'There is a history here'

Brownsville tour an 'eye-opening' experience

* Video: Bowman on the importance of knowing about Brownsville

* Online campaign for a Brownsville monument
* Appalachian Festival schedule

By Kevin Spradlin
ENGL 336

FROSTBURG — Lynn Groesbeck Bowman looked at the gathering crowd and wondered how many in attendance would actually pay attention. There were a few who looked at the occasional passerby. A few more had their heads in a downward tilt, their focus clearly on the subject of the most recent text.

But for the majority of nearly 40 people, while Bowman and Chardinay Hines spoke for nearly an hour during a walking tour of the former Brownsville community on the upper quad of Frostburg State University, they were an attentive audience.

Bowman and Hines, an FSU senior, led a contingent on Friday afternoon through what used to be the African-American community of Brownsville within the city limits of Frostburg. The "Hidden History: A Tour of Brownsville" was conducted on the second day of the 12th annual Appalachian Festival, a three-day celebration of the Appalachian culture. 

In her book, “Being Black in Brownsville: Echoes of a‘forgotten’ Frostburg,” Bowman, a former FSU adjunct faculty member and now a professor of English at Allegany College of Maryland in Cumberland, noted that “at least 240” people used to live in what is now the upper quad of what used to be State Normal School No. 2, many of them former slaves. How State Normal School No. 2, however, evolved into what is now Frostburg State University is a tale — all too true — that brings back memories of an oppressed people forced from their homes because, it is said, they were an inconvenience.

“I think it’s important that everybody know the real heritage of an area,” Bowman said, “because all of us need to feel like we have a place, like we belong. For so long, I think many students here haven’t felt that way.”

Photo by Kevin Spradlin
Professor Lynn Groesbeck Bowman (top left), speaks in front
of Allen Hall on Friday afternoon during a walking tour of the
former Brownsville community. The area the group stood in
there was "the middle of the community," Bowman
said, when it featured 98 people and 19 homes. 

She recalled the story of an FSU student who, in the 1980s, was participating in a History class discussion. The instructor mentioned that no African-Americans owned property in Frostburg until many years after the Civil War. The student raised his hand and said that was not an accurate statement, and that, in fact, his family had owned property shortly after the war was over, and added that he had the deed to prove it. Bowman said the instructor’s reaction was one of disbelief, and the student was made to feel as if the deed was fraudulent.

The instructor, Bowman said, had fallen into the trap of taking “history as their own … and we’ve got to stop doing that. We’re walking in the footsteps of people who were displaced and we need to respect that.”

The history of the African-American community that once formed a small but beating heart of Frostburg “is just as important” as the history of anyone else who has called Mountain Maryland home, Bowman insisted.

Tamer Brown

A neatly landscaped grassy area with a brick terrace, suitable for an outdoor class under the sun, belies the history of what is now the upper quad on the Frostburg State University campus. There was a school. A church. There were homes with backyards that housed sheep, cattle, pigs and gardens.

The list of names of former Brownsville residents includes the Jacksons, the Carters, the Redmans, the Harpers, the Frisbys. 

Many of the original families, Bowman said, "still have relatives in this community even today."

It all began, though, with one Tamer Brown. Brown, a laundress by trade, had earned $250 to purchase her plot of land from Nelson and Caroline Beall in 1866. The parcel measured 50 feet by 150 feet. In July of 1868, Nelson Beall sold for $1 land for the Brownsville community to build a school.

Brownsville flourished. According to Bowman’s book, “in the 1880 Census, Frostburg had 177 black residents, approximately 9 percent of the population.” Twenty years later, however, State Normal School No. 2 opened next door, known now as Old Main. In the 1920s, state and local leaders looked to expand what is now Frostburg State University. They eyed Brownsville.

Photo by Kevin Spradlin
FSU senior Rachel Lash wondered why people did not protest
the relocation of Brownsville residents. When she learned
how active the Ku Klux Klan was in the area in the 1920s,
however, Lash said she was not surprised that no one
offered a meaningful anti-relocation movement.

In the 1920s, Bowman said, there was no need to use tools used today by government jurisdictions to take land from private citizens. Eminent domain was an afterthought; the process was hardly that complex 90 years ago.

“There’s a lot of sad stories here,” Bowman said. “To me, this is one of the saddest.”

Bowman recalled that Rosa Bruce had finally earned enough, at age 70, to buy a home. It was to be handed down to her family members through the generations. That never happened. “When it came time for the expansion of State Normal School No. 2, her heirs ended up with about 23 cents apiece.”

Bruce and the other Brownsville property owners were given $10 each — the rough equivalent to one month’s rent at the time — and “house by house, they told people they needed to get out.” Brownsville, Bowman said, and its people were “no longer helpful or necessary” to the ruling elite.

Rachel Lash, a senior Liberal Studies student, asked Bowman if people protested like they do today. It brought to mind homeowners’ ongoing fight in the nearby city of Cumberland. In the Rolling Mill neighborhood, residents are being compelled to sell their homes. However, advocates have lobbied on their behalf, including Bowman and other FSU professors, as well as at least one national nonprofit private property advocate. Bowman answered Lash that, in the 1920s, western Maryland had “an active KKK,” and that membership numbered in the “thousands.” Burning crosses were the norm. Blacks and any supporters they had, Bowman said, “were being terrorized.”

Photo by Kevin Spradlin
Prof. Lynn Bowman (far right), notes that the nearest home
owned by a white person when Brownsville was formed
was about one-quarter of a mile away. 

For the present-day fight in Cumberland, Mayor Brian Grim said in a separate interview that the city and its economic development arm have been “more than fair” in working with homeowners to negotiate a sale of their home. Grim has not expressly ruled out the possible use of eminent domain, but he has kept that tool in its chest for several months. The goal is to re-invent the Rolling Mill neighborhood from what city officials have labeled a dilapidated community into a commercial area. The idea is to increase the city’s declining tax base So far, approximately 55 of 67 homes have been purchased … (at) up to 400 percent of the assessed value.”

Fairness was hardly a consideration for Brownsville residents in the 1920s. Ironically, Bowman noted, the homes sat empty for years.

“Most of the homes were left standing until World War II” when Frostburg State University was finally ready to expand, Bowman said.

What’s next

Dr. Amy Branam Armiento, an associate professor at FSU and instructor of African-American Studies, said she and students have spearheaded a campaign to raise a monument to Brownsville and its people. The GoFundMe online campaign has raised 11 percent of the required $10,000, but Armiento told the audience that she is also pursuing grants.

Marci Wolff Ross, assistant director for tourism development with the Maryland Department of Commerce, was on hand for Friday’s tour and spoke eagerly with Bowman after the presentation about future possibilities.

The Brownsville saga is “eye-opening,” Ross said. “I’m so glad this story’s being told.”

Ross emphasized to Bowman the opportunity to apply for a grant through the National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The initiative welcomes grant applications for sites and programming, and has ample opportunity for student research.