There is currently a fountain in Washington D.C. dedicated to Francis G Newlands, a man who spent his life promoting white supremacist ideals and fighting against equality. With your help, we hope to encourage DC Council to rededicate this fountain to someone who better represents our community. Below you will find more information about Francis Newlands and our plan to rename the fountain.

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There is a fountain at the center of Chevy Chase Circle, right by the border of DC and Maryland. Prominently located, upon entering and leaving DC commuters drive around the grand monument, commemorating the man it's dedicated to. Tens of thousands of people pass by it every day, however few of them know that the fountain is dedicated to Francis G Newlands. He was known within the DC community for building the Chevy Chase neighborhood, but what is less commonly addressed is his exceedingly racist beliefs. He was an avid white supremacist, which was seen clearly in his political activity. He fostered great dislike for the Japanese, and as a senator, he petitioned against Japanese-US relations. This bigotry translated over into his interactions with the Black community, and he tried at multiple times to repeal the 15th Amendment, which allowed African-American citizens to vote. He tried to prevent Black people from seeking higher education, believing that they were incapable of doing anything more than menial labor. His highly nationalistic and racist beliefs are not in congruence with the values that we as a society strive towards today, and by maintaining this monument to such a man, we implicitly support his actions.

A proposal was made in 2014 to remove mention of Newlands from the fountain, but the motion was tabled indefinitely in the 3G Advisory Neighborhood Commission. Considering the recent resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the growing acceptance of removing statues dedicated to historically racist individuals, there is no time like the present move forward with the resolution.

Many other people who have executed meaningful and positive change have come from DC, including Fredrick Douglass, Fanny Muriel Jackson Coppin, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Langston Hughes. Picking any one of these remarkable people to name it after would be far more fitting. With your help, we hope that we can get this proposal reopened, and push to get this fountain renamed and rededicated once and for all.

Sources:

Merleaux, April. Sugar and Civilization: American Empire and the Cultural Politics of Sweetness. UNC Press Books, 2015.

Newlands, Francis G. “A Western View of the Race Question.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 34, no. 2, 1909, pp. 49–51. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1011210 Accessed 29 June 2020.

Sissons, Edward Hawkins. “Chevy Chase Circle Fountain: A Call to Rededicate a Memorial to Racism.” New Geography, 25 Feb. 2009, https://www.newgeography.com/content/00614-chevy-chase-circle-fountain-a-call-to-rededicate-a-memorial-to-racism