Westbard cemetery protesters shut down HOC meeting (Photos)

Protesters shut down yesterday's meeting of the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission, after commissioners declined to add two items related to the Westbard cemetery controversy to the agenda, despite an advance request by cemetery advocates. HOC is seeking to build a parking garage on top of the graves on the site of Westwood Tower, a property the commission plans to purchase from developer Regency Centers. Cemetery advocates had asked the commission to vote on the two proposed agenda items Wednesday to protect the graveyard.

Protesters hold poster board
tombstones with the names of
some of those buried in the
African-American cemetery on
Westbard Avenue

Commission Chair Jackie Simon began the meeting by announcing that anyone in attendance would have an opportunity to speak for three minutes at the end of the meeting. She warned attendees that "chanting, singing or other disruptive behavior" would be forbidden, and the "disruptive party" asked to leave. Simon reiterated the commission's previous position that it could not discuss the cemetery due to litigation underway in Montgomery County Circuit Court. Macedonia Baptist Church representatives have pointed out that there is no reason HOC cannot discuss the cemetery with the church, because MBC is not a party in any lawsuit against HOC.

"Give us

the vote!"

Simon also formally acknowledged receipt of a letter from MBC's Social Justice Director Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, and of more than 400 petitions from members of the community asking the HOC to allow an archaeological investigation of the cemetery, and to terminate its plan to build the garage on it.

When protesters peacefully approached the commissioners, Simon declared their effort "useless." Commissioner Richard Y. Nelson, Jr. told the African-American church representatives to "return to the back of the room." "You know, a bus driver said that to Rosa Parks," Coleman-Adebayo replied. Recounting the driver's threat to Parks that he would call the police if Parks didn't move to the back, Coleman-Adebayo quoted Parks in her response: "'You may do that.' I'm saying that to you."

"This reminds me

so much of what

was going on in

the South"

Protesters then began to chant, "Give us the vote!" as commissioners conferred on the dais. As chanting and singing continued, Simon temporarily adjourned the meeting and commissioners fled to an adjoining room, as protesters sang, "Jackie Simon, we shall not be moved." Montgomery County police officers summoned by the HOC stood at the front of the room, and said protesters were welcome to stay if they would allow commission business to proceed, or move their protest outside of the room.

Police officers negotiate
with leaders of Macedonia Baptist Church
after protesters successfully shut down the
HOC meeting

HOC's legal counsel again asserted that there would be no votes on the cemetery at the meeting. Eventually, she turned to the officers and said, "We are at an impasse." The Rev. Segun Adebayo, pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church, asked why the HOC came to mediation sessions with the church this summer and wasted their time, if they never intended to discuss the matter and take action. That mediation mysteriously was ended by the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County abruptly last month.

"We are at 

an impasse"

Police officers, it should be noted, handled the standoff in a respectful and professional manner. "I literally cannot remember if I am living in Montgomery, Alabama, or Montgomery County," Coleman-Adebayo said. "This reminds me so much of what was going on in the South, where you had police officers telling people who were only fighting for their rights to be quiet." "I'm not telling you to be quiet," the police officer negotiating with them said. "How can you be a part of this?" Coleman-Adebayo asked a second officer, who was African-American. "This is part of your history. Your ancestors could be under that ground. This is an environment of injustice. And how can you be a part of this? Please think about it, the next time you put that uniform on, because this is not justice at all."

"How can you be 

a part of this?"

Coleman-Adebayo asked the officers how they felt about being left to handle the argument while commissioners hid behind them in the next room. "Let them have the courage and the backbone to come out here." After 15 minutes of negotiations, the Commission emerged and reconvened the meeting.

When the public comment segment of the meeting began, resident Monica Goldberg asked that the cemetery not be "re-desecrated in the name of affordable housing." She said it shouldn't be so difficult to get a delineation of the cemetery to identify the locations of "bodies under the asphalt. That shouldn't be so hard," for the Commission. "It really shouldn't."

"Moral high ground?

You haven't got it on

this one, folks"

"Moral high ground?" asked resident Kevin Berends. "You haven't got it on this one, folks." "There is no moral backbone on this committee," Coleman-Adebayo testified, before leading a recitation of the names of some of those buried in the cemetery. Harvey Matthews, who grew up in the River Road African-American community associated with the cemetery and is a trustee at Macedonia Baptist Church, decried the repeated characterization of the cemetery by HOC and other County officials as hypothetical or speculative. "It just hurts me to come to these meetings and be told that the 'alleged cemetery'...."

"This should not ever be a debate," said Laurel Hoa, a resident representing Showing Up for Racial Justice - Montgomery County. "We should be better than this." She argued that descendants of those buried in the cemetery "deserve a place they can sit and be with their great aunt or great uncle." Hoa asked the commissioners to reflect on "the real harm that you are doing to the descendant community."

Ralph Wooden, whose great-grandfather bought the land he lives on along River Road, has a family cemetery on his property. But Wooden is white, and he noted that he and other white people rarely have to worry about a developer building on top of the graves of their ancestors. Black cemeteries deserve the same respect and protection, he suggested.

The testimony appeared to have an impact on at least one commissioner. After all cemetery advocates had spoken, Simon was attempting to move to the next agenda item when she was interrupted by Commissioner Margaret McFarland, who said she wanted to comment on the testimony. "I really appreciate all the statements and the input that we got from our guests today. I think it's very helpful, and very informative, and thank you for making statements that we can consider as we move forward."

"This could be the tipping point," Coleman-Adebayo said after the meeting adjourned, "where they realize they've hit a wall." Commissioners will have to weight whatever pressures they are under to stick to the development agenda against the potential that action against a black cemetery will follow them in their future political careers in progressive Montgomery County.