RURAL REDLINING: HOW RILEY ROBERTS ROAD LOST ITS WAY

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dc.contributor.advisorNelson, Deborah Jen_US
dc.contributor.authorKobell, Rona Anneen_US
dc.contributor.departmentJournalismen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2022-06-15T05:32:12Z
dc.date.available2022-06-15T05:32:12Z
dc.date.issued2021en_US
dc.description.abstractHistorians, journalists, and sociologists have documented how 20th century bankers, insurance agents, and city officials discriminated against Black Americans through a system known as redlining. This practice segregated Black residents into certain neighborhoods and reduced the value of their property, making it far more difficult to pass down generational wealth. A similar but less obvious phenomenon occurred in rural areas on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. After the Civil War, Black residents typically found themselves able to buy only the lowest land with the poorest soil. That, too, set up a cascade of events that imperiled Black Marylanders’ ability to pass down generational wealth. This thesis shows how laws, policies, and customs caused an Eastern Shore community to disappear, with a new generation unable to share in its ancestors’ investments. Those factors include the difficulty majority-Black towns had incorporating, which made it harder to receive funds for rebuilding and harder to maintain control of what goes on within their borders; a lack of investment in historic Black properties, in part because state agencies prefer to work with established non-profit historic societies, most of which are white; poor ditch management in lower lands; and an inability to attract state open-space funds to help preserve their lands. For the most part, journalists have not been covering this, because the story is happening slowly and without a major “news hook” to lure in traditional editors. This thesis uses Riley Roberts Road as a case study to examine the broader issue of Black towns, how we’ve lost them, why that history is crucial, and what we can do to make sure we don’t forget the ones that are still with us.en_US
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/fqrt-t5ai
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/28695
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledJournalismen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledAfrican American studiesen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledHistoryen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledAfrican-American landmarksen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledclimate changeen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledlanden_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledredliningen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledRosenwalden_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledsegregationen_US
dc.titleRURAL REDLINING: HOW RILEY ROBERTS ROAD LOST ITS WAYen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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