With the neighborhood externally abandoned and internally divided, the Adair Park Civic Club became paralyzed. Lacking funds to buy back all the homes, it tried to forge a compromise with black real-estate agents. Properties on Mayland Avenue would be repurchased by the white homeowners’ organization, and, in exchange, blacks would be granted a “free hand” along the rest of Mayland Circle. But, as Jim Parham observed, the negotiations were “undermined” by die-hard resisters “who criticize every move to compromise short of ‘saving’ the entire area.”