[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 125 (Tuesday, July 22, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E706]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS MEMORIAL REMOVAL ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 22, 2025

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today I introduce the Francis G. Newlands 
Memorial Removal Act, which would remove the plaque and inscriptions on 
a fountain bearing Francis G. Newlands' name from Chevy Chase Circle, a 
federal park located in both the District of Columbia and Maryland. 
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland joins me in introducing this 
bill. and Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is the sponsor of the 
companion 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 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 separate 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 of the 15th amendment, which 
gave African-American men the right to vote.
  The fountain in Chevy Chase Circle was established in 1932 by 
Congress. In 1990, the Chevy Chase Land Company added a plaque with 
Newlands' name 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 (NPS) to 
remove the plaque bearing Newlands' name and to begin discussion on a 
new name for the fountain. On September 14, 2020, the Maryland Chevy 
Chase Village Board of Managers adopted a resolution calling on NPS and 
Congress to remove any mention of Newlands from the fountain. On April 
19, 2022, the Montgomery County Council introduced a resolution 
affirming the county's support for this bill. Newlands should not be 
honored on federal land.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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