Carl Snowden: Lawsuit shines a light on Annapolis public housing

When The Capital reported on their front page on July 25, 1984, that “HUD finds bias in Annapolis’s housing plans” it generated stories across the region.

It was the first time in the history of the City of Annapolis that the federal government had found that the city government had knowingly discriminated against African-Americans based on their race and color in their housing policies.

The then-Mayor Richard L. Hillman acknowledged the problem. The report was both damming and alarming. Yet, nothing happened. It became just another story about racism and its corrosive impact on a community of color.

Then, last month, 35 years later, a lawsuit brought by Annapolis attorney Joseph Donahue and the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau representing residents living in public housing alleged that they are the victims of a continuing and systemic racism. In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Baltimore, the 111-page lawsuit in vivid details lay out a painful history of racism.

The lawsuit says: “The historical record is clear: Annapolis was integral in the perpetuation of the African slave trade, which resulted in the subjugation of newly imported Africans to white slaveholders.”

The lawsuit gives readers a history that they will not find in the curriculum in Anne Arundel County Public Schools and they will be hard pressed to find it at Anne Arundel Community College. What this lawsuit does is hold up a mirror and what you see is frightening.

The authors of this enlightening lawsuit says: “As the Civil Rights movement was taking hold across the nation, the City of Annapolis, in cooperation with HACA, moved its African-American residents away from the City Center. These residents were provided public housing units, and many, then stripped of their livelihood, were congregated into dense developments scattered miles from employment opportunities and without a viable transportation system. Given no alternative, the once vibrant community was decimated, and its population crammed into public housing against their will. The African American residents of Annapolis have never recovered from the 1960s urban renewal policies of the City of Annapolis.”

The lawsuit brings a bright light to problems that existed in the shadows before either Mayor Gavin Buckley or the soon to be retiring CEO of the Housing Authority for the City of Annapolis Beverly Wilbourne ever came on the scene. They inherited a history that they did not create. Yet, they must provide a blueprint for a brighter future.

At 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center, 1101 Smithville Street, Annapolis, Maryland, a forum will be held on The Future of Public Housing. In Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, we have public housing.

What does Buckley and County Executive Steuart Pittman propose to do about shrinking federal dollars and a growing aging housing stock? How do people living in public housing transition out? What do they do about allege police brutality and crime?

These and other provocative questions will be addressed at the forum on public housing. Complimentary parking, food and beverages will be provided. A social hour begins at 5 pm followed by the meeting at 6 p.m.

Invited to attend the forum are state Sen. Sarah Elfreth, Del. Alice Cain, Del. Shaneka Henson, Del. Mike Rogers, Councilwoman Lisa Brannigan Rodvien, the entire County and City Councils. Why? Because ultimately with the residents of public housing they must decide both its future and fate.

A Luta Continua, which in Portuguese means the struggle continues. Indeed, the struggle does continue and 35 years after HUD found bias, there are those who are still wondering why nothing has changed?