Editing Greenbelt, Maryland (section)

==History==
[[File:Old Greenbelt Theatre June 2020.jpg|thumb|The Old Greenbelt Theatre in 2020, with a marquee referencing the [[George Floyd protests]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Old Greenbelt Theatre|url=https://www.facebook.com/greenbelttheatre/posts/2834982886788015 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/facebook/1584854375134212/2834982886788015 |archive-date=2022-02-26 |url-access=limited|access-date=2020-06-10|website=www.facebook.com|language=en}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The theatre opened on September 21, 1938, screening the film ''[[Little Miss Broadway]]'' with [[Shirley Temple]].|alt=]]
Greenbelt was settled on September 30, 1937, as a public [[cooperative]] community in the [[New Deal]] era.<ref name="NewTown"/>  The concept was at the same time both eminently practical and idealistically utopian: the federal government would foster an "ideal" self-sufficient cooperative community that would also ease the pressing housing shortage near the nation's capital. Construction of the new town would also create jobs and thus help stimulate the national economic recovery following the [[Great Depression]].

Greenbelt, which provided affordable housing for federal government workers, was one of three Greenbelt Towns conceived in 1935, by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s [[Brain trust|Brain Trust]] member [[Rexford Tugwell]], who was serving as the president's Undersecretary of [[United States Department of Agriculture|Agriculture]].  The project was officially authorized in May 1935.  First, on April 8, 1935, the [[United States Congress]] passed the [[Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935]].  Then under the authority granted to him from this legislation, President Roosevelt issued an [[executive order]], on May 1, 1935, establishing the [[Resettlement Administration|United States Resettlement Administration (RA / RRA)]].<ref name="LOCapr8"/><ref name="ExOrder7027"/>  Rexford Tugwell agreed to serve as the Administrator of the Resettlement Administration, in addition to his Undersecretary of Agriculture position, without receiving any additional salary.<ref name="ExOrder7027"/>

Working alongside Tugwell was [[Charles W. Yost]]. The two other Greenbelt Towns are [[Greendale, Wisconsin]] (near [[Milwaukee]]) and [[Greenhills, Ohio]] (near [[Cincinnati]]). A fourth town, [[Roosevelt, New Jersey]] (originally called Homestead), was planned but was not fully developed on the same large scale as Greenbelt.<ref name="Halpern">{{Citation|last=Halpern|first=Sue|title=New Deal City|newspaper=[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]]|date=May–June 2002|access-date=2007-07-07|url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2002/05/new-deal-city|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216121334/http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2002/05/new-deal-city|archive-date=2009-02-16|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://greendaleoriginals.com/greenbelt.html|title=Greendale Originals - The shops, history and events in the Village of Greendale, Wisconsin.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207045417/http://www.greendaleoriginals.com/greenbelt.html|archive-date=2012-02-07|language=en-US}}</ref>

[[Eleanor Roosevelt]], wife of President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], helped Tugwell lay out the [[Maryland]] town on a site that had formerly consisted largely of tobacco fields. She was also heavily involved in the first cooperative community designed by the federal government in the New Deal Era, [[Arthurdale, West Virginia]], which sought to improve the lives of impoverished laborers by enabling them to create a self-sufficient, and relatively prosperous, cooperative community.  Cooperatives in Greenbelt include the ''[[Greenbelt News Review]]'', Greenbelt Consumers Coop grocery store, the [[New Deal Cafe]], and the cooperative forming the downtown core of original housing, [[Greenbelt Homes, Inc.|Greenbelt Homes Incorporated]] (GHI).<ref name="Halpern" />

The [[architectural planning]] of Greenbelt was innovative, as was the [[Social engineering (political science)|social engineering]] involved in this federal government project.<ref name="Greenbelt1937">{{Cite news|title=HOUSING: Greenbelt|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770837-1,00.html|magazine=Time|date=1937-09-13|access-date=2010-07-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111222180056/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770837-1,00.html|archive-date=2011-12-22|url-status=dead}}</ref>  Applicants for residency were interviewed and screened based on income and occupation, and willingness to become involved in community activities.<ref name="UMD">{{Cite web|title=Images and Voices of Greenbelt: Oral Histories|work=Virtual Greenbelt|publisher=University of Maryland|year=2000|url=http://otal.umd.edu/~vg/community/voices.html|access-date=2010-07-23|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100607213552/http://otal.umd.edu/~vg/community/voices.html|archive-date=2010-06-07|language=en-US}}</ref>  African-Americans were initially excluded, but were later included by the Greenbelt Committee for [[Fair housing|Fair Housing]] founded in 1963, and came to account for 41% of residents, according to the 2000 census.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Vick|first=Karl|title=In FDR Years, 'Sleepy Southern Town' Woke Up|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=1997-04-20|access-date=2009-11-03|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/tours/fdr/impact.htm|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024084146/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/tours/fdr/impact.htm|archive-date=2012-10-24|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="UMD" /><ref name="GR2">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov|work=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=2008-01-31|title=U.S. Census website|language=en-US}}</ref> The same census data also indicates that African-Americans are isolated in certain parts within the town, and the percentage of African-Americans within the historic area is between 0% and 5% on most blocks.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.city-data.com/zips/20770.html#mapOSM?mapOSMzl=15&mapOSMc1=39.00491168506384&mapOSMc2=-76.88017845153809&mapOSMs=races5&mapOSMfs=false|title=20770 Zip Code (Greenbelt, Maryland) Profile — homes, apartments, schools, population, income, averages, housing, demographics, location, statistics, sex offenders, residents and real estate info|work=City-Data.com|access-date=2016-03-11|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311193638/http://www.city-data.com/zips/20770.html#mapOSM?mapOSMzl=15&mapOSMc1=39.00491168506384&mapOSMc2=-76.88017845153809&mapOSMs=races5&mapOSMfs=false|archive-date=2016-03-11|url-status=live}}</ref> Much of the federal government planned and developed portion of the city is located within the Greenbelt Historic District.

Greenbelt was the subject of the 1939 documentary film ''[[The City (1939 film)|The City]]''.

In 2021, the city created a [[Greenbelt Reparations Task Force|reparations task force]] to study the issue of whether or not to award reparations to African-Americans in Greenbelt.