I began doing Silver Spring Sundown Suburb talks in early 2017. I spoke about erasure and the ways local history organizations celebrate the white supremacists who made Silver Spring a desirable bedroom suburb for the nation’s capital. These same organizations marginalize, omit, and seek to tokenize stories of the black experience and the roles that Jim Crow segregation, environmental racism, and housing discrimination played in the community’s history.

I was invited to give this talk to local churches and nonprofits and I was invited several times to present it to students in the University of Maryland’s African American Studies Program. This talk explores the erasures and some of the stories of Silver Spring’s other side of the tracks, Lyttonsville. Jay Mallin recorded one of these talks given at Silver Spring’s Gwendolyn E. Coffield Community Center April 13, 2019.

I would like to thank the members of the Talbot Avenue Bridge Events Committee for sponsoring the program and Jay Mallin for donating his considerable professional skills and equipment to document the event and produce this video.

© 2019 D.S. Rotenstein, The Talbot Avenue Bridge Events Committee, and Jay Mallin.