The first residents move into Greenbelt, the largest and best known of the New Deal’s federally-funded “greenbelt towns.” Greenbelt becomes an important model for other planned communities and America’s move to the suburbs. The new community initially has segregated housing in Jim Crow America.

“Underground railroad” term coined
Thomas Smallwood coins the expression “underground railroad,” in a newspaper column in 1842. Born a slave in PG county he teams up with Charles Torrey (pictured), a white clergyman, to help over 400 slaves escape through DC.



