SCOTLAND, Md. — The Scotland Community in Potomac, Maryland has a rich history filled with generations of African American families who have endured to keep their land for more than a century.
The plight of Scotland families was largely unknown to most who didn’t live in Montgomery County until the late 1960s. Racism, gentrification and greed became powerful forces of erasure at a time when this African American community was at a crossroads.
But, a young Jewish mother learned about the living conditions in the Potomac enclave, and soon an interracial and interfaith effort called “Save Our Scotland” was born.
"My oldest child was in kindergarten, and she was coming home saying things about her Black classmates, using expressions that she never heard in our house," Joyce Siegel said. "I just wanted to see where those kids were coming from to understand.”
What Joyce Siegel saw back in 1965 was something she could not believe.
"They had a water pump that wasn’t working and outhouse, and they were prohibited from digging more wells," Siegel said. "They were prohibited from building more outhouses. I just thought I’m living like a queen, you know, and my daughter’s classmates are living without public services.”
Fifth generation Scotland descendant LaTisha Gasaway-Paul lives in the Scotland Community today.
“My ancestors lived in shacks," Gasaway-Paul said. "They didn’t have windows, no electricity, no sewer system. And, the county built everywhere around Scotland to force them off that land. How could someone do such a thing to a human being?”
Scotland families had wondered the same thing for years.
In 1965, Siegel had wanted to learn more so she visited the Scotland community and approached the matriarch and prominent community leader, Geneva Mason.
“I said, 'I’d like to try and help' and she said, 'well, a lot of people have said they wanted to help, but I’m willing to work with you,'" Siegel recalls.
Conditions were dire and they had to work fast. The county was on the verge of condemning the whole community; families needed housing.
But there was a catch.
“You can’t get housing until you getpipes and water, and you can’t get pipes and water unless you have clear title," Siegel said. "There was no clear title because it’s called Heir Property. It gets passed down from one generation to another and it ends with like 100 people might own a 10th of an acre. And, you need to get all their signatures.”
The land was divided into little parcels and they had to track down each owner.
Mason and Siegel called a community meeting to get support. Scotland residents came, alongside interfaith ministers and other leaders. They formed a nonprofit called the Scotland Development Corporation, and Gasaway-Paul's grandfather, Melvin Crawford, became the president.
“He had to convince the community in Scotland that we could do it, because they had given up hope," Gasaway-Paul said of her grandfather.
Today, Roosevelt Twyman, 94, is Scotland’s oldest living resident.
"It was a hard job," Twyman said of the effort to create livable homes for Scotland families. "A lot of people didn’t want to take the chance, you know. But then we finally all decided, well, let’s go along with it, because we can’t be any worse off than we are now.”
The Scotland Development Corporation met monthly at Scotland AME Zion Church and “Save Our Scotland” was launched in 1965. They hosted rummage sales, talent shows and more to raise money. The group also lobbied local and federal lawmakers to awaken them to the plight of the community and their quest for housing.
Their efforts caught the attention of America’s first Black cabinet member, HUD Secretary Robert Weaver, and ultimately President Lyndon B. Johnson. In August 1965, Johnson signed the Housing and Urban Development Act, which expanded funding for federal housing programs.
The first loan from the program helped Scotland residents strike a deal. They would allocate 36 acres of their land to create a townhome community with a mix of low interest mortgages or federally subsidized rent.
"April 1967, when that sign went up, it was thrilling because we knew we were going to build the houses," Siegel said. "We had the zoning, the title -- we had everything. This is an example of what people can do together, and that should be what it’s about, whatever you’re doing.”
On the day of the groundbreaking, April 21, 1968, Siegel took her kids out of school to bear witness. Crawford helped tear down old houses to make room for 75 homes to rent, and 25 more still owned today by Scotland descendants.
“He said the work of this corporation, there is no Black power or white power. But a universal power of all races and creeds," Gasaway-Paul said of her grandfather. "For me, that’s a powerful thing.”
Twyman remembers the day they finally moved into those new homes.
“It was just like Christmas, seeing those houses going up," he said. “My grandfather collected furniture from different homes. He asked the community, 'if you have any additional furniture that you care to do away with, please it would be a blessing for us because we’d never had homes.'"
There is something about Scotland that beckons those who call it home, back home.
Gasaway-Paul and her sisters launched a successful childcare business, helping to shape young lives. But she knew in order to help save Scotland from extinction, she needed to be back in the place where it all began, in her grandparents’ home with the light they selected when it was first built.
Gasaway-Paul thought for a moment about letting that go when she started to restore the home but her mother offered some advice.
"I was like, the light is old," she said of her conversation with her mother. "And she was like, 'yes, but your light is your history. Let your light shine.' So it wasn’t until that moment, that I got it.”
Gasaway-Paul, like so many in this community, said she is grateful for Siegel who is now 90 and still involved with the families of the Scotland community.
“I thank God for Mrs. Siegel stepping in, saying something needs to be done," Gasaway-Paul said. "Because I don’t know if we’d be here right now, in this home, if she had not stepped in. A Black community that once prospered in this area, and was almost annihilated by government action and that it took the efforts of a lot of good people in the community and out of the community to save what was left.”
Scotland’s local effort made a huge impact nationally. Siegel went on to become Housing Commissioner in Montgomery County and continues to serve in the community today.
The Scotland Community is currently working to raise $10 million to floodproof the around the A.M.E. Zion Church, -- where the Save Our Scotland campaign was first born -- and build a new community center space. To learn more about the project, click here.
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