This presentation will explore the one of the boldest housing experiments of the New Deal: Greenbelt, Maryland. A project of the New Deal Resettlement Administration and located within our very own Metro DC chapter, Greenbelt offers insights into federal housing policy, the rise of the suburbs, racial exclusion in housing and the New Deal, patriarchal family norms in federal policy, cooperative economics, and much more. Greenbelt and its sister cities, seen as one of the most radical of the New Deal programs, would come under attack from all three branches of government and the corporate press leading to the abandonment of the program. The city of Greenbelt remains with its historic housing and cooperative institutions still intact to this day. The presentation will synthesize a variety of primary and secondary sources, including contemporary New Deal reports and photography, and more recent histories of the city of Greenbelt.

Frank Santos Fritz is a student and organizer from Silver Spring, MD serving on the Metro DC DSA Steering Committee. They previously served on the steering committee and were a founding member of the Montgomery
County, MD branch.