"Out of the Home Will Come the Citizen"

"Out of the Home Will Come the Citizen". Elsie S. Horad and Romeo W. Horad, Sr.. Just east of this location was once the home for several generations of an influential African American family. In April 1894, Charles and Jane Webster bought an acre of land along the country road that became University Boulevard. in 1938, the brick home at 2113 University Boulevard West was built for their granddaughter, Elsie Sewell Horad, and her husband, Romeo W. Horad, Sr. , Elsie Sewell Horad (1898-1990) was raised in the District of Columbia, where she taught public school for three decades. She is remembered by her family as being strong-willed and was an active citizen who held leadership positions in the Montgomery County Colored Republican Club and local women's groups., Romeo W. Horad, Sr. (1895-1968) was a graduate of the Howard University School of Law. Through his real estate firm in the late 1930s and 1940s, he partnered with white realtors Ralph and Joseph Urciolo to sell homes to Black buyers despite restrictive covenants that were intended to keep neighborhoods white. In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court found Washington D.C.'s racial covenants legally unenforceable, and struck down restrictive covenants nationwide later that year., Romeo W. Horad, Sr. also led the Montgomery County Citizens Council for Mutual Improvement, which advocated for public investment in African American communities and desegregation of public restrooms. In 1948, he ran a groundbreaking but unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the newly created Montgomery County Council., A Family Tradition: , Charles Webster began a family tradition of altruism and civic engagement. He served as a trustee for the nearby African American school and campaigned for political candidates that supported Montgomery County's Black residents., Over time, Jane and Charles Webster's farm grew to include several family homes, a barn, smokehouse, chicken house, and children's playhouse. , It was a popular gathering place for family and visitors for many years, the scene of parties, baseball games, church picnics, and pig roasts., "My great-grandfather planted [orchards] See, they were fruitful when I came along. When I was a boy, I put a salt shaker in my pocket and stayed out all day and I could pick some fruit or go in the garden and get some celery and eat it and put some salt on it. And that was the way we lived" --Sewell Horad. , Transcript of interview with Sewell Horad and Evelyn Horad, interviewed by Dr. David Rotenstein and Sarah Shoenfeld on May 30 2017, in Silver Spring, MD., Photo captions: , Charles and Jane Webster's ca. 1903 home was at 2100 University Blvd. West, where the church building is today., Charles Webster (middle row, second from left) and Jane Webster (middle row, second from right) gathered with family., Family and friends relaxed under the front porch of the playhouse built by Charles Webster for his granddaughter, Elsie., This home, built for Jane and Charles Webster's son, Clarence, stood to the rear of the property.