Black History Month #3 - More About Rossville

We’re doing a fact a day in honor of Black History Month - we hope you’ll follow along!

Map at the National Archives showing proposed location for Rossville Rural Housing that was never built. Courtesy of Ben Fischler who notes this photo was taken with a handheld camera. Post-COVID Mr. Fischler plans to return to scan the entire map.

The map above was discovered by Ben Fischler at the National Archives. It shows where the Rossville Rural Development (proposed housing for Black families) was to be located. Based on this map it’s clear that the land was actually much farther away from the rest of the Greenbelt project than researchers first hypothesized. It was situated near Muirkirk Road and the Old Baltimore Turnpike, just near Rossville, a historically black community. Local citizens, particularly in Berwyn Heights, objected to the project, as did State Senator Lansdale G. Sasscer of Upper Marlboro, MD. See newspaper clipping below from a Baltimore Sun article that ran October 16, 1935.

Excerpt from a Baltimore Sun article, "Sasscer Protests Housing Plan Near Berwyn Heights, October 16, 1935