Bearing Witness to Racism from a Privileged Perspective
I was raised in the 50s and 60s in Silver Spring, Maryland. I’m white and everyone around me was white. That was normal for me.
I thought being in Maryland outside of D.C. was an exciting place to grow up. Through my own experiences and what I’ve learned about deed covenants, I am becoming more aware of what was responsible for controversial issues happening today around voting suppression, bans on teaching and books, and inequities that have always been there. There are Photographs that Tell a Story by Elliot Erwitt from this period and images from events in some of the articles I reference in this post including a painting by my mom.
I didn’t have all the information about segregation and how it was planned. I decided to research and learn about deed covenants that restricted certain people from living in Silver Spring. I found what I was looking for in the Columbia College of Arts and Science History News Report: Silver Spring, Maryland Has Whitewashed Its Past and A Little Silver Spring History both by David S. Rotenstein. The first restrictive covenants attached to properties in Silver Spring were included in deeds executed by Virginia attorney and real estate speculator Robert Holt Easley (1856–1941).
“Silver Spring, an unincorporated place in Montgomery County adjacent to the District of…
