In Rosemary Hills, a Time-Tested Tolerance

Montgomery County Community Grows With Its Diversity

Rosemary Hills has long had a reputation as a progressive community in Montgomery County, and a mix of residents remains one of its characteristics.

"We definitely have diversity in this neighborhood in a really good, solid way," said Alison Carr, who moved to the Silver Spring neighborhood with her family in 1992.

"There's actually lower- and middle-class and educated upper-middle-class people of all colors and different ethnic backgrounds," she said. "It really works in this neighborhood."

In addition to ramblers, Cape Cods and Colonial-style single-family houses built mostly in the '40s and '50s, the neighborhood includes several apartment complexes.

Rosemary Hills Elementary School was built in the mid-'50s as a racially mixed school, part of the county's school desegregation plan. The neighborhood was also a pioneer in integrated housing in the '60s, attracting young, white families that actively recruited black families.

Al Britt Sr., who is black, moved into a three-bedroom rambler more than 40 years ago. "It was before open housing, so therefore it was very difficult to find a house even in Montgomery County that was for sale to us in 1967," he said. "You had some neighborhoods or some homes that were open, but not all.

"The people were very friendly," he said. "Even when I was the lone black in this neighborhood for a while, it has been a great place to live."

Britt, 72, said that he liked the idea of the school when he moved in but that a lot changed before his daughter was of school age.

In the late '60s and early '70s, Rosemary Hills' minority population grew rapidly, in part because of its reputation for integration and also because low- and moderately priced homes and rental units remained available as the cost of comparable housing elsewhere increased.

In 1972, when minority enrollment had dramatically increased, the superintendent proposed a mini-integration wherein neighborhood children would be bused out of the neighborhood to correct the racial imbalance.

The community fought back. Britt and other residents lobbied to keep their children from being bused. After seven weeks of highly publicized controversy, the plan was abandoned.

"We would not settle for one-way busing," said Britt, who was for a long time at the helm of a now-dormant community association that asserted itself over the years to uphold the diversity of the neighborhood.