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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 14, 2023
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to 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 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 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 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 strip any mention of Newlands from the fountain. And on April 19, 2022, Montgomery County Council introduced a resolution affirming the county's support for this bill.
I believe NPS has the administrative authority to remove Newlands' name from the fountain, given that the memorial's authorizing statue does not name Senator Newlands nor dedicate the memorial to him. Last Congress, I wrote a letter with Representative Jamie Raskin and Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin urging NPS to use their existing authority to remove or conceal Newlands' name, and they have not done so. 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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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 169, No. 30
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