Kensington / Silver Spring
PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Montgomery County was founded in 1776. From the beginning, racism took many forms here, including widespread slavery – in 1800 the enslaved were one-third of the county’s population. By 1960, the Black population in the county had shrunk to 4%. Multiple forms of racism had driven Black families out of the county, as they tried to find employment, housing and safety.
​
Less visible forms of racism nationwide during Jim Crow (late 1900s to mid-1960s during the Civil Rights Movement) included segregated restaurants (Blacks could work there, but had to order food from the back door and sit in the restaurants), water fountains, retail stores, movie theaters, cemeteries, and of course, schools. Racial covenants (1) and redlining (2) throughout the county made it difficult for minorities to find housing. And Oral histories tell us of towns such as “sundown towns” such as Silver Spring, Chevy Chase, Damascus, and Washington Grove that Black people avoided at night because of threats of violence.
​
“I couldn’t go to lunchrooms, swimming pools, churches, schools. I couldn’t go anyplace in 1966,” Zeigler said. “We took a lot of beatings, Afro-Americans, back in that time.” (Onley 2020)​
​
(1) Racial covenants were articles were written into real estate contracts prohibiting the sale of a property to Blacks buyers. Covenants could also exclude ​​Armenian, Black, Chinese, Greek, Indian, Japanese, Jewish, Mongolian, Persian, Syrian, Turkish, and non-caucasian buyers.
(2) Redlining was used by local and federal housing loan lenders to rate neighborhoods by how secure the mortgages would be. Neighborhoods on a map outlined or colored in green were supposed to offer minimal risk to the lenders. Neighborhoods that were poor, higher crime rates, but mostly just Black or non-white, were considered more risky for home mortgages.
Batson | Brogden | Jonesville | Cresthaven Road | Good Hope | Holly Grove | Ken-Gar | Linden | Lyttonsville | Oak Hill | Pine Hill | Powder Mill Road | Round Oak | Sitka | Smithville | Spencerville | The Bottom | The Hill | Thompson Hill | Wheaton | Racial Violence in the county | References
Batson (linked to Brogden, Good Hope, Oak Hill Road)
Poolesville, Md
​
Brogden (linked to Batson, Good Hope, Oak Hill Road)
Cresthaven Rd.
Poolesville, Md
​
​
Good Hope (linked w/Smithville & Holly Grove)
Silver Spring, MD
​
“Good Hope was settled by newly emancipated slaves along the public road leading from Colesville to Spencerville. The new landowners at first traveled to Sandy Spring. By 1872 they erected their own house of worship and established a cemetery. The first church, of wood with a rear gallery, served residents of neighboring Holly Grove and Smithville as well as Good Hope. The congregation shared a minister with Sharp Street (#19), Brighton Church, and Steward Chapel at White Oak.” community-cornerstones-brochure.pdf, (Heritage Montgomery and McGuckian 2012, #21)
Good Hope United Methodist Church, built in 1913, replaced the orginal frame church.
Good Hope Union United Methodist Church, opened in 1999
Holly Grove Freemen Community (connected to Sandy Spring)
Seneca, MD
​
​
Ken-Gar
Poolesville, Md
​
​
Linden (linked with Lyttonsville)
Poolesville, Md
​
Need to add: Linden (linked with Lyttonsville)
Oak Hill Road (linked to Brogden, Good Hope & Batson)
Pine Hill
Powder Mill Rd.
Round Oak
Sitka
Smithville
Spencerville
The Bottom
The Hill
Thompson Road (same as Thompson's Corner?)
Wheaton
Racial Violence
Imperial Wizard Bill Wilkinson at Klan Rally in Needwood Park, Rockville, MD, November 1982. Photo courtesy of Montgomery History
Racial violence has been used across the United States to terrorize Blacks since the founding of the country. During slavery, it could mean whips and chains. During Jim Crow, it could mean assault, mob violence, police intimidation, and more. And in the late 1800s, three men were lynched by mobs in Montgomery County—Mr. George Peck in Poolesville; and Mr. John Diggs-Dorsey and Mr. Sidney Randolph in Rockville.
Klan Klux Klan activity appeared in Montgomery County in the 1920s with documented chapters in Takoma Park, Bethesda, Rockville and Poolesville. However, rallies—such as the one in Needwood Park, near Rockville in 1982 (Associated Press 1982)—were intended to terrorize Black citizens, and the KKK moniker and other racist graffiti continue to be painted on school walls today.
Black residents resisted these kinds of racism across the county's history, as shown by escapes from enslavement, service during the Civil War, freedmen's bureau complaints, the establishment of black communities, churches, schools and mutual aid societies. Slowly, organizations such as NAACP chapters, along with protests and pickets of segregated spaces by residents at places like the Glen Echo amusement park in the 1960s, led to the Public Accommodations Act in 1964. (1)
Despite its troubled history, Montgomery County now includes four of the most diverse cities in the U.S.: Silver Spring (#1); Gaithersburg (#2); Germantown (#4); and Rockville (#19). (McCann 2021) And residents of all colors and faiths have turned out en masse to clean racist slurs from walls, clean up historic Black cemeteries, and to protest racial violence. Historic markers in the county now include markers for the men lynched over 130 years ago. And the Maryland State Senate as of March 2026, has introduced a Joint Resolution concerning the Apology and Acknowledgement of the State's Responsibility in Racial Terror Lynchings.
Creating a county that supports people of all colors and faiths has been slow, but there is progress.
​
​
-
"An owner or operator of a place of public accommodation or an agent or employee of the owner or operator may not refuse, withhold from, or deny to any person any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, or privileges of the place of public accommodation because of the person's race, sex, age, color, creed, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability." State Government Article, § 20-304, Annotated Code of Maryland (Maryland Commission on Civil Rights 1962)
References​​
“Ain’t No Back on a Merry-Go-Round.” 2019. Ain’t No Back. Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwmPtYtsvfI. 2019. https://www.aintnoback.com.
Alnwick, Melanie. 2023. “Racist Graffiti Found at Bethesda Elementary School.” FOX 5 DC. February 23, 2023. https://www.fox5dc.com/news/racist-kkk-graffiti-found-at-bethesda-elementary-school
​
Associated Press. 1982. “Klan Rally Held near Capital.” New York Times, November 7, 1982. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/07/us/klan-rally-held-near-capital.html.
​
Brack, David. n.d. “Twenty Years of Civil Rights Progress: A History of the Human Relations Commission of Montgomery County, MD.” MontgomeryCountyMD.Gov. Accessed March 3, 2026. https://montgomerycountymd.gov/humanrights/resources/files/civil_right_progress.pdf#:~:text=On%20January%2016%2C%201962%2C%20the%20Council%20voted,enacting%20an%20equal%20public%20accommoda%2D%20tions%20law
​
Corin, Cheyenne. 2022. “KKK Photos Posted on Damascus HS Online Search.” DC News Now. January 1, 2022. https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/maryland/kkk-photos-posted-on-damascus-hs-online-search/
​
Henry, John. 2022. “Racist Symbols Found on Montgomery County School Desk, Police Say.” Wusa9.com. WUSA. April 2, 2022. https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/maryland/montgomery-county-school-racist-drawings/65-87d2baed-8095-42b5-9917-73403cabe232
​
Kneebone, John, and et al. 2025a. “Interactive Map: See the Rise of the KKK in the U.S., 1915-1940.” Mapping the Second Ku Klux Klan, 1915-1940. Virginia Commonwealth University. 2025. https://labs.library.vcu.edu/klan/
​
———. 2025b. “See the Rise of the KKK in the U.S., 1915-1940.” Mapping the Second Ku Klux Klan, 1915-1940. Virginia Commonwealth University. 2025. https://labs.library.vcu.edu/klan/learn
​
Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. 1962. “Public Accommodations Anti-Discrimination Law.” Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. January 16, 1962. https://mccr.maryland.gov/know-your-rights/public-accommodations
​
National Archives. 1964. “Civil Rights Act (1964).” National Archives. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. July 2, 1964. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act
​
National Park Service. 2021. “A Summer of Change: The Civil Rights Story of Glen Echo Park - Glen Echo Park (U.S. National Park Service).” Www.nps.gov. August 3, 2021. https://www.nps.gov/glec/learn/historyculture/summer-of-change.htm
​
Onley, Dawn. 2020. “Grandson of a Slave, Maryland Centenarian Still Fights for Black History and Civil Rights.” TheGrio. April 17, 2020. https://thegrio.com/2020/04/17/grandson-slave-centenarian-black-history-civil-rights/
​
Staff, MCS. 2025. “High School Senior T-Shirt Sparks Outrage for Evoking Racial Slur; MCPS Launches Investigation - the MoCo Show.” The MoCo Show. October 17, 2025. https://mocoshow.com/2025/10/16/high-school-senior-t-shirt-sparks-outrage-for-evoking-racial-slur-mcps-launches-investigation/
​
“Twenty Years of Civil Rights Progress a History of the Human Relations Commission of Montgomery County, Maryland (1960 - 1980).” 2026. Montgomerycountymd.gov. 2026. https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/humanrights/civil-rights-progress.html
​
United Press International. 1982. “Photo: Ku Klux Klan Members Holding a Rally Outside Rockville, Maryland. - WAP1106021982 - UPI.com.” UPI. November 6, 1982. https://www.upi.com/News_Photos/view/upi/95e7de62cdd5eaeef313569b503c1485/Ku-Klux-Klan-members-holding-a-rally-outside-Rockville-Maryland/