In 1906, four men tried to build an upscale Black suburb near DC. White residents & developers shut it down before they could even fully start.

bnew

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Maryland finally honors the Black suburb shut down by white developers​

In 1906, four men tried to build an upscale Black suburb. White residents and developers shut them down before they could even start.​

https://substack.com/profile/11804216-phil-lewis
Phil Lewis

Sep 24, 2024





Descendants of the Belmont Syndicate stand in front of the newly unveiled historical marker. Photo: Phil Lewis.

In the early 20th century, four Black businessmen bought acres of land in Maryland, with plans of constructing a prosperous suburban neighborhood for Black Americans in valuable space near the Washington, D.C. line. But white landowners vehemently opposed the undertaking, and the group’s dreams of building the suburb were never actualized.

On Saturday, a historical marker was unveiled at the intersection of Western Avenue and Wisconsin Avenue — next to land where the Black suburb Belmont would have been. Commissioned by the Maryland State Department of Transportation, the marker is due to the efforts of public historians Kim Bender and Neil Flanagan.

The men — Charles Cuney, Michel Dumas, James Neill and Alexander Sautterwhite — called themselves the “Belmont Syndicate,” and they worked with a white man who acted as a straw buyer to obtain the land. The group was unapologetic in their efforts to advertise their plans for the suburb, running ads in both Black and white newspapers.

One ad, which ran in the Washington Post, exclaimed the headline "Colored People Attention,” and encouraged Black residents to purchase “an ideal suburban lot in the most beautiful and most rapidly improving section of Northwest Washington, Belmont Chevy Chase." The group offered lots starting at $400, and said the area would be the “only good subdivision in Washington where colored people are welcomed to buy.”

Nearly 30 residents took them up on the offer, but the backlash was swift.






The ad for the Belmont suburb. Photo: Eventbrite/The Washington Post.

When white residents in the Chevy Chase area found out about the Belmont Syndicate’s valiant plans, they pulled all the stops in order to prevent the Black suburb from existing. Residents made threats in local newspapers and even had the men arrested for no reason at all.

“To establish a negro colony at Belmont, practically at our doors and beyond the restraint of the District police force, would mean the impairment of our property values, a constant menace to our peace and security, and the destruction of the happiness of our homes,” one resident told The Washington Times.

It wasn’t the threat of lynching or arrest that halted the Belmont Syndicate’s plans. The project was stalled by the Chevy Chase Land Company, a real estate company founded by a white supremacist whose aim was to develop all-white neighborhoods. The company and its affiliates waged a legal war against the Belmont Syndicate that shut down the plans for for the suburb completely.

Felani Afrika Spivey, a descendant of Alexander Satterwhite, one of the Belmont Syndicate, helped unveil the marker Saturday at the intersection of Western Avenue and Wisconsin Avenue.

“This marker states the facts of what happened in this location in Chevy Chase in 1906 when my third great-uncle along with three men Black men purchased land to create an affluent Black community and it was halted,” Spivey explained.

“Without this marker, [Belmont] would be a rumor. It means a lot to me and my family for our legacy, and hopefully it helps us get reparations,” Spivey said.

Artist Crudup, another descendant and alumnus of the University of the District of Columbia, was also present for the unveiling. He spoke of the white developers efforts’ to bury as much information on Belmont as possible.

“There’s an African proverb that says truth pressed to the ground will rise to the top. To be standing here with my cousins and my son is the most miraculous spiritual accomplishment in my life,” he said, overcome with emotion. “This has always been an affluent area. We can all go forward from this.”

Learn more about the history of Belmont by watching the short documentary “Belmont: The Lost Plan for a Black Chevy Chase” below.
 

bnew

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1/11
@MelechThomas
This is why reparations isn’t just a question of American chattel slavery. It’s about the treatment of Black people in America from enslavement to this current day.

[Quoted tweet]
In 1906, four men tried to build an upscale Black suburb near DC. White residents & developers shut it down before they could even fully start.

On Saturday, a historical marker honoring Belmont was unveiled — and their descendants were in attendance
whatimreading.net/p/maryland…


2/11
@LucaGuadagnegro
they’re only getting a simple plaque when the reality is that their entire lineage was robbed of generational wealth, which is what white counterparts would’ve had by now with hella nepobabies… and this is just one explicit example.



3/11
@pharaohheight_
Stop chasing dollars. Chase emancipation. Y’all want money thinking that it’s going to solve everything for us and it won’t. Why? Bc that very dollar is printed by the enemy whenever it suits their best interest. Stop being fools over worldly shyt. Humanity is at stake and y’all wanna live to be fat and old in comfort. That’s why there’s so many weak men now!! Just wanting to live out their days in peace. Ain’t no fukking peace right now in any corner of the world!



4/11
@freshxdesign
What is now some of the most expensive property in the area got denied to Black people. Yea Reparations is due.



5/11
@distinctly_Kara
Honestly I feel like redlining alone calls for reparations



6/11
@Marquis_DeShade
/search?q=#ReparationsNow



7/11
@LizMckennl
When Ta-Nehisi Coates made the most detailed case for reparations, what he used to argue was the loss of wealth from black to white people through redlining and various other strategies. And the people affected were very much alive.



8/11
@cool_i_gan
Exactly 💯

GYUUMvVXMAAI0AC.jpg




1/10
@Phil_Lewis_
In 1906, four men tried to build an upscale Black suburb near DC. White residents & developers shut it down before they could even fully start.

On Saturday, a historical marker honoring Belmont was unveiled — and their descendants were in attendance
Maryland finally honors the Black suburb shut down by white developers



2/10
@Phil_Lewis_
Felani Spivey, a descendant of Alexander Satterwhite, helped unveil the marker

“Without this marker, [Belmont] would be a rumor. It means a lot to me and my family for our legacy, and hopefully it helps us get reparations." Maryland finally honors the Black suburb shut down by white developers



3/10
@yellowsclub
This is why I hate when people say, "Why can't black people have their own stuff?"" Because of this! Every time black people tried to make something for themselves, white people would burn it to the ground.



4/10
@MidnightMonaye
A MARKER!????? How about they actually build the black suburb



5/10
@JAYELLA12
It took over 100 years for this...



6/10
@waqarhoonmein
We have tried over and over and over and over again to build black wealth and health and who is constantly in the way of progress?? can’t you see



7/10
@waqarhoonmein
Get your own they said. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps they said. And this is what happened when we did!!!!



8/10
@Kiran_Fatima2
This is a powerful reminder of the resilience and determination of Belmont community. Good to see their descendants present!



9/10
@waqarhoonmein
They shut that down because they were black o yes this is what always happen



10/10
@mykuldeepyadav
WHAT In 1906 ?
So, it took more than 100 years for this




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bnew

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WATCH: Ta-Nehisi Coates’ full opening statement on reparations at House hearing​


Shared June 19, 2019


Author Ta-Nehisi Coates told lawmakers at a House committee hearing that the debate over reparations is “a dilemma of inheritance.” Coates called out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for saying a day earlier that reparations were not “a good idea” because no one who is currently living is responsible. Coates told lawmakers that many of the inequalities created by slavery persist today, including in the form of economic and health disparities. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: bit.ly/2HfsCD6



IOP - Ta-Nehisi Coates on The Case for Reparations​


Ta-Nehisi Coates reignited a national conversation over reparations for African Americans with his 16,000-word cover story for the June issue of The Atlantic. The Case for Reparations argues that long after slavery ended, decades of racist policies and deliberate injustices – from Jim Crow to redlining – have continued to systematically wrong generations of African Americans, and “ntil we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole”. Join the Institute of Politics, the Center of Race, Politics, and Culture, the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, and the National Public Housing Museum as Ta-Nehisi Coates makes the case for reparations and why Chicago is central to his argument.
 
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Occulonimbus edoequus
its kinda crazy how white people historically try to say that black americans were lazy and thats why nothing happens for us, when tine, time, and time again, its proven that every major effort gets sabotaged.

This is the single most insane thing about them.

All Black celebrities and sports figures are on borrowed time if they try to make any permanent establishment for Black Americans.

I'm surprised they haven't gone after Bron like that.
 

Breh13

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Double standards, hypocrisy, double-faced. All hallmarks of irrational racism.

It's never going to make sense since it's not about what they are fake criticising about a race. Multiple times black Americans have tried to build something, multiple times racists have destroyed it.

There will never be anything logical, fair and just about anything a white person says about anyone black. That's the face of it.

Black suffering and slavery powers the western hemisphere, they're never going to say that in your face it must because you're low IQ and lazy. While leaders that try to disrupt this symbiote relationship get destroyed.
 

Luke Cage

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1/11
@MelechThomas
This is why reparations isn’t just a question of American chattel slavery. It’s about the treatment of Black people in America from enslavement to this current day.

[Quoted tweet]
Just leave it about slavery. If you make it about treatment of black people to this day it pretty much opens up the debate for any disenfranchised group (including black immigrants) to join it. Reparation is simply backpay for free slave labor. period
 

FishNGrits

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its kinda crazy how white people historically try to say that black americans were lazy and thats why nothing happens for us, when tine, time, and time again, its proven that every major effort gets sabotaged.
It’s gas lighting at this point. Don’t even engage
 

ReturnOfJudah

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Hard work pays off

pick yourself up by the bootstraps

If you do right, you will suceed

Save your money and you can have the American dream too
 

bnew

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Hard work pays off

pick yourself up by the bootstraps

If you do right, you will suceed

Save your money and you can have the American dream too


it's not mathematically possible ...


1/1
.
@CBSThisMorning hails BLM activist accusing U.S. of "systemic racism" and comparing the economy to "a rigged game of Monopoly"


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1/4
99 years ago - on 31 May, 1921 - white mobs ransacked & burned down “the Black Wall Street” of Greenwood, Tulsa.

26 black people died & more than 800 were injured. #TulsaRaceMassacre #riots2020 #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd
#BLACK_LIVES_MATTER #GeorgeFloyd

2/4
“You broke the social contract when you came & you killed us in the streets.”

Powerful, eloquent & angry.

#MustWatch Part 2: Kimberly Jones on racism in America #BlackLivesMatter #EndRacism #BLACK_LIVES_MATTER #GeorgeFloydProtests #GeorgeFloyd

3/4
“ A dark shadow stalks our land.”

Incredible photo by
@dougmillsnyt of
@realDonaldTrump
boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, to fly for to Tulsa. #TulsaRally #TulsaDeathRally #TrumpTulsaRally #DonaldTrump

4/4
“It is entirely up to the American people whether or not they are going to face & deal with and embrace this stranger whom they relied on so long." (James Baldwin, 1963)

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. #IamNotYourNegro #TulsaTrumpRally #TrumpRally #TulsaRally #Tulsa


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