” made a comeback. (2022, October 4). HPPR.
https://www.hppr.org/2022-10-04/how-the-black-metropolis-made-a-comeback
Hoyman, M. M., & McCall, J. R. (2010). “Not Imminent in My Domain!” County Leaders’ Attitudes
toward Eminent Domain Decisions. Public Administration Review, 70(6), 885–893.
IHH. (2019, November 12). Urban Renewal – The Inclusive Historian’s Handbook.
https://inclusivehistorian.com/urban-renewal/
IJ’s New Studies Document Eminent Domain Victims And Alternatives to Force. (n.d.). Institute for
Justice. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://new.ij.org/ll/ijs-new-studies-document-
eminent-domain-victims-and-alternatives-to-force/
Interim Highest and Best Use: Condemnation Appraising. - Free Online Library. (n.d.). Retrieved
March 8, 2022, from
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Interim+Highest+and+Best+Use%3A+Condemnation+Appraisin
g.-a070779191
Irvine, J. J. (2016). From Cotton to Coca-Cola: A Family History Case Study on the Limitations of
Higher Education to Close the Generational Wealth Gap. JCSCORE, 2(2), Article 2.
https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2642-2387.2016.2.2.40-62
Institute for Justice (2009). Building Empires, Destroying Homes: Eminent Domain Abuse In New
York
It is the largest landowner on Syracuse’s South Side. What’s its plan for that vacant land? -
Syracuse.com. (n.d.). Retrieved June 29, 2023, from https://www.syracuse.com/news/2023/03/it-
is-the-largest-landowner-on-syracuses-south-side-whats-its-plan-for-that-vacant-land.html
Jaffee, B. L. (1977). What happened to urban renewal? Business Horizons, 20(1), 81–91.
https://doi.org/10.1016/0007-6813(77)90090-8
Jones-Correa, M. (2000). The Origins and Diffusion of Racial Restrictive Covenants. Political
Science Quarterly, 115(4), 541–568. https://doi.org/10.2307/2657609
Kaba, A. J. (2011). Explaining the Causes of the Black-White Wealth Gap in the United States.
Sociology Mind, 01(03), 138–143. https://doi.org/10.4236/sm.2011.13017
210
Kelly, D. B. (n.d.). The “Public Use” Requirement in Eminent Domain Law: A Rationale Based on
Secret Purchases and Private Influence. 92, 67.
Kijakazi, Kilolo, Rachel Marie Brooks Atkins, Mark Paul, Anne E. Price, Darrick Hamilton, and
William A. Darity Jr. (2016). The color of wealth in the Nation’s Capital. Durham, NC: Duke
University; Washington, DC: Urban Institute; New York: The New School; Oakland, CA:
Insight Center for Community Economic Development.
Kijakazi, K., & Brown, K. S., Charleston, D. Runes, C. (2019). Next50 Catalyst brief: Structural
racism. Urban Institute
Kuhn, M. (n.d.). Ellora Derenoncourt (UC Berkeley), Chi Hyun Kim (DIW Berlin, Free University of
Berlin). 49.
Land and the roots of African-American poverty | Aeon Ideas. (n.d.). Aeon. Retrieved July 13, 2023,
from https://aeon.co/ideas/land-and-the-roots-of-african-american-poverty
Landownership made blacks targets of violence and murder | The Authentic Voice. (n.d.). Retrieved
March 19, 2022, from http://theauthenticvoice.org/mainstories/tornfromtheland/torn_part2/
Lang, R. E., & Sohmer, R. R. (2000). Legacy of the Housing Act of 1949: The Past, Present, and
Future of Federal Housing and Urban Policy. Housing Policy Debate, 11(2), 291–298.
Launch of the “Urban Renewal Impact” Website & Initiative. YouTube. (2021, June 25).
https://youtu.be/R4jPRMwlbcU
Lawrence, S., & Hylton, K. (2022). Critical Race Theory, Methodology, and Semiotics: The
Analytical Utility of a “Race” Conscious Approach for Visual Qualitative Research. Cultural
Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 22(3), 255–265. https://doi.org/10.1177/15327086221081829
Lecture Series—African American Housing in 19th Century D.C. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2023,
from https://www.capitolhillhistory.org/lectures/african-american-housing-in-19th-century-d-c
Leone, M. P., Jenkins, T., Woehlke, S., Deeley, K., Hutchinson, B., Pruitt, E., & Skolnik, B. A.
(2019). How Can There Be No History? Historical Archaeology, 53(3–4), 674–685.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-019-00199-3
Lewan, T., and Barclay, D., Torn from the Land (Part 1 of 3). (2001). Retrieved March 20, 2022,
from http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/393.html
Levine-Schnur, R. (n.d.). Is the government exhausting its powers? An empirical examination of
eminent domain exercises in New York City pre- and post-Kelo. Regulation & Governance,
n/a(n/a). https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12464
Locke, Dexter H. et al. “Residential Housing Segregation and Urban Tree Canopy in 37 US Cities.”
211
npj Urban Sustainability 1.1 (2021): n. page. Web.
Lincoln Park History Project—MCPL. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2023, from
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/library/projects/lincoln-park-history/lincoln-park-
history-project.html#ftnote2logi
Love, D. (2017, June 30). From 15 Million Acres to 1 Million: How Black People Lost Their Land.
Atlanta Black Star. https://atlantablackstar.com/2017/06/30/from-15-million-acres-to-1-million-
how-black-people-lose-their-land/
Maciá, M. M. (2016). Pinning Down Subjective Valuations: A Well-Being-Analysis Approach to
Eminent Domain. The University of Chicago Law Review, 83(2), 945–999.
Magazine, S., & Gershon, L. (n.d.). The Highway That Sparked the Demise of an Iconic Black Street
in New Orleans. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved April 11, 2023, from
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/documenting-history-iconic-new-orleans-street-
and-looking-its-future-180977854/
Mahoney, J., & Rueschemeyer, D. (2003). Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences.
Cambridge University Press.
Mapping Segregation DC. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2023, from
http://www.mappingsegregationdc.org/
Mapping Segregation Project. (n.d.). Montgomery Planning. Retrieved September 19, 2022, from
https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/historic/research-and-designation/mapping-
segregation-project/
Margo, R. A. (1984). Accumulation of Property by Southern Blacks Before World War I: Comment
and Further Evidence. The American Economic Review, 74(4), 768–776.
Mattheis, R., & Raz, I. T. (n.d.). There’s No Such Thing As Free Land: The Homestead Act and
Economic Development.
Maurer, W. R. (n.d.). A False Sense of Security: The Potential for Eminent Domain Abuse in
Washington. 17.
McGraw, B. (n.d.). Bringing Detroit’s Black Bottom back to (virtual) life. Detroit Free Press.
Retrieved September 18, 2022, from
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2017/02/27/detroit-black-bottom-
neighborhood/98354122/
“Messing with the wrong lady:” 93-year-old South Carolina woman fights off developers. (n.d.).
Retrieved July 12, 2023, from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/messing-with-the-wrong-
lady-93-year-old-south-carolina-woman-fights-off-developers/ar-AA1dKFXo
212
Metro Detroit Local News—Detroit Free Press. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2022, from
https://www.freep.com/news/
Miceli, T. J. (2011). The Economic Theory of Eminent Domain: Private Property, Public Use.
Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511793776
Michney, T. M., & Winling, L. (2020). New Perspectives on New Deal Housing Policy: Explicating
and Mapping HOLC Loans to African Americans. Journal of Urban History, 46(1), 150–180.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144218819429
Miller, M. C. (2011). Land and Racial Wealth Inequality. American Economic Review, 101(3), 371–
376. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.101.3.371
Mitchell, T. W. (2001). From reconstruction to deconstruction: Undermining Black landownership,
political independence, and community through partition sales of tenancies in common.
Northwestern University Law Review, 95(2), 505–580.
Moon, K. R. (2016). The African American Housing Crisis in Alexandria, Virginia, 1930s-1960s.
Virginia Magazine of History & Biography, 124(1), 28–68.
Morris, R. A., and R. (2022, September 13). Reducing poverty without community displacement:
Indicators of inclusive prosperity in U.S. neighborhoods. Brookings.
https://www.brookings.edu/research/reducing-poverty-without-community-displacement-
indicators-of-inclusive-prosperity-in-u-s-neighborhoods/
Munch, P. (1976). An Economic Analysis of Eminent Domain. Journal of Political Economy, 84(3),
473–497.
Nast, T., Waud, A. R., Stephens, H. L., Taylor, J. E., Hoover, J., Crane, G. F., & White, E. (1998,
February 9). Reconstruction and Its Aftermath - The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full
Citizenship | Exhibitions (Library of Congress) [Web page].
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african-american-odyssey/reconstruction.html
Nationality and Neighborhood Risk at the Origins of FHA Underwriting—Jennifer S. Light, 2010.
(n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2022, from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0096144210365677
New Study Highlights Abuses of Eminent Domain in WA. (n.d.). Retrieved July 18, 2022, from
https://www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/detail/new-study-highlights-abuses-of-eminent-
domain-in-wa
News, A. B. C. (n.d.-a). Black residents discuss lasting injustices of urban renewal. ABC News.
Retrieved September 1, 2022, from https://abcnews.go.com/US/black-residents-discuss-lasting-
injustices-urban-renewal-redlining/story?id=73083737
213
Niedt, C. (2013). The Politics of Eminent Domain: From False Choices to Community Benefits.
Urban Geography, 34(8), 1047–1069. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2013.819683
Oliver, M. L. (1995). Black wealth/white wealth: A new perspective on racial inequality / Melvin L.
Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro. Routledge.
Olszewski, A. E. (2022). Narrative, Compassion, and Counter Stories. AMA Journal of Ethics, 24(3),
212–217. https://doi.org/10.1001/amajethics.2022.212
Parents Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: How the Descendants of Freed Slaves Lost
their Land in Mongomery County #Tobytown. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2022, from
https://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2016/04/how-descendants-of-freed-slaves-lost.html
Perry, N. (2016). Eminent domain destroys a community: Leveling East Arlington to make way for
the Pentagon. Urban Geography, 37(1), 141–161.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2015.1100953
Pino Gavidia, L. A., & Adu, J. (2022). Critical Narrative Inquiry: An Examination of a
Methodological Approach. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21,
16094069221081594. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069221081594
Powell, F. J. (1989). A Statistical Profile of the Black Family in Washington, D. C. 1850-1880.
Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C., 52, 269–288.
Racial Impacts of the Interstate in Montgomery, AL. (2021, November 12). Outside the Beltway.
https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/racial-impacts-of-the-interstate-in-montgomery-al/
Racial Wealth Gaps Research and Data. (n.d.). Bush Foundation. Retrieved July 23, 2022, from
https://www.bushfoundation.org/racial-wealth-gaps-research-and-data
Renwick, D. (2019, May 1). A beginner’s guide to qualitative and quantitative research. Optimal
Workshop. https://blog.optimalworkshop.com/a-beginners-guide-to-qualitative-and-quantitative-
research/
ResearchGate. (n.d.). Retrieved July 16, 2022, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341351508_Communication_Activism_for_Social_Jus
tice_Research/link/5fad9ffd299bf18c5b70605a/download
Resisting eminent domain: Residents could face forcible removal or arrest. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25,
2022, from https://sports.yahoo.com/resisting-eminent-domain-residents-could-135300403.html
Rothstein, R (2018). The color of law: A forgotten history of how our government segregated
America. Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company
214
Sanders, K. S. and T. (2019, November 25). The Effects of Urban Renewal on African American
Businesses. ArcGIS Story Maps.
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/8ceb4ef8f4d44f07b15e69f431210a47
Schwab, K. (2018, January 4). The Racist Roots Of “Urban Renewal” And How It Made Cities Less
Equal. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90155955/the-racist-roots-of-urban-
renewal-and-how-it-made-cities-less-equal
Shambaugh, K. M., Emily Moss, Ryan Nunn, and Jay. (2020, February 27). Examining the Black-
white wealth gap. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-
the-black-white-wealth-gap/
Shaver, K. (2019, July 5). D.C. has the highest ‘intensity’ of gentrification of any U.S. city, study
says. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2019/03/19/study-dc-
has-had-highest-intensity-gentrification-any-us-city/
Solorzano, D.G., & Yosso, T.J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-Storytelling as an analytical
framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23-44
https://doi.org/10/1177/107780040200800103
State Laws on Eminent Domain – Eminent Domain. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from
https://eminentdomain.uslegal.com/state-laws-on-eminent-domain/
Statistical atlas of the United States, based upon the results of the eleventh census. (n.d.). [Image].
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved October 31, 2022, from
https://www.loc.gov/item/07019233/
Stoebuck, W. B. (1972). General theory of eminent domain. Washington Law Review, 47 (4), 553-608
Story Map Series. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2023, from
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=825617c96aff4db59f2f216e83b9d71
3
Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation. (n.d.). Center for American
Progress. Retrieved July 24, 2022, from https://www.americanprogress.org/article/systemic-
inequality-displacement-exclusion-segregation/
Taylor, T. (2021, January 18). The Broken Promises of the Freedman’s Savings Bank: 1865-1874.
Conversable Economist [BLOG]; Newstex.
https://www.proquest.com/docview/2478627297/citation/E7115622A4594EDBPQ/1
The black-white economic gap remains as wide as in 1968—The Washington Post. (n.d.). Retrieved
March 11, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/04/economic-divide-
black-households/
215
The Highway That Sparked the Demise of an Iconic Black Street in New Orleans | Smart News|
Smithsonian Magazine. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2023, from
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/documenting-history-iconic-new-orleans-street-
and-looking-its-future-180977854/
The historical roots of the racial wealth gap in Charlotte | UNC Charlotte Urban Institute | UNC
Charlotte. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2022, from https://ui.charlotte.edu/story/historical-roots-
racial-wealth-gap-charlotte
The Homestead Act of 1862. (2016, August 15). National Archives.
https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act
The Housing Act of 1949: Journal of the American Institute of Planners: Vol 15, No 3. (n.d.).
Retrieved September 28, 2022, from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01944364908978929?journalCode=rjpa19
The Origins and Diffusion of Racial Restrictive Covenants on JSTOR. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19,
2022, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/2657609#metadata_info_tab_contents
The Origins and Legacy of Urban Renewal—PDF Free Download. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8,
2022, from https://docplayer.net/55413092-The-origins-and-legacy-of-urban-renewal.html
The Power of Counter-Storytelling: Honoring the History of Marginalized Communities – La Gente
Newsmagazine – University of California, Los Angeles. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2022,
from https://lagente.org/the-power-of-counter-storytelling-honoring-the-history-of-marginalized-
communities/
The “racial wealth gap” narrative obscures reality of class divide in the US. (n.d.). World Socialist
Web Site. Retrieved November 28, 2022, from
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/06/29/gapr-j29.html
The Roots of Greenwood | National Museum of African American History and Culture. (n.d.).
Retrieved July 14, 2022, from https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/roots-
greenwood?fbclid=IwAR0Vpg0W_7_Srb9wUgdEcJV_kKwheD-
Bye82fBcTUxiQgcshtyCkHH8WOuw
The Third Place » Montgomery’s Historically Black Communities | MontgomeryPlanning.org. (n.d.).
Retrieved June 11, 2023, from https://montgomeryplanning.org/blog-
design/2013/01/montgomerys-historically-black-communities/
The ugly and true history of L.A.’s racist housing covenants—Los Angeles Times. (n.d.). Retrieved
November 7, 2022, from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-27/behind-a-new-tv-
show-is-the-ugly-and-true-history-of-l-a-s-racist-housing-covenants
216
Think Land Policy Is Unrelated to Racial Injustice? Think Again. (n.d.). LILP. Retrieved July 8,
2022, from https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/articles/presidents-message-think-land-
policy-unrelated-racial-injustice-think-again
Tolnay, S. E. (2003). The African American “Great Migration” and Beyond. Annual Review of
Sociology, 29, 209–232.
Tolnay, S. E., & Beck, E. M. (1992). Racial Violence and Black Migration in the American South,
1910 to 1930. American Sociological Review, 57(1), 103–116. https://doi.org/10.2307/2096147
Tolnay, S. E., & Beck, E. M. (2018). “Racialized Terrorism” in the American South: Do Completed
Lynchings Tell an Accurate Story? Social Science History, 42(4), 677–701.
Top Ten Worst Abuses of Eminent Domain Spotlighted in New Report. (n.d.). Institute for Justice.
Retrieved July 18, 2022, from https://ij.org/press-release/top-ten-worst-abuses-of-eminent-
domain-spotlighted-in-new-report/
Torrey, B. B., & Green, C. M. (2016). Free Black People of Washington County, D.C. George Pointer
and His Descendants. Washington History, 28(1), 16–31.
Trapasso, C. (2020, June 16). “Legacy of Shame”: How Racist Clauses in Housing Deeds Divided
America. Real Estate News & Insights | Realtor.Com®.
https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/racial-covenants-systemic-racism/
Treanor, W. M. (1995). The Original Understanding of the Takings Clause and the Political Process.
Columbia Law Review, 95(4), 782. https://doi.org/10.2307/1123209
Turner, P., & Kalen, S. (n.d.). TAKINGS AND BEYOND: IMPLICATIONS FOR REGULATION. 45.
Uncovering the history of Seneca Village in New York City. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2022, from
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uncovering-the-history-of-seneca-village-in-new-york-city/
Urban Renewal. (n.d.). The National Plan to End Poverty. Retrieved July 20, 2022, from
https://nationalpovertyplan.org/timeline/urban-renewal/
Urban Renewal, 1950-1966. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2022, from
https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/renewal/#view=0/0/1&viz=cartogram
Urban Renewal?: Eminent Domain, Displacement, and the Origins of Progress Village—Part One ·
“We Wanted Some Basic Human Rights”: The Civil Rights Struggle in Tampa · USF Libraries
Exhibits. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2022, from
https://usflibexhibits.omeka.net/exhibits/show/civil-rights-in-tampa/urban-renewal-1
Urban Space, Restrictive Covenants and the Origins of Racial Residential Segregation in a US City,
1900–50—Gotham—2000—International Journal of Urban and Regional Research—Wiley
217
Online Library. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2022, from
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-2427.00268
U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Montgomery County, Maryland. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2022,
from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/montgomerycountymaryland
Victimizing the Vulnerable. (n.d.). Institute for Justice. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from
https://new.ij.org/report/victimizing-the-vulnerable/
Vision | History |. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://emorygrovechurch.org/mission/
von Hoffman, A. (2000). A study in contradictions: The origins and legacy of the housing act of
1949. Housing Policy Debate, 11(2), 299–326. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2000.9521370
Wealth Inequality in America over Time: Key Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2023, from
https://www.stlouisfed.org/open-vault/2020/december/has-wealth-inequality-changed-over-time-
key-statistics
Wealth of Two Nations: The U.S. Racial Wealth Gap, 1860-2020 | NBER. (n.d.). Retrieved July 13,
2022, from
https://www.nber.org/papers/w30101?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_c
ontent=20220613&utm_term=6838781&utm_campaign=money&utm_id=2501981&orgid=725
&utm_att1=money
WETA. (n.d.). “Right Out Our Front Door”: The Pentagon, East Arlington, and Queen City.
Boundary Stones: WETA’s Washington DC History Blog. Retrieved April 14, 2022, from
https://boundarystones.weta.org/2018/03/23/right-out-our-front-door-pentagon-east-arlington-
and-queen-city
What made our city so divided? This book traces the roots | UNC Charlotte Urban Institute | UNC
Charlotte. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2022, from https://ui.charlotte.edu/story/what-made-our-
city-so-divided-book-traces-roots-0
Wheaton, W. L. C. (1949). The Housing Act of 1949. Journal of the American Institute of Planners,
15(3), 36–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944364908978929
’When They Steal Your Land, They Steal Your Future’—Los Angeles Times. (n.d.). Retrieved March
17, 2022, from https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-02-mn-10514-story.html
Why We Can’t Wait | Martin Luther King, Jr. | download. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2022, from
https://u1lib.org/book/18842478/6cde90
Williams, T. (n.d.). Inclusion in Asset Building: Research and Policy Symposium.
Williams Shanks, T. (2005). The Homestead Act: A major asset-building policy in American history.
In M. Sherraden (Ed.), Inclusion in the American dream: Assets, poverty, and public policy. New
York Oxford University Press p. 20-41
218
Writer, L. M. H. S. (2021, June 3). The racial wealth gap may be a key to other inequities. Harvard
Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/06/racial-wealth-gap-may-be-a-key-to-
other-inequities/
WUOT News (2021, May 2013). Losing Home: When Urban Renewal Came to Knoxville. Retrieved
from https://www.wuot.org/news/2021-05-13/losing-home-when-urban-renewal-came-to-
knoxville
Wyche, S., Sengers, P., & Grinter, R. E. (2006). Historical Analysis: Using the Past to Design the
Future. In P. Dourish & A. Friday (Eds.), UbiComp 2006: Ubiquitous Computing (Vol. 4206, pp.
35–51). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11853565_3
