D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and several Maryland lawmakers are calling for the name of a former U.S. senator with segregationist views to be removed from a federal park in the D.C. region
Norton, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D) and Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D) and Ben Cardin (D) have introduced legislation in the House and Senate to scrub the name of Francis Griffiths Newlands, who represented Nevada in both the House and Senate near the turn of the 20th century, from Chevy Chase Circle, a park located on the D.C.-Maryland border.
“Newlands does not deserve to be honored on federal land,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Charles Sams III, director of the National Park Service. “In 1912, he called for the repeal of the 15th Amendment, which gave African American men the right to vote. As a founder of the Chevy Chase Land Company, Newlands included covenants to homes on Connecticut Avenue to explicitly prohibit the land from being owned by African American or Jewish homeowners and priced the properties to keep low-income people out of the neighborhood.”
The lawmakers wanted NPS to expedite the removal because of the approaching end of the current congressional session and the agency’s authority to take such action.