Footsteps from North Brentwood Digital Exhibition

The mayors of North Brentwood have been Jeremiah Hawkins, John Gilmore, Horace Allen, Julius Wheeler, Sandy Baker Sr., George Lucas, William Bellows, Raymond Hall, Sandy Johnson, Arthur Dock, and Lilliane Beverly. Among these, William Bellows, who was elected as mayor in 1945, served consecutive terms through 1963 and served an additional term beginning in 1968, has the distinction of the longest years of service. A health officer was added to the council in 1946.
Since its inception, the North Brentwood Citizens Association (formerly Colored Brentwood Citizens Association) has met regularly to protect the life, health, property, and general welfare of the town’s citizens. It has kept the street in repair and well lit with oil lamps and then with electric lamps installed in1923. The Association presents views, resolutions, and petitions to the Municipal, Prince George’s County, and State of Maryland governments seeking better services for the community.

As early as 1906, the North Brentwood Colored Citizens Association began sponsoring an Annual Fair that advertised exhibits of vegetables, poultry, milk cows, concerts, and athletics. Bull roasts or big barbecues were used by the Citizens Association to help raise money for public improvements. By the late 1930s, the Citizens Association sponsored homecoming events that included a civic program, the crowning of Miss North Brentwood, dinner, and dance. Charles Hamilton Houston, Howard University law professor and civil rights attorney, was the featured speaker at the 1939 homecoming.

The work ethic was instilled in children at an early age by elders, families, and teachers and reinforced by the community. Through both word and deed, children learned the values of working correctly, honestly, hard, and regularly. Hammond Thomas, reflecting on the influences of his father, William Henry Thomas, states that “Our prime role model was our father who worked for the government, and he had a wonderful record of reporting for work. He was never late in thirty years of working for the post office.“ Addison Hobbs shares, “I learned that if you wanted to be anything, or anybody, that you had to want to work; and you had to have the desire to learn, because if you didn’t, it was the kind of thing that the first job you got, would be the last job you had, if you didn’t learn.” He adds that “If you don’t inherit money you’ve got to earn a living. And the necessity of earning a living–meager or large– is both a direction and a goal.”
Sharing also extended to people outside the community. During the depression, Addison Hobbs remembers homeless people coming by the house to sit by the fire. There was always a pot of coffee, soup, or something. I know a very elderly lady and a very elderly man that used to always come by for meals and to talk.”
Each family contributed to whatever was being done. If you didn’t contribute money, you contribute labor, you contributed something in the form of food. We didn’t realize that we were poor.” The school reinforced this idea of civic participation. According to Addison Hobbs, “One of the things about the North Brentwood School I remember is the fact that everybody took part and they insisted that you communicate effectively. So there were always plays and declaration contests that in order to participate, you had to speak well… if you learned to speak well, you were far ahead in the game, but without it, you wouldn’t even get the opportunity to benefit.”

Teenagers frequently worked outside the town after school. Both Addison and Orlando Hobbs delivered newspapers and worked as janitors in Hyattsville. During the 1940s and early 1950s, several boys worked evenings in the fraternity houses at the University of Maryland, College Park, in the kitchens of the Hot Shoppes, and as pinsetters at the bowling alleys in Mt. Ranier and Hyattsville. Arthur Dock worked at the University of Maryland cleaning up after the rabbits that were used in experiments. Bettye Queen helped out at the Catholic school and Rectory, and William Palmer delivered newspapers and did other odd jobs such as cutting grass and painting.

Jeremiah Hawkins was a businessman and politician born under slavery in Prince George’s County on November 25, 1862. He was the younger of three sons by Henry and Catherine Hawkins. As a young man, Jeremiah worked on his father’s farm and by the time he became 18 years old he could read and write. In 1903 Jeremiah Hawkins married Frances Emma Quander and two years later they moved to North Brentwood. The Hawkins operated a dairy farm out of their home and made large investments in the real estate offered by the Holloday Company.
Jeremiah Hawkins demonstrated an interest in community politics early in his adult life. By 1887 Hawkins was serving as a juror on the local circuit court and that same year he began to attend the county conventions of the Republican Party as a delegate from Brandywine. A natural-born orator, Hawkins became president of the Brentwood Colored Citizens Association in 1911 and held the position until 1922. He devoted his last two years at the civic association to the incorporation of North Brentwood in 1924 and became the town’s first elected mayor.
The same year North Brentwood was incorporated, Jeremiah Hawkins was elected as a delegate from Prince George’s County to the National Republican Convention. In the same capacity eight years earlier, he was denied the right to attend the National Republican Convention in Chicago because of his race. However, Hawkins’ local supporters recognized him as one of the outstanding Republican leaders of Maryland and elected him to serve the 1928 and 1935 Republican National Convention as well.
Jeremiah Hawkins died on March 30, 1940.

Francis Emma Quander Hawkins, 1905. Francis Emma Quander married Jeremiah in 1903. In addition to managing the family business, she was the town secretary and treasurer.

Bernard Tilghman was the first black sheriff in Prince George’s County and the State of Maryland. His granddaughter, Bettye Queen, recounts that “whenever there would be an altercation in North Brentwood or black areas, he would be called. He would put you on the streetcar and take you to Hyattsville jail.”

Lillian Beverly’s family was one of the busiest in providing for the less fortunate. She notes, “My family sewed, the female members sewed very well, and when clothes were made for me there were also additional dresses made for the young girls in the community. When people would buy their food, you’d buy the food by the sack. No one was left hungry, that was unheard of in that day.” Lillian Beverly further states that “all had to participate… the community only progressed as far as its members allowed it to. Each family contributed to whatever was being done. If you didn’t contribute money, you contribute labor, you contributed something in the form of food. We didn’t realize that we were poor.”

The Plummer family is one of Prince George’s County’s most treasured families. Their history can be traced back for a whole century. They were one of the first African American families to settle in North Brentwood after the Civil War and Adam Francis Plummer kept records of the family history in his diary. Born in 1819, Mr. Plummer received three acres and a mule upon emancipation. He and his wife, Emily Saunders Plummer, were married in 1841. Unfortunately, their marriage was not recognized due to their enslavement and they lived on separate plantations. Mr. Plummer purchased 10 acres of land in Mount Rose and build a log house as his family dwelling. His children’s names are Sarah Miranda, Henry Vinton, Elias Cupid Quincy, Julia Ann, Carolina Maria, Nicholas Saunders, Marjorie Ellen Rose, Margaret Jane, Robert Francis, and Nellie Arnold.

After the federal repeal of prohibition in 1933, at least four taverns or “beer gardens” operated in the town at the same time–Sis’s, Holmes’, Stewart’s, and Dock’s.
Through the 1920s, state and federal laws and temperance associations within the town prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages. After the federal repeal of prohibition in 1933, beer gardens and taverns such as Sis’s, Holmes’, Stewart’s, and Dock’s opened and attracted many patrons from the District and other communities to the town. Among the beer gardens, Sis’s was best known. Bettye Queen remembers, “if you met anybody from D.C., if you said you were from North Brentwood, the first thing they would ask you is, “Oh, you live out there near Sis’s””. Goldie Tilghman recalls that “Pearl Bailey sang out at Sis’s when she first got started. Sis’s up there on 41st. Avenue. She had great entertainers out here.” William Palmer also recalls that, “People would come from D.C. and watch shows and dances, drinking and sometimes fighting.” Holmes’ beer garden tavern, also known as the “Bucket of Blood,” was more infamous due to the numerous fights that took place thereafter the baseball games.

Charles Hamilton Houston, Howard University law professor and civil rights attorney, was the featured speaker at the 1939 homecoming.

At the same time, live entertainment, such as the Blackbirds Orchestra, was featured at Thomas’ Park–an open-air pavilion. Social Clubs were an important source of recreation. One adult group, the Modernistics Social Clubs, organized dances, trips, and fundraising events during the 1930s. Teenage clubs, such as the “Keen Teens” and the El Salvadorians, organized sock hops and dances. Later, the Brentwood Villa, which had a jukebox and dancing, was a place for teenagers to hang out. Mr. Hall, the owner of the Villa, had one of the first TV sets in town.

The largest households consisted of families containing 6 and 11 members. Twenty-seven families matched these characteristics, and they accounted for 45 percent of the town’s population. The Tilghmans (10) were among one of the largest families in North Brentwood in 1920. Typically family members in large households included grandchildren, nephews, nieces, and siblings. Elderly persons maintained separate residences and did not usually live in the same household with their children and grandchildren.

Bettye Queen was the granddaughter of the first black sheriff in Prince George’s County, Bernard Tilghman. Queen remembers her grandfather, stating that “whenever there would be an altercation in North Brentwood or black areas, he would be called. He would put you on the streetcar and take you to Hyattsville jail.” Bettye Queen was also known in the community for volunteering at the Catholic school and Rectory.

Lillian Beverly’s family was one of the busiest in providing for the less fortunate. She notes, “My family sewed, the female members sewed very well, and when clothes were made for me there were also additional dresses made for the young girls in the community. When people would buy their food, you’d buy the food by the sack. No one was left hungry, that was unheard of in that day.” Lillian Beverly further states that “all had to participate… the community only progressed as far as its members allowed it to. Each family contributed to whatever was being done. If you didn’t contribute money, you contribute labor, you contributed something in the form of food. We didn’t realize that we were poor.

Among the earliest generation in the town were elders who helped develop the moral expectations of family and community. One of the oldest residents through 1920 was Otho Johnson (82). Johnson was one of the first treasurers of the Brentwood Colored Citizens Association.

North Brentwood Elementary School, a larger six-room school with auditorium and library, was completed in 1944, during World II, and remained open until June 1969. Desegregation orders mandated from Upper Marlboro resulted in the school’s closing, despite strong and organized community opposition. After its closing, children in the town were reassigned to neighboring elementary schools in Brentwood and Mount Ranier. Beginning in the early 1950’s, Lakeland High School became a junior high school and North Brentwood students were assigned to the new Fairmount Heights High School. Following desegregation in the late 1960s, north Brentwood students attended and continue to attend elementary schools within Mt. Rainer and Brentwood, Mount Ranier Junior High School, and Northwestern High School in Hyattsville. Teachers in North Brentwood were unusually dedicated, resourceful, nurturing, and capable and many maintained high expectations of their students, which they insisted that students meet. Teachers were informally a part of the extended family in the community. The closeness, warmth wholeness, and character of the relationships between the teachers, parents, and students frequently resulted in teachers going beyond the call of duty to redefine the relationships of the school, family, and community. The school served breakfast and lunch to those students in need. Teachers were commonly visible in the town during weekends, summers, and special events. Sometimes, children even visited teachers homes for dinner or for weekend visits. Although most teachers lived outside the town, there were always some who resided in North Brentwood. Principles through the 1950s functioned as teacher-principals. Despite important strengths, however, education and teaching in North Brentwood through the 1930s had to overcome several challenges. Resources that were distributed to the black schools were separate and unequal: materials, such as course texts were always older, second-hand books that were passed down after white schools received new ones; two students shared a desk, which like the books were also passed down after white students had used them; and the crowding of two or more grades in one room often meant that competing activities would frequently distract those students who were not disciplined enough to concentrate.

Younger generations of North Brentwood interviewees echoed similar expectations as their elders. Leroy Dock, the General manager of Centennial 1 Incorporated, notes that his family, teachers, and Rev. Perry Smith inspired in him the faith, confidence, and knowledge to achieve: “My mother used to tell me there’s no such thing as can’t. You can become anything you want to become. All you have to be willing to do is work hard enough and sacrifice. And if you are willing to work hard enough, the people in this world will support you.”

One principal, Mr. Williams Hall organized the North Brentwood Boys Club after school in 194 6, and during the 1960s Mr. Joseph Parker coordinated the “Operation REACH’ program-Raising the Education Achievement of Child and Home. Through the program, literacy, training, and cultural activities were provided to children and parents.

Through the sponsorship of the Baptist and Methodist churches, activities such as recitals, plays, banquets, fashion shows, and other programs were organized. Mrs. Flora Gaither’s piano class frequently gave recitals in the churches. Special programs at Easter and Christmas, combining plays, oratory, and music, encouraged broad participation. The annual church-sponsored picnics and bus excursions to Carr’s Beach and Sparrow’s Beach brought out many families.

Footsteps from North Brentwood Digital Exhibition

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