Projects & Committees

Mapping our Historic Black Communities, Sites of Enslavement, and the Enslaved

Long-term goal: Learn and share more about the histories of Montgomery County's Black communities.

Project tasks: Publish an interactive map that includes:​

• sites of enslavement in Montgomery County between 1860-65 

• names of the enslaved claimed by the enslavers, as we identify those names

• sites of historic Black communities (HBCs) in the county, including those founded before the Civil War, during Reconstruction, and during Jim Crow (1800-1940 or so)

  • Update maps of historic Black communities in MoCo. 

  • Research these communities—particularly the ones with less current or more scattered documentation—and tell their story. 

  • Document any connections between people who were enslaved and the historic Black communities in the county.

  • Collect and publish the names of HBCs’ founding and significant families. We will work with members of the descendant community to confirm these names.

• sites of the three documented racial terror lynchings in the county, and 

• locations that saw regular trafficking of enslaved persons.

 

Each site on the map will have pop-up information on each enslavement site (including any names of those enslaved between 1860-1865) and each HBC. The historic community site pop-ups will link to our website, where there will be additional information as it is documented. The focus of the map is to show the number and variety of enslavers during this time period, the number and variety of historic communities in the county, and the links between the enslavers and HBCs.

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The mapping project is a living piece of research that will continue to evolve over time. As we uncover more information we will add it to our published documents. 

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Our group of volunteers has researched the county's historic Black communities—well over 100 at this point—and a linked committee has begun interviewing descendants to learn first-hand information about the histories of these communities. We have also researched enslavers in Montgomery County between 1860 and 1865. 

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Oral History Project

Interview descendants of historic Black communities in Montgomery County about their memories of these communities and their history, from their founding through the Jim Crow era. We will continue to produce videos from a variety of descendants and post them on MoCoLMP’s YouTube page, website and social media, to help fill out the history of our county’s HBCs.

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Racial Covenants Project  

Many residences in Montgomery County have deeds with [now illegal] covenants banning Black people, Jewish people, or other groups from living there. This project will teach homeowners how to delete this language.

 

Short-term Goal:

• We have held a webinar on racial covenants, followed by an in-person tutorial on how to identify and remove these covenants from deeds, while preserving their history.

Long-term Goal:

• Educate the public on how redlining and covenants undermined wealth accumulation for Black families.​

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To join a MoCoLMP project, send us a message.