[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 34 (Tuesday, February 23, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E153]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      INTRODUCTION OF THE FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS MEMORIAL REMOVAL ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 23, 2021

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I rise to introduce the Francis G. 
Newlands Memorial Removal Act, which would remove the plaque and 
inscriptions bearing Francis G. Newlands' name from Chevy Chase Circle, 
a federal park located both in the District of Columbia and Maryland. I 
am pleased Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland joins me in 
introducing this bill. This bill is part of a series of statue and 
memorial removal bills I am introducing during Black History Month.
  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 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.
  Newlands went further 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 Newlands and Stewart, 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. A 
resolution to remove Newlands' name from the fountain was first 
introduced by the D.C. Chevy Chase Advisory Neighborhood Commission in 
2014. 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. This bill 
would remove Newlands' name from the fountain and remove the plaque 
entirely.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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