Norton, Raskin Announce Hearing on Their Bill to Remove Name of Segregationist Newlands from Chevy Chase Circle

Press Release

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) today announced that the Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands will hold a hearing on their bill to remove the name of Francis G. Newlands, a former U.S. senator from Nevada who held racist views, from Chevy Chase Circle on Thursday, July 14, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. The name appears on the fountain and a plaque in the circle, which is a federal park. The circle lies partly in the District of Columbia and partly in Maryland's 8th Congressional District, which Raskin represents. Norton will testify at the hearing.

"Thank you to Subcommittee Chair Neguse and Committee Chair Grijalva for holding tomorrow's important hearing," Norton said. "Memorials dedicated to Confederates and segregationists belong in museums, not on our streets, where they can be misconstrued to mean current support of their racist ideologies. The plaque and fountain dedicated to Newlands tell no story. They are meant only to honor a segregationist who argued that the voting rights won for African Americans as a result of the Civil War should be repealed. Newlands belongs in the dustbin of history, not preserved on a traffic circle that symbolizes the unity between the nation's capital and the state of Maryland."

"Francis Newlands was a fierce segregationist whose views have been outstripped and discredited by history," said Rep. Raskin. "We should not be rewarding the exponents of racist ideology with a public memorial on public property. Our Francis G. Newlands Memorial Removal Act will end this strange welcome to Maryland and I'm grateful to my colleagues on the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands for considering the bill. I will continue working with Congresswoman Norton and all our colleagues to bring this bill to the House floor for a vote."

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