History
Prince George’s County is known and celebrated for being the most affluent African American majority county in the nation, a source of pride for many of its residents. However, this narrative of progress and success often obscures the obstacles, struggles and activism of the 20th century Civil Rights Movement, which helped to lay the foundation for present day conditions. The Prince George’s County Civil Rights Trail fills an important void for both residents and visitors in relation to the history of this county. It exposes the history of Jim Crow in Prince George’s County, while highlighting important battles African Americans waged in order to secure the rights afforded white citizens.
During the majority of the 20th century, Prince George’s County was a majority white and rural community. However, the county is uniquely situated between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, both of which maintained urban black populations that ranked among the largest in the nation with rich traditions of civil rights activism. Black Prince Georgians were able to tap into these traditions and these urban networks of activism as they waged both collective and separate battles for equal rights.
EDUCATION
After the Civil War, Prince George’s County established a racially segregated public school system. Stark differences existed between Black and white schools. Black schools received less state funding, resulting in fewer resources and poorer facilities. In 1895, there were no high schools for Black students in Maryland outside of cities. During this time, Prince George’s County was one of five Maryland counties that made no contribution to Black schools from county funds. Families with the means to do so sent their children to school in Washington DC.
One resource was the Freedmen’s Bureau, which supported creating Black schools. The program required communities to raise significant funds for construction and teacher wages. Black Prince Georgians successfully petitioned for ten Freedmen’s schools in the county, most of which were constructed in the 1870s. These schools were modest one room primary schools primarily focused on literacy skills. Prince George’s County took over these schools when the Freedmen’s Bureau disbanded, but provided little support, placing the burden on families to maintain the schools.
Another resource was the Rosenwald Fund. Julius Rosenwald, chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Company, was encouraged by Booker T. Washington to direct his philanthropy towards Black education. Rosenwald required seed money to fund the schools, and communities could combine cash, materials, and in-kind labor for their match. The Rosenwald Fund would go in to support the creation of nearly 5,000 Black schools in the South, including 27 in Prince George’s County.The Ridgeley School is the most intact Rosenwald School in the county, comprising two classrooms and an industrial room. Rosenwald also supported creating secondary schools such as the Community School in Lakeland and the Highland Park School, opened in 1928.
Maryland’s first Black post-secondary school was Bowie State, which grew out of the Baltimore Normal School for Teachers, founded in Baltimore in 1864. The state took control of the school in 1908 and relocated it in 1911 to Bowie on the 187 acre site of Jericho Farm. For decades, the schools’ primary focus was training Black teachers, and was renamed Maryland Teachers College at Bowie in 1938. The school established a liberal arts college in 1963, and with authorization from the Maryland State Legislature became Bowie State College. In 1988, the school became Bowie State University, reflecting its growing academic curriculum and its inclusion in the newly formed University System of Maryland. Bowie State University is one of four HBCUs in Maryland including Morgan State University, Coppin State University and University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
Black schools were considerably under-resourced compared to white schools, and providing an adequate education for children challenged the Black community. Some, like Theresa Banks, county resident, educator, and Civil Rights activist, sought relief from the state legislature. Her countless protests about pay discrimination resulted in equal pay for all county teachers in 1947. Another champion for education was Doswell Brooks, the supervisor of Colored Schools in Prince George’s County who later became the first Black appointee to the Board of Education. He championed the opening of Marlboro High School in 1923, the first African American high school in the county, and in 1934, obtained the first school bus for Black students in the county’s school system.
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled “separate but equal” unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education case. Local school boards were ordered to desegregate schools at “deliberate speed.” In Prince George’s County, the school board implemented the “freedom of choice” plan, which allowed Black students to apply to white schools. This opportunity was not guaranteed to all students, and parents complained that the school board was not forthcoming about how to apply.
The Commission on Civil Rights, which investigated acts of racial discrimination in the United States, and the United States Office of Education and requested and approved desegregation plans, looked at Maryland in 1965, and required 18 of Maryland’s 24 school districts, including Prince George’s County, to submit desegregation plans. The Commission’s committee of volunteers, which helped collect data, found that integration lagged in school systems using only the “freedom of choice” plan. Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, these segregated school systems were ineligible for federal funding. To accelerate integration, the county school board eliminated the “freedom of choice” plan and instead relied on geographic attendance to integrate predominately white schools. Nonetheless, segregation remained in the school system.
By 1972, the school board lost a lawsuit, Vaughns vs. Board of Education Prince George’s County, which accused them of continuing a racially segregated school system. The school board also lost federal funding that year and quickly responded by busing 33,000 students to integrate remaining segregated schools. Busing gave more lack students the opportunity to attend improved schools. Forced busing officially ended in the county in 1998, following the building of thirteen new neighborhood schools.
Inequalities pervaded at HBCUs which were woefully underfunded compared to predominantly white state funded schools. In 1968, student protests erupted at HBCUs from Baltimore to Tuskegee. On March 28, over 200 Bowie undergraduates led by Bowie Student Government President Roland Smith Jr. demonstrated along with 90 Howard University students in solidarity, protesting conditions on campus and lack of academic resources. Students later held a study-in at the State House in Annapolis to get the attention of Governor Spiro Agnew. Agnew responded by arresting the protestors, 227 students, or around one-third of the student body. Unequal treatment of Maryland’s HBCUs continues in the 21st century. In March 2021, the State of Maryland settled a fifteen year lawsuit over unequal funding for Morgan State University, Coppin State University, Bowie State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
HOUSING
Following the Civil War, a new generation of Black communities formed within Prince George’s County. These communities were typically located near where they worked or with access to transportation. Families pooled resources to provide amenities such as schools and churches that became focal points of the community. Prince George’s County took on a more significant role as a suburb of Washington DC as railroad and streetcar lines were constructed. While Washington DC supported a growing Black middle class, housing for Black families was scarce, making Prince George’s County a desirable place to settle. North Brentwood, platted in 1896, became the first incorporated Black municipality in Prince George’s County in 1924. The community was connected to Washington DC by streetcar.
In 1933, Americans were reeling from the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted the New Deal to provide relief to American families, recover the economy, and reform the financial system. One of these programs, operated by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), was the National Housing Act of 1934, designed to strengthen the residential housing market and provide greater access to homeownership by way of federally backed loans. However, this program was limited to supporting white homebuyers and homeowners, and perpetuated segregation across the country.
The FHA drew maps to determine the risk level of investing in particular neighborhoods.They used a color-coded system to determine where to invest from green being the best and red being “hazardous.” The upshot of this system was that predominantly Black neighborhoods were mostly shaded red, preventing Black families from obtaining mortgages and condemning communities to poverty. This policy of discrimination became known as redlining. The FHA also operated using a manual that stated “incompatible racial groups should not be permitted to live in the same communities,” which ultimately meant that loans to Black homebuyers could not be insured. Meanwhile, the FHA was subsidizing the construction of new communities built for white families only.
Redlining exacerbated the racial wealth gap in America by preventing Black homeownership and forcing Black people to live in segregated communities starved of resources, where public schools and other accommodations were underfunded and ill-equipped.
Redlining was reinforced under the Housing Act of 1937, which allocated federal aid for low income housing projects and let local leaders decide their locations. The Act required each new federally funded housing unit to replace an old one, which prevented a surplus of public housing and competition for private developments. Often located in isolated regions and far from white neighborhoods, the projects aimed to contain Black families, who made up the majority of the low-income population. Redlining was further entrenched in 1944 under the GI Bill, which gave veterans low mortgage rates. White veterans benefitted from the GI Bill, however redlining continued to limit black homeownership opportunities.
Black Washingtonians experienced redlining when they tried to move to new suburban subdivisions in Maryland’s neighboring counties. For example, in 1960 Levitt and Sons, a renowned housing development firm, opened Bel-Air at-Bowie, a segregated subdivision, in Bowie, Maryland. The owner, William Levitt, stipulated in lease agreements that buyer’s homes “are not to be used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race.” The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) and other civil rights organizations led protests in Bel Air when Levitt refused sales to black families. Referring to his drop in sales at other subdivisions that he desegregated, Levitt claimed open housing policies only worked in states where laws supported it.
TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATIONS
Black families did not have access to the amenities of their white neighbors due to segregation. Community pools, like the one built in Laurel in 1953, were for whites only. Black communities created their own amenities and shared resources such as with the Green Book that helped Black travelers find lodgings, gas stations, and friendly businesses during the Jim Crow era.
Notley Hall Amusement Park was created in 1890, owned and operated by African Americans. Families from Washington DC could take a steamboat to it and enjoy dancing, games, and racing. Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beach in Annapolis provided summer fun, and rural retreats sprung up like Lincoln. As taverns and social halls were segregated, Black entrepreneurs created their own establishments. One example is Sis’s Tavern, which opened in the 1950s in North Brentwood. The tavern was a fixture of the community and attracted acts like Duke Ellington and Pearl Bailey, who made stops at Sis’s after playing shows in Washington DC.
During the 1960s, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) and other civil rights organizations led peaceful protests to desegregate public accommodations. Protests included freedom rides, sit-ins and picketing at segregated restaurants, lunch counters and other public entities. Demonstrators were often arrested for disorderly conduct and trespassing, and endured verbal and physical abuse. Footage from these protests magnified the harsh realities of the segregated South, which pressured state and federal lawmakers to act.
Segregation in Maryland gained an international reputation when African and Asian diplomats reported instances where restaurants along Route 40 refused to serve them. The State Department, under the Kennedy Administration, responded by contacting Maryland legislature to pass a public accommodations law, however segregation persisted. By 1962, demonstrators launched a series of sit-in protests, called “Diagnosis of Maryland” by CORE members, to raise awareness of continued segregation in the state. Route 40, Baltimore, and Prince George’s County became frequent sites of such protests. Sit-ins were so disruptive that the Restaurants Association of Maryland pleaded with demonstrators to end protests and instead join forces with them to push for state-wide-equality; however, demonstrations and pro-segregationist efforts only intensified. By the summer of 1963, Governor Tawes declared martial law in Cambridge, Maryland, following continuous violent outbreaks that surrounded protests.
Maryland Legislature passed a statewide public accommodations law in 1963, but it did not eliminate all segregation. Only 11 of Maryland’s 23 counties had to desegregate, as the others, including Dorchester, relied on referendums to maintain segregation. Also, while the bill banned segregation at hotels and restaurants, bars, taverns and cocktail lounges were excluded to ensure the bill passed the General Assembly. Full desegregation at public accommodations came to Maryland following the national Civil Rights Act of 1964.
