User:Otis-milo/The Lakeland Community Heritage Project

Lead :
The Lakeland Community Heritage Project was a project that served to preserve the history of the people in the Lakeland Community. Whether it be testimonials or physical proof, the project aimed to conserve and maintain an important part of history of the Lakeland Community so that it would not vanish from existence. The history of the Lakeland Community was one of sadness, racism, and struggle. The importance of remembering people who were harmed and oppressed is vital in restorative justice and not trying to hide the past. The past impacts the future and in so there is a desperate need for recognition, acknowledgment, and apologizes in order to move forward and create a more united people.

Interesting Info / Quotes I found Applicable :
“Lakeland Community Heritage Project’s mission is to collect, preserve and interpret the heritage and history of those African Americans who created, lived in and/or had association with the Lakeland community of Prince George’s County, Maryland from the late 19th century to the present (Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center)”

“The Lakeland neighborhood was developed beginning in 1890 around the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad… Lakeland was created by Edwin Newman, who improved the original 238 acres (0.96 km2) located to the west of the railroad. He also built a number of the original homes, a small town hall, and a general store. The area was originally envisioned as a resort-type community. However, due to the flood-prone, low-lying topography, the neighborhood became an area of African-American settlement. Around 1900, the Baltimore Gold Fish Company built five artificial lakes in the area to spawn goldfish and rarer species of fish. By 1903 Lakeland was an established African-American community with a school and two churches. Lakeland was central in a group of African American communities located along Route One through Prince Georges County. Lakeland High School opened in 1928 with funding from the Rosenwald Fund, the African American community and the county. Lakeland High served all African American students in the northern half of the county until 1950 when it was converted to a facility for lower grades. The community's first Rosenwald school was a new elementary which opened in 1925 (wiki)”

“During the 1960s through the 1980s an Urban Renewal Project took place within the historic African American community of Lakeland. This project was carried out in the face of the opposition of the community's residents and resulted in the redevelopment of approximately two thirds of the community. It displaced 104 of Lakeland's 150 households (Wiki)”

“On June 9, 2020, the city government passed a "Resolution of the Mayor and Council of the City of College Park Renouncing Systemic Racism and Declaring Support of Black Lives" which recognized harm done to the historic African American community of Lakeland. In it, "the Mayor and Council acknowledge and apologize for our city's past history of oppression, particularly with regards to the Lakeland community, and actively seek opportunities for accountability and truth-telling about past injustice, and aggressively seek opportunities for restorative justice"(Wiki)”

References :
LITTLE BIT ABOUT LAKELAND HISTORY: Wikimedia Foundation. (2024a, February 24). College Park, Maryland. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Park,_Maryland

ABOUT THE PROJECT: Lakeland Community Heritage Project Digital Archive. Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. (2019, May 9). https://archive.mith.umd.edu/mith-2020/index.html%3Fp=19500.html

HISTORY OF THE LAKELAND COMMUNITY: Ross, T. C. (2022a, March 1). A history of the Lakeland Community of College Park. Hyattsville Aging in Place. https://hyattsvilleaginginplace.org/a-history-of-the-lakeland-community-of-college-park/

LAKELAND COMMUNITY CENTER HOPE FOR HISTORY: Lakeland Residents Hope Proposed Community Center celebrates neighborhood’s history. The Diamondback. (2024, February 26). https://dbknews.com/2024/02/26/lakeland-community-center-neighborhood-history/

5 MINUTE VIDEO ABOUT THE PROJECT, HISTORY, AND WHAT IT SERVES TO DO: (FROM THE CLARICE PERFORMING ARTS BUILDING AT UMD) YouTube. (2013, May 19).  Https://m.facebook.com/#!/story.php?story_fbid=406741478254 . YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KearJd6llEY

UMD START OF AN ARCHIVE: The Lakeland Digital Archive: Toward an equitable community/university collaboration. College of Arts and Humanities. (n.d.). https://arhu.umd.edu/news/lakeland-digital-archive-toward-equitable-community/university-collaboration

THE MISSION & ABOUT: Lakeland Community Heritage Project. Adobe Spark. (n.d.). https://express.adobe.com/page/6FbLBkTLDHKoM/