Editing Takoma Park, Maryland (section)

===Mid 20th century===
[[File:The Takoma Blue Devils, 1963.jpg|thumb|upright|The Takoma Blue Devils in 1963.]]
In 1964, an inside-the-Capital-Beltway extension of [[Interstate 270 (Maryland)|Interstate 70S]], also known as the [[North Central Freeway]], was proposed via a route known as "Option #11 Railroad Sligo East," up to {{frac|1|4}} mile parallel to the B&O railroad upon a swath of land displacing 471 houses, that would have cut the city in two. In the mid-to-late 1960s, the future mayor and [[civil rights]] activist [[Sammie Abbott]] led a campaign to halt freeway construction and replace it with a [[Takoma (Washington Metro)|Metrorail line]] to the site of the former train station, and worked with other neighborhood groups to halt plans for a wider system of freeways going into and out of DC.<ref name="weta">{{Cite web |last=Jordan |first=Jamila |date=2015-12-17 |title=The Roads Not Traveled: D.C. Pushes Back Against Freeway Plans |url=https://blogs.weta.org/boundarystones/2015/12/17/roads-not-traveled-dc-pushes-back-against-freeway-plans |website=Boundary Stones |publisher=WETA}}</ref>

This controversy also raised the profile of Takoma Park at a time in the late 1960s and 1970s when it was becoming noted regionally and nationally for political activism outside the Nation's capital, with newspaper commentators describing it as "The People's Republic of Takoma Park" or "The Berkeley of the East".<ref name="common knowledge needs a better cite">{{Cite web |website=[[WAMU|DCist.com]] |title=Takoma Park Votes to Impeach President Bush |url=https://dcist.com/story/07/07/24/takoma-park-vot/ |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320053853/http://dcist.com/2007/07/24/takoma_park_vot.php |archive-date=March 20, 2012 |quote=Commonly referred to as 'The People's Republic of Takoma Park' or 'The Berkeley of the East' |df=mdy-all}}{{void|Fabrickator|comment|setting url-status to deviated because the archive link includes additional content}}{{cbignore}}</ref> This era of activism extended into the 1980s, when Takoma Park declared itself a [[Nuclear-free zone]] and a sanctuary for Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees.<ref>{{Cite news |date=November 5, 1985 |title=Takoma Park and Democracy |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/05/us/takoma-park-and-democracy.html |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151221151927/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/05/us/takoma-park-and-democracy.html |archive-date=December 21, 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Prior to the passage of the [[Fair Housing Act of 1968]], restrictive covenants were used in Takoma Park to exclude African Americans, Jews, and others. Many Takoma Park subdivisions used anti-Black covenants and at least one subdivision used antisemitic covenants. A 1939 deed for the New Hampshire Avenue Highlands subdivision of Takoma Park reads: "No lot shall be leased, transferred, sold, occupied or conveyed to or for the use of any person or persons not wholly of Caucasian Race or blood, excluding Semites; but this covenant shall not prevent casual occupancy by domestic servants of a different race, employed by an owner or tenant."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://mcplanning.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0d26456118d34a14b2d27aec8d6f2b1a |title=New Hampshire Avenue Highlands |publisher=[[Montgomery Planning]] |accessdate=2024-06-08}}</ref> The first known restrictive covenant in Takoma Park was for a property in the Hillcrest subdivision in 1911. Subdivisions with restrictive covenants included Bonnie View, Carroll Farm, Carroll Manor, Fletcher's Addition, Flower Avenue Park, Green Hill Farms, Hampshire Knolls, Hillwood Manor, Wildwood and others.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://historictakoma.org/covenant/ |title=Takoma Parks Covenants Project |publisher=HistoricTakoma.org |accessdate=2024-06-08}}</ref>

Much of the old town Takoma Park was incorporated into the [[Takoma Park Historic District (Takoma Park, Maryland)|Takoma Park Historic District]]; listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1976.<ref name="Lefrak">{{Cite news |last=Lefrak |first=Mikaela |date=2019-04-24 |title=How Takoma Park Became 'The Berkeley Of The East' |work=WHAT'S WITH WASHINGTON |publisher=WAMU - FM |url=https://wamu.org/story/19/04/24/how-takoma-park-became-the-berkeley-of-the-east |access-date=2019-04-24}}</ref>