[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 157 (Friday, September 11, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E828]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      INTRODUCTION OF THE FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS MEMORIAL REMOVAL ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 11, 2020

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I rise to introduce the Francis G. 
Newlands Memorial Removal Act. This bill would remove the plaque and 
inscription bearing Francis G. Newlands' name from Chevy Chase Circle, 
a federal park located both in the District of Columbia and Maryland. I 
am pleased that Representative Jamie Raskin joins me in introducing 
this bill.
  Newlands was a U.S. senator from Nevada, a conservationist and the 
founder of the Chevy Chase Land Company, which developed the Chevy 
Chase neighborhood that touches D.C. and Maryland. Newlands was also a 
segregationist. He built Connecticut Avenue and dedicated it to D.C., 
and ran a streetcar up the road to the newly built Chevy Chase Lake. 
However, homes on Connecticut Avenue were purposely priced to keep 
working families out, and covenants were later added to many of the 
property deeds in Chevy Chase explicitly prohibiting the land from ever 
being owned by African Americans or Jews. These covenants have since 
been declared void. He also used his conservationism as a way to keep 
Black and white Americans separate. In the late 1800s, he and Senator 
William Stewart secured 2,000 acres of land for Rock Creek Park. 
Establishing this park not only increased property values for 
landowners like Stewart and Newlands, but also kept white communities 
distinct from emerging Black communities on what they called the 
``wrong side of the park.'' Newlands' racist views went even further. 
In 1912, he called for the repeal the 15th amendment, which gave 
African American men the right to vote.
  The fountain was established in 1932 by Congress. In 1990, the Chevy 
Chase Land Company also added the plaque next to the fountain. My bill 
would remove Newlands' name from the fountain and remove the plaque 
entirely. A resolution to remove Newlands' name from the fountain was 
first introduced by the Chevy Chase Advisory Neighborhood Commission in 
2014, and on July 27, 2020, the Commission voted unanimously to ask the 
National Park Service to remove the bronze plaque bearing Newlands' 
name and to begin discussion on a new name for the fountain. My 
legislation would gift both the plaque and the inscription on the 
fountain to Newlands' descendants.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bill.

                          ____________________