Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-06-25
Negro Residents
In BrookIarld
Ask Playground
DC. Recreation Board
Called 'NegIeetfuI' oil
Children in Area

Children in Area
Residents Of a colored Residential
area in the Brookland section O
Northeast Washington, say TIT
District Recreation Board is guilty
of neglect in not providing play
grounds for their children.
More than 1000 colored families
live In this section Of well-kep
dignif1ed homes.
In an effort to remedy thi,
lack of play areas, six of theil
neighborhood organizations will
appear before the Recreation
Board at pm. tomorrow to ash
that the three Fairgrounds ir
Brookland-Turkey Thicket, Noyes
and Edgewood-be opened to all
races. They are designated white
Fairgrounds now. and always have
been.
Heading q joint committee od
the six organizations is Frank M
Snowden, jr., who lives at 1927
Gi1ard street NE. He is direc.
tor of the summer school at How
ard University and head Of the
classics department there.
Small Area at School.
The only colored school ir
Brookland is the Slowe Elementary
School. It has a small area thai
is being developed as playground
for colored children.
Even when Slowe is developed
our needs will not be met" Mr.
Snowden said. "It will be salts
factory only for small children
not the older boys and girls"
The organizations Mr.. Snowden
will represent before the Recre-
alton Board are the Brookland
Civic Association, the Slowe PTA.
the Girl Scouts, the Fathers-Sons
Club. the Mothers Club. the Gar
den Club and the Teen-Age Club.
Other groups to be heard are
the Northeast Council of Citizens
Associations, the Brookland Citi-
Gems Association. Michigan Park
Citizens Association. Michigan
Park Garden Club and the Veter-
ans Civic Club of Brookland.
Negroes have lived in Brook
land for many years." Mr.. Snow
den said, "but there have been no
provisions made. for outside play
areas for the children"
He described the indoor recre-
alton program recently begun in
Stowe School Quilt about three
years ago) as sporadic and in
adequate" The playground out
side is an "uncultivated goat hill. "
he added.
The Board of Education has
advertised bids to develop a plot
to the west of Stowe School into
a playground. 1t will consist of
about a half acre Of surfaced area
with playground equipment, in
tended for use of small children.
The development will cost about
$4,000. The contract, however,
will not be let until the budget
now before Congress is passed. In
the budget is the final $4,000
needed to allow letting of the con-
tract.
The campaign of the colored
residents to get playground &C
tually began as far back as 1887.
But the fight did not start in
earnest until the spring of 1949.
At that time, the Slowe PTA,
spanked by Mr.. Snowden, began
bornbarding the Recreation Board
with communications and requests
for action.
Closed Meeting Planned.
At tomorrow's meeting, the
board members will sit as a tran
sition committee" which is made
up of all members of the body.
The meeting will be closed to the
public as the Recreation Depart
ment law allows the board to
close committee meetings. al
though its board meetings must
be open.
After the board hears the COL
ored Brookland groups-and other
groups opposing change in the
status of the three Playground
it will hear from Milo Christian
sen. Recreation Department su-
perintendent. He will present the
results of a staff study and is
expected to recommend one or
more Fairgrounds in the District
be changed to bi-racial units.
The Transition Committee is
designed to consider areas of
Washington where the colored-
white ratio has changed to the
extent that Fairgrounds may be
changed in their racial designa-
tons to serve the community
better.
The Recreation Department al
ready operates bi-racial recreation
programs at four Fairgrounds. at
Cardozo High School and at its
summer day camps. ALI of its
activities on Federal park land
also are without segregation be-
cause of a ruling of the Interior
Department. the controlling agen-
cy of the Federal parks here.
Mr.. Snowden said that, up to
this point, all the communications
and requests to the Recreation
Board have brought the answer
that the matter is under study
and the board is. aware OF the
need for colored Fairgrounds in
Brookland.
IAN awareness of need does not
solve our problems" he declared.
He said the only sensible solu-
ton for Brookland is to open the
three Fairgrounds to all races.
The purchase of additional land
for a colored playground would
be "uneconomical and waste of
the taxpayers money" he added,
since the Fairgrounds there are
adequate to accommodate all
children.
hM,an4