Montgomery County Kinship Coalition, MD

03/31/2026

Loss of land because of the tax burden and other pressures led to loss of land by Black landowners in 1901.

https://open.substack.com/pub/kinshipcoalition/p/land-loss-by-black-families-in-1901?r=81mzpl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

05/28/2025

President of the Sugarland Ethnohistory Project, Suzanne Johnson, talks about her grandparents and the delicious food produced at the historic Black Community of Sugarland, in Montgomery County, Maryland, when she was growing up.

Click: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N7yGY4F1mw

01/10/2025

George Washington Peck was born into slavery in 1858 and lived in the Poolesville/Beallsville area in Montgomery County, MD his entire life. In January 1880, he was accused of attempted r**e and, denied trial, was dragged to a locust tree in the center of town in Poolesville by a mob and hung by the neck until dead. Later, the local Black community moved his body and buried him in their churchyard.

This memorial to Mr. Peck can be seen in front of the community garden in Poolesville. More information can be found here: https://www.mocolmp.org/victims-of-racial-terror.

01/07/2025

The Gwendolyn E. Coffield Community Center was built in 2000 in Lyttonsville, part of Silver Spring, MD, honoring a long-time activist. Years of lobbying from the 1960s to 1980s by Ms. Coffield and Mr. Lawrence Tyson for urban renewal eventually led to paved roads, street lights, and water and sewer facilities. Before then, along with other underserved communities in Montgomery County, most of the roads in Lyttonsville were dirt and gravel, and families got water from wells and used outhouses.

For more information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyttonsville

https://montgomeryplanning.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Lyttonsville-Approved-and-Adopted-5-29-2017-WEB-MASTER.pdf

11/29/2024

The Big Woods historic Black community, has gorgeous views like this on Big Woods Road in Dickerson. The mountains are part of the ancient Appalachian mountain range that runs through Maryland.

Big Woods was founded in 1813 by James Spencer, who bought 50 acres from Thomas Morton. Then in 1846, Rev. Elijah Awkard bought 37. By 1861 he owned 160 acres. The Mt. Zion M.E. Church was one of the first Black churches founded post-emancipation in Montgomery County.

In 1870s & 1880s, other families like the Lees began moving in and buying +/- 1-5 acre lots from the Hempstone estate & other families. We don't know if there are still any historic families living there. If you know, please comment!

11/25/2024

Fauquier County, VA's historic Black communities and the Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County (AAHA) have put out interesting websites with information on the communities, churches, and even an interactive "storymap."

In 1860, about half of Fauquier County’s population was made up of free and enslaved African Americans. On the heels of the historical periods of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the great migration, civil rights and integration, descendants of these residents now make up less than 10 percent of...

11/19/2024

George McDaniel's book is worth reading -- there's so much interesting information on the HBCs here. It's available at 3 MoCo libraries, and on Amazon.

In the 1970s, Peace Corps volunteer and Vietnam veteran George McDaniel began his new life as a historian here in this area by documenting the buildings and homes of our African American communities. He shared much of his research—including oral histories, interviews, and never-before-seen property deeds—in the 1979 book "Black Historical Resources in Upper Western Montgomery County," published by Sugarloaf Regional Trails.

Over time, George's book became hard to find. Some historians passed around ripped, faded photocopies. Because of its rarity, some book dealers priced it at hundreds of dollars.

Fortunately, George has reprinted this important book for the benefit of everyone. If you collect books about local history, you'll absolutely want one of these reprints—available on Amazon for only $8.99.
https://www.amazon.com/Historical-Resources-Western-Montgomery-County/dp/B0CB2FV2MT/

George later served as director of Drayton Hall in South Carolina, where he was a pioneer in bringing together white and black descendants to shed light on history through shared conversations about troubling subjects and difficult times. His work is a cornerstone for the study of African American history in our area, and we're glad he got his start here—in Sugarland, Martinsburg, Big Woods, and other local communities, one friendly conversation at a time.

(Photo: Tilghman Lee chats with George McDaniel on the steps of his Sugarland home in the late 1970s.)

11/19/2024

In 2022, Montgomery Planning’s Historic Preservation Office put out the early results of a study they'd done on segregation in Montgomery County. Unfortunately, it only shows the Takoma Park area. But the interactive map they built also shows historic Black churches, schools and cemeteries throughout the county-- just click on those boxes on the left to have them appear on the map. (Or click on the 1900s, 1920s, etc. boxes to see those homes--we've found some folks' parents' and grandparents' homes there!)

Interactive map: https://mcplanning.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0d26456118d34a14b2d27aec8d6f2b1a

Explanation of the project: https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/historic/research-and-designation/mapping-segregation-project/

The information explains redlining, racial covenants, and other methods that were used to affect home ownership in MoCo.

Mapping Segregation in Montgomery County To advance the county’s commitment to racial equity, Montgomery Planning’s Historic Preservation Office, Research and Strategic Projects Division, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Team will […]

11/01/2024

We visited the beautifully kept Seneca Community Church Cemetery on Violette's Lock here in Seneca, MD. We found Clippers, Jacksons, Beanders, Beckwiths, Dixons, Dorseys, Drivers, Duvalls, Ellises, Genies, Halls, Johnsons, a Lee, a Martin, a Mason and more.

Many of them can be found on FindaGrave.com, under the cemetery name.

We also went down to the canal to see the historic Seneca Quarry, where many of the men from the Seneca and nearby HBCs quarried Seneca sandstone back in the day. Some of it was used to build the Smithsonian Castle and several of the nearby canal locks. Sadly, it had recently been freshly graffitied.

09/20/2024

Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission to hold public hearing in Montgomery County:

October 5, 2024, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
The Universities at Shady Grove
9630 Gudelsky Dr, Rockville, MD 20850

This is also streaming on Zoom -- a link will be posted on the MLTRC website the day before the hearing.

The Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission (MLTRC) has been holding hearings throughout the state, focusing on the 38 documented lynchings that happened in the state during Jim Crow (3 in Montgomery County), and exploring paths toward racial reconciliation.

Register here: https://mdlynchingmemorial.networkforgood.com/events/76228-maryland-lynching-truth-and-reconciliation-commission

09/18/2024

For those who are interested in history, an interesting article on Black artisans and builders in the county:

"To identify the men who designed and constructed for Montgomery County's evolving black communities and learn as much as possible about their lives, training and what they built, it is necessary to begin with their predecessors, the black artisans.

In the years between 1790 and 1860, slaves far outnumbered free blacks in the County. There were at least four enclaves of free blacks by 1865: Big Woods near Dickerson, Mt. Ephraim near Sugarloaf Mountain, Sandy Spring, and Haiti in Rockville.

Maryland's laws did not discourage the training of skilled blacks, slave or free. Education of blacks was not forbidden by State law, and a 1796 law prohibiting manumission of slaves unable to support themselves also encouraged skilled blacks in certain circumstances...."

From "Black Builders in Montgomery County 1865-1940," by Eileen McGuckian, February 1992.https://montgomeryhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Vol35No1_MCStory.pdf

Photo below is of the Ross-Powell-Crutchfield House on Martin's Lane in Rockville. Photo from Google. https://rockvillemd.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1806/Ross-Powell-Crutchfield-House-Historic-District?bidId=