SCOTLAND, Md. — Scotland families owned over 500 acres of land in the heart of Montgomery County’s Potomac River Valley starting in 1880. It was valuable land. Montgomery County wanted it and so did investors.
Many families who could not read or write, were swindled into giving up their land or selling it for pennies on the dollar. Over generations, powerful forces started to gobble up their once vast resources.
Today, that 500-plus acres, is down to just 10 acres. Of that, Scotland families own just three.
Some of the very places where many people shop, live, play and worship are stepping on the Scotland community. It's land that would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars or more.
"Anybody that had a dollar would try and buy our houses," said Roosevelt Twyman, Scotland’s oldest living resident.
When they couldn’t do that, an effort to save Scotland morphed into a first-of-its-kind housing experiment where new townhomes would be built with federal aid. Seventy-five were available for rent and 25 were left for ownership. It was heralded at the time as a model for the nation but there was a catch.
Bernard Scott married into Scotland.
"When a family was bought out, and they were allowed to purchase one of the 25 homes, the money that they received was only really enough to purchase the home,” he said.
This meant, there was nothing left to maintain the homes and eventually, the promise of what Scotland could have become was unfulfilled.
Yvonne Arrington Heard is a fourth-generation Scotland descendant.
“We’ve been here," she said. "We matter.”
The Scotland A.M.E. Zion Church is the one constant in this community. But how do you reconcile the past with the future of Scotland?
With so much of their land removed, the very existence of this enclave is threatened. What might restorative justice look like, in the face of generations of injustice to the people in this historic community?
We spoke to Scotland AME Zion Pastor Dr. Evalina Huggins and got her thoughts.
“If there’s any community, not just Scotland, but any community in Montgomery County that is living below the poverty level," Huggins said. "Let’s make sure they have housing, let’s make sure they have job opportunities, let’s make sure their schools are parallel with some of the other schools in the county so that all our residents are getting the best services that the county has to give."
Restorative Justice is about ensuring that communities that don’t have hit resources to fight for themselves - have someone in a powerful position advocating for them.
"Restorative justice says loudly, we can’t build roads, down the middle of certain communities because they’re Black or they’re poor, or the underserved," Higgins added. "We can’t do those things. We’ve got to look at the big picture so that no one suffers based on development, based on financiers that come in.”
Today, modern matriarch and fifth-generation Latisha Gasaway-Paul is helping to carry the torch of Scotland taking the baton toward its future.
"So long as I have my God who’s never failed me, from my generation, which is the fifth generation, so my children’s generation, which is the sixth generation, we’re going to stand, and we’re going to do and we’re going to fight for Scotland because Scotland fought for us," she said.
The center of the fight for Scotland has always been the church.
The 2nd Century Project, in honor of the upcoming second century of the church, is similar to the Save Our Scotland effort back in the 1960s. That combined with a Juneteenth Celebration are both helping to raise funds for the church.
It will floodproof the landscape, restore it for use as a community center, and then build a new worship space. Scotland AME Zion Church is a nonprofit organization and a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity. Click here to donate.
The project has raised $6 million thanks to a generous donation from Mitch and Emily Rales and from smaller donors who believe in making sure Scotland is a thriving part of our community. Scotland descendants are grateful for the support of Mitch and Emily Rales and the Glenstone Museum.
Rales and his team have helped the church with its quest for self-determination, assisting but not telling them what to do. Rales chartered a bus to bring Scotland residents to a Commanders game last season and players wore cleats with Scotland on the side, to auction off to benefit the church.
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