Title

Blacks Pool Their Lands to Replace Substandard Homes

Repository

ProQuest Historical Newspapers

Date Created

4/26/1970

Creator

By: William N. Curry
The Washington Post

Description

Report on the breaking of ground on a cooperative housing subdivision in Gum Springs. Five landowners, with the help of the Saunders B. Moon association, pooled their land holdings to create a subdivision that would contain 28 four-to-five-bedroom homes for those currently living in Gum Springs including those still living in shacks, or without water or sewage facilities. This action of pooling land resources and breaking it into a subdivision was used in the late 19th century by recently freed Black residents of Gum Springs that moved to the burgeoning community after the Civil War.

A reprisal of this tactic of claiming space and place nearly 100 years later in Gum Springs shows the versatility of means and measures to maintain and build their community even in the face of ongoing crises that had not been addressed in the continual lack of housing, drainage, and sewerage.

Research Themes

Gum Springs
Saunders B. Moon
Community Action Program
Community Action Programs
Housing
Land Pooling
Cooperative Housing
Community organization
Community resistance

Type

Newspaper

Researcher Name

Jacob Connelly

Bibliographic Citation

Curry, William N. “Blacks Pool Their Lands to Replace Substandard Homes.” The Washington Post, April 26, 1970, sec. City Life.