Blacks Pool Their Lands to Replace Substandard Homes

Item

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.

Linked resources

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