A new book documenting the history of Scotland, a historic Black community in Potomac, and the Civil Rights-era effort that helped save it from disappearing will debut next month in Montgomery County.
“The Noodge: How One Community’s Miracle Helped Push America Forward” tells the story of Scotland and Joyce Bernhardt Siegel, who became involved with the community in the mid-1960s and helped residents during the “Save Our Scotland” effort that ultimately led to the construction of a new housing development along Seven Locks Rd.
Scotland was established by formerly enslaved families following the Civil War. By the 1960s, deteriorating living conditions and development pressures threatened the community’s future.
Siegel, now 93, began documenting her experiences around 1970 in a manually typed draft of a memoir. The unfinished document remained in her Rockville home for more than 50 years before journalist and Potomac resident Paul Tukey visited her in February 2022. According to Tukey, Siegel asked him during that visit if he would help her finally complete the project.
More than four years of research followed, expanding Siegel’s original memoir into a 312-page book examining Scotland’s history, the people involved in the effort to preserve the community, and its connection to broader changes in federal housing policy during the Civil Rights era.
The limited-edition book was designed by Thunder Mountain Publishing of Darnestown and includes dozens of black-and-white photographs taken in Scotland by Siegel’s husband, Alan, between 1965 and 1971.
The book also includes a foreword by Ambassador David Saperstein, an afterword by former Montgomery County Executive Isiah “Ike” Leggett and an addendum by historian and author Knight Kiplinger.
“The Noodge” will debut during a presentation and author book signing at 11am on November 7 at the Montgomery History conference in Germantown.
The book will be sold online exclusively through Montgomery History, with copies expected to begin shipping November 9. Proceeds will remain in Montgomery County and benefit Montgomery History and a portion benefitting STORM, Strategies Targeting Outcomes in Reading and Math, an after-school educational program serving the Scotland community.
