Dublin Core
Title
Oral history with Sandy Tyler
Subject
Lakeland Community Heritage Project, The History of Oral Histories in Lakeland, College Park Arts Program, Oral History Workshop, Communities Around College Park, Berwyn Neighborhood, Neighborhood Changes
Description
[no text]
Creator
Eli Pousson
Source
[no text]
Publisher
[no text]
Date
6/25/2007
Contributor
[no text]
Rights
[no text]
Relation
[no text]
Format
Digital
Language
English
Type
[no text]
Identifier
[no text]
Coverage
[no text]
Contribution Form
Online Submission
[no text]
Posting Consent
[no text]
Submission Consent
[no text]
Contributor is Creator
[no text]
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Interviewer
Eli Pousson
Interviewee
Sandy Tyler
Location
Sandy Tyler's Home in Berwyn
Transcription
Sandy first discusses some of the administrative aspects of working with the Lakeland community to compile histories. She mentions from spending time working with the Lakeland community you can begin to get an idea of how complicated the family trees can get. Sandy began working with the Lakeland Community Heritage Project in the late 1990s early 2000s. She was acquainted with Maxine and Diane and they had approached her about doing an oral history workshop with the community.
Sandy talks about how there used to be many small, independent, towns surrounding College Park that were all connected by the trolleys. As the towns grew the issue of whether or not to incorporate into the city of College Park arose. The men were mostly opposed to the idea, but the women were in favor of it. During the Second World War the men were all deployed overseas. Since during this time the women had the majority, they voted to incorporate the towns.
Each of the small communities had their own civic associations, including Lakeland. Prince Georges County was terribly racist in the seventies so most of the people of Lakeland stayed in their community, only leaving for work. People knew about Lakeland’s existence but they were not often spoken of, unless something was needed of them.
Sandy moved to Berwyn in 1968, but she was not very involved in the community until a developer who wished to build an access road that would affect her community and the neighboring Lakeland came into town.
Sandy attended nursing school in Chicago; she moved to Kentucky to work shortly after graduation. She knew that she wanted to go back to school so she moved home to Detroit to save up money. A couple of years later she went back to school at the University of Maryland, and began working at the student health center. She made friends with a young lady from the Psychology Department and later went to a party where she met her husband Forest, who was new faculty in the University’s Psychology Department. Forest was quite active in the late 1960s civil rights movement, and after moving to Maryland he bought an old house in Berwyn. The neighborhood had an interesting mix of people but she said it was mostly “rednecks†as it still is today. Sandy and Forest were married in their home. Five years into the marriage her husband went on sabbatical and she quit her job to travel with him. During that time they rented out their house, and it fell into disrepair due to neglectful tenants. When she returned, she spent her time fixing up the house and she enrolled at the Anthropology program at the University of Maryland. She also decided to leave her position at the school of nursing since there was high faculty turnover after the hiring of a new dean. During her time traveling, and the year or so after her trip she was very busy and disconnected with the neighborhood.
After the house was fixed up she became involved with the local civic association. She decided that she wanted to start an arts program that would help allow the children and adults to work together so that they could gain skills from adult role-models. She ran the non-profit, all-volunteer program for 5 years using local grants. Through this program she approached the Lakeland Civic Association where she met Diane, the president at the time. She noticed that the families in the Lakeland community were very involved with their community, and they felt like they could trust her through both her work with the schools, and her husband’s reputation as a civil rights advocate. One example of a project completed by the arts program is the construction of blue birdhouses for the bike path. Many of the kids learned basic building skills and with donations from local businesses and volunteers they could complete these projects with little costs.
Another successful program was a yearlong afterschool program for 6th graders that focused on cultural diversity. During the first half of the school year they would have sessions, complete a workbook, and learn about many different cultures. After Christmas break the kids would come back and they would put on a pageant showcasing what they had learned. The kids were responsible for every aspect of the pageant including script writing, music, and costumes. Each of the students also created hand-made beads to demonstrate different aspects of their own culture. The final pageant even drew in county representatives like Tom Hendershop who would donate $2000 to the program each year.
After 5 years the program grew so fast it was difficult to maintain. As a result, Sandy approached city council with a plan to continue the program in an official capacity with a board of directors and an executive director. She set this up on a trial basis, and if it did not work out she was ready to end the program under its current charter. Funding for the program was unanimously voted for. Unfortunately, in the year following there were a couple of ineffective executive directors and the city council decided to continue the program with just a board of directors. Sandy felt that in this new form the program had departed from its original charter.
The Lakeland Community History Project started when they were celebrating an anniversary within the community. They contacted Sandy to see if she could help them continue recording their history even after the big celebration. She joined them for the last few events including workshops, picture sharing, emancipation weekend, and a history tour. During the history tour they saw many important African American sites in the area from Laurel to Riversdale. The final stop on the tour was at Lake Artemisia where immediately all of the people from Lakeland began to point out where they used to live and tell stories of what the neighborhood was like.
As a part of her oral history workshop with the Lakeland Community Heritage Project, Sandy gave everyone three names of people to conduct oral histories with and unfortunately she was the only one who finished all three interviews. After that Sandy became ill with cancer and did not work much with the project. In 2007 Sandy had recovered from her illness, and after running into Maxine again at a meeting, they decided to start the project back up. It was difficult to get the program running. They had monthly meetings but few people attended consistently, and the group did not have a definitive end goal. They finally decided to apply for a city grant. Although they missed the deadline, they used the application as a way to clarify their goals and write a mission statement. After that she began to make contacts with the University of Maryland and other groups who might be able to help their efforts. Before furthering discussions with these groups Sandy called and emergency meeting with Maxine, Diane, and Janet to settle on clear goals for the group.
Over the last thirty years Sandy has noticed a lot of change in the neighborhood. She said it was always a very friendly area, but through getting involved with the civic association and the arts group, she became really acquainted with the parents and families of the children. Recently, Sandy has noticed an increase in drugs, crime, and safety issues. She attributes this to the high number of houses that are occupied by renters and students. As temporary residents there isn’t as much at stake, and less of a connection to the community. One night there was a large and noisy party with over 500 people drinking. Shortly after that many of the civic associations got together and took the issue to the city level. Since then there is a slight improvement, but Sandy worries that the community will never be the same.
Conveying the history of the neighborhood to future residents is a paramount concern and a big challenge to face. Having a neighborhood lets kids grow up and be stable citizens. If they know where they came from, they can learn the values of their family and neighbors to guide them to better choices for themselves as adults. Sandy believes that in a neighborhood you can learn responsibility for yourself without fear since you know that there are others looking out for you. This aspect of life is important, but probably going to disappear, at least in the College Park area.
Next, Sandy discusses the future of the Lakeland Community Heritage Project. She has been in discussions with the University of Maryland American Studies and Journalism programs. She has also contacted the groups National Vision Leadership Project, and History Makers. Before pursuing a relationship with any of these groups Sandy would like to formulate a clear agenda for the Lakeland Community Heritage project so that the agendas of the other groups do not interfere with Lakeland’s overall goals.
The interview concludes with a brief tour of Sandy and Forest’s home. one of the first homes built in the Berwyn neighborhood. She highlights the many changes that happened to the house over the years.
Sandy talks about how there used to be many small, independent, towns surrounding College Park that were all connected by the trolleys. As the towns grew the issue of whether or not to incorporate into the city of College Park arose. The men were mostly opposed to the idea, but the women were in favor of it. During the Second World War the men were all deployed overseas. Since during this time the women had the majority, they voted to incorporate the towns.
Each of the small communities had their own civic associations, including Lakeland. Prince Georges County was terribly racist in the seventies so most of the people of Lakeland stayed in their community, only leaving for work. People knew about Lakeland’s existence but they were not often spoken of, unless something was needed of them.
Sandy moved to Berwyn in 1968, but she was not very involved in the community until a developer who wished to build an access road that would affect her community and the neighboring Lakeland came into town.
Sandy attended nursing school in Chicago; she moved to Kentucky to work shortly after graduation. She knew that she wanted to go back to school so she moved home to Detroit to save up money. A couple of years later she went back to school at the University of Maryland, and began working at the student health center. She made friends with a young lady from the Psychology Department and later went to a party where she met her husband Forest, who was new faculty in the University’s Psychology Department. Forest was quite active in the late 1960s civil rights movement, and after moving to Maryland he bought an old house in Berwyn. The neighborhood had an interesting mix of people but she said it was mostly “rednecks†as it still is today. Sandy and Forest were married in their home. Five years into the marriage her husband went on sabbatical and she quit her job to travel with him. During that time they rented out their house, and it fell into disrepair due to neglectful tenants. When she returned, she spent her time fixing up the house and she enrolled at the Anthropology program at the University of Maryland. She also decided to leave her position at the school of nursing since there was high faculty turnover after the hiring of a new dean. During her time traveling, and the year or so after her trip she was very busy and disconnected with the neighborhood.
After the house was fixed up she became involved with the local civic association. She decided that she wanted to start an arts program that would help allow the children and adults to work together so that they could gain skills from adult role-models. She ran the non-profit, all-volunteer program for 5 years using local grants. Through this program she approached the Lakeland Civic Association where she met Diane, the president at the time. She noticed that the families in the Lakeland community were very involved with their community, and they felt like they could trust her through both her work with the schools, and her husband’s reputation as a civil rights advocate. One example of a project completed by the arts program is the construction of blue birdhouses for the bike path. Many of the kids learned basic building skills and with donations from local businesses and volunteers they could complete these projects with little costs.
Another successful program was a yearlong afterschool program for 6th graders that focused on cultural diversity. During the first half of the school year they would have sessions, complete a workbook, and learn about many different cultures. After Christmas break the kids would come back and they would put on a pageant showcasing what they had learned. The kids were responsible for every aspect of the pageant including script writing, music, and costumes. Each of the students also created hand-made beads to demonstrate different aspects of their own culture. The final pageant even drew in county representatives like Tom Hendershop who would donate $2000 to the program each year.
After 5 years the program grew so fast it was difficult to maintain. As a result, Sandy approached city council with a plan to continue the program in an official capacity with a board of directors and an executive director. She set this up on a trial basis, and if it did not work out she was ready to end the program under its current charter. Funding for the program was unanimously voted for. Unfortunately, in the year following there were a couple of ineffective executive directors and the city council decided to continue the program with just a board of directors. Sandy felt that in this new form the program had departed from its original charter.
The Lakeland Community History Project started when they were celebrating an anniversary within the community. They contacted Sandy to see if she could help them continue recording their history even after the big celebration. She joined them for the last few events including workshops, picture sharing, emancipation weekend, and a history tour. During the history tour they saw many important African American sites in the area from Laurel to Riversdale. The final stop on the tour was at Lake Artemisia where immediately all of the people from Lakeland began to point out where they used to live and tell stories of what the neighborhood was like.
As a part of her oral history workshop with the Lakeland Community Heritage Project, Sandy gave everyone three names of people to conduct oral histories with and unfortunately she was the only one who finished all three interviews. After that Sandy became ill with cancer and did not work much with the project. In 2007 Sandy had recovered from her illness, and after running into Maxine again at a meeting, they decided to start the project back up. It was difficult to get the program running. They had monthly meetings but few people attended consistently, and the group did not have a definitive end goal. They finally decided to apply for a city grant. Although they missed the deadline, they used the application as a way to clarify their goals and write a mission statement. After that she began to make contacts with the University of Maryland and other groups who might be able to help their efforts. Before furthering discussions with these groups Sandy called and emergency meeting with Maxine, Diane, and Janet to settle on clear goals for the group.
Over the last thirty years Sandy has noticed a lot of change in the neighborhood. She said it was always a very friendly area, but through getting involved with the civic association and the arts group, she became really acquainted with the parents and families of the children. Recently, Sandy has noticed an increase in drugs, crime, and safety issues. She attributes this to the high number of houses that are occupied by renters and students. As temporary residents there isn’t as much at stake, and less of a connection to the community. One night there was a large and noisy party with over 500 people drinking. Shortly after that many of the civic associations got together and took the issue to the city level. Since then there is a slight improvement, but Sandy worries that the community will never be the same.
Conveying the history of the neighborhood to future residents is a paramount concern and a big challenge to face. Having a neighborhood lets kids grow up and be stable citizens. If they know where they came from, they can learn the values of their family and neighbors to guide them to better choices for themselves as adults. Sandy believes that in a neighborhood you can learn responsibility for yourself without fear since you know that there are others looking out for you. This aspect of life is important, but probably going to disappear, at least in the College Park area.
Next, Sandy discusses the future of the Lakeland Community Heritage Project. She has been in discussions with the University of Maryland American Studies and Journalism programs. She has also contacted the groups National Vision Leadership Project, and History Makers. Before pursuing a relationship with any of these groups Sandy would like to formulate a clear agenda for the Lakeland Community Heritage project so that the agendas of the other groups do not interfere with Lakeland’s overall goals.
The interview concludes with a brief tour of Sandy and Forest’s home. one of the first homes built in the Berwyn neighborhood. She highlights the many changes that happened to the house over the years.
Original Format
[no text]
Duration
2:09:56
Bit Rate/Frequency
[no text]
Time Summary
[no text]