The historic Moses African Cemetery holds approximately 500 bodies, including many of the first freed slaves after Maryland Emancipation. Construction workers excavating for the Westwood Tower building in the late 1960s desecrated the cemetery, before reportedly relocating some remains into a mass grave downward from the rear slope behind the development. The rest of the graves were covered with fill dirt and a paved parking lot. Notes kept by the County Parks Department indicate landowner Dr. Lazlo Tauber was fully aware of the cemetery and desecration.
HOC, which had planned for several years to acquire the property from owner Regency Centers and build a parking garage on top of the cemetery, has steadfastly refused to allow any archaeological investigation of the graveyard. Prior to acquiring the land from Regency in January, HOC used the excuse that it did not own the land, and therefore could not give permission for the church to conduct a study on it.
But now that HOC owns the land outright, they have yet to allow any investigation to take place. Montgomery County has taken a similar approach, dismissing two highly-regarded anthropologists specializing in black cemeteries last year. County officials tricked the church into entering a farcical mediation process with HOC and Regency last summer. When the County's mediator blew up the process under false pretenses, it was revealed that the County had simply been trying to put a stop to the regular protests and rallies that brought public attention to the scandal in prior months.
HOC has engaged in other skullduggery, falsely claiming that the church had leaked information during the mediation, and citing a lawsuit Macedonia Baptist Church is not a party to as an excuse to avoid communication with the church. “HOC has been using a pending lawsuit—that Macedonia is not a party to—as a blanket excuse for not responding to any of our reasonable requests for permission to begin a cemetery delineation,” Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, MBC's Social Justice Chair said yesterday. “Walking the grounds with these dogs would not involve heavy equipment or even the slightest disruption of the site,” she continued, “but it would go a long way toward beginning a healing process for Macedonia’s congregation and the wider descendant community.”
Not having a pony in this show or whatever the saying is, I thought the mediator was a completely neutral group? Saying it’s the county’s mediator is deceptive.
ReplyDeleteDaily reminder: The land where this alleged cemetery is located was owned by a Black benevolent society and it was so unimportant that they sold it in the 1950s fair and square. The church should go after them, not the current owner.
ReplyDelete"Rev. Dr. Segun Adebayo, Pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church, wrote to HOC Chair Jackie Simon. “We hope that HOC will be as receptive to our bringing trained CSD dogs onto their property as they have been in allowing Westwood Tower resident’s dogs to ‘do their business’ on our ancestors’ final resting places.”"
ReplyDeleteWhether or not there are any bodies there, they are not Adebayo's ancestors. He was born in Nigeria. If he were anyone else, Robert Dyer would call him a "carpetbagger".
"The cemetery and Macedonia Baptist Church are the only remaining properties from a lost African-American community along River Road, between today's Little Falls Parkway and Ridgefield Road. It lasted about 100 years, before black landowners fled high-tax and economically-moribund Montgomery County."
ReplyDeleteWhy does this blog owner continue to allow racist statements like "alleged cemetery" to appear? By describing it as alleged, the writer is asking others to believe that the church and others are liars and that the cemetery narrative is some folktale without any basis in fact.
ReplyDeleteStock photo from June 2017.
ReplyDeleteDan McHugh looks like he just wet his pants.
ReplyDeleteDr Tauber is rolling in his grave right now.
ReplyDeleteThis farce is probably the most hilarious example of Nimbyism I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteAll this bile and hate towards the church and buried freed slaves...just so a developer can build a parking garage on the graves.
ReplyDeleteThis is Montgomery County in 2018.
The real story here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/negotiations-stall-over-vanished-african-american-cemetery-in-bethesda/2017/10/04/b41bb346-a93a-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html?utm_term=.b05e546e95ad
The commission repeatedly said it was unable to vote on the issue because it is currently a defendant in a related lawsuit filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court by residents who argue that they would be harmed by the Westbard development plan.
“We came here because we need the commission to vote, we actually want you to vote,” said Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, chair of Macedonia’s social justice ministry.
“There will be no vote on this issue while it is in litigation,” responded Jackie Simon, chair of the housing commission.
In the spring and summer, the housing commission, Macedonia Baptist Church, the county and other involved parties took part in county-sponsored mediation regarding the Westbard property. County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and Council President Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda), had said in March that mediation was necessary “to assist those who believe their ancestors were buried on this site.”
But negotiations crumbled last month after mediators said the parties could not decide on a date for their third session.
Church members argued that mediators unilaterally cancelled the sessions despite the fact that all participants had signed up for one or more offered dates.
“The mediator decided to call off the mediation without asking anyone,” Coleman-Adebayo said.
The commission’s executive director, Stacy Spann, declined to participate in a third mediation, concerned that issues raised in the first two sessions were not kept confidential and sensitive information ended up in the lawsuit pending in circuit court, according to county officials.
Issues “alleged in the complaint were very close to what we had discussed in the mediation,” said Ramona Bell-Pearson, assistant chief administrative officer in the County Executive’s Office. “The HOC director became very concerned.”
An attorney from the housing commission would continue to take part in the mediation, said Shauna Sorrells, director of legislative and public affairs for the commission.
But church members said they would not participate in a third session unless Spann returned to the table, Bell-Pearson said. Spann agreed to rejoin negotiations at the end of August, according to Sorrells. Yet on Sept. 20, mediators sent an email cancelling future sessions.
“We have offered numerous dates and times and sent out two polls, but have not been able to come up with a date and time that works for all the key parties to this dispute,” the email read.
Christopher Page, executive director of the mediation group, said the door is still open for parties to work towards a solution."
MAYBE THEY WILL MOVE THAT CEMETERY TO THE REDWOOD
ReplyDelete6:54 - And they are not Coleman-Adebayo's ancestors, either. She is from Detroit.
ReplyDeleteThe Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County is a private, non-profit entity.
ReplyDeletehttp://crcmc.org/aboutus/
Bethesda residents in the area are standing shoulder to shoulder with the church and spirit of those buried in this property.
ReplyDeleteIt's not racist to call it an alleged cemetery. If you walk there now, you'll see no sign of a cemetery. Maybe it was there, maybe it was moved, maybe it was elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteYou know who might know? The original owner who sold it. If it was such an important cemetery, why did they sell it? If they were short on money, the church could have bought it.
Why did the church not set up a cemetery on their own land anyway?
Don't you just love the smell of apology in the morning?
ReplyDeleteThis blog post by Robert Dyer has to be the least impartial reporting or summary of the facts of this Cemetery dispute ever printed or published anywhere in the world.
ReplyDeleteI have become convinced with the many who over time have argued that this is Dyer's backdoor movement to block the Westbard development plans.
And this is another embarrassing attempt at "journalism" by Robert. I would be horrified, but I still have not recovered from his earlier claim this week that the children protesting the lack of gun controls are paid actors -- and not sincere protestors.
12:00 PM You continue to make things up out of whole cloth.
ReplyDeleteWho are the "many" who argued anything like that about Dyer's reporting? Is this the same massive group we keep hearing about that favors the Westbard Plan, but never emerge? No one has ever seen or heard from this imaginary pro-Westbard plan group.
We've been seeing false reporting from other outlets who are either misinformed or deliberately trying to mislead folks. The most recent false reports were that the fight had been won, the place massively reduced and we can all go home be quiet. Obviously, Bethesda residents haven't fallen for that false narrative! They'll continue to fight for their neighborhood's quality of life and for respect towards the cemetery.
Boys' Balls - Why do you keep conflating "some residents of Westbard" with "all Bethesda residents"?
ReplyDeleteWestbard is only a tiny anthill within the much larger area of Bethesda. No one who lives more than a mile away cares about the crappy old shopping center.
"Who are the "many" who argued anything like that about Dyer's reporting? Is this the same massive group we keep hearing about that favors the Westbard Plan, but never emerge?"
ReplyDeleteKind of like Dyer's "third party analytics", which have never seen the light of day. LOL
"Boyce Bowles said...
ReplyDelete12:00 PM You continue to make things up out of whole cloth."
I have never posted here before, so I have no cloth to make up.
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"Who are the "many" who argued anything like that about Dyer's reporting? Is this the same massive group we keep hearing about that favors the Westbard Plan, but never emerge? No one has ever seen or heard from this imaginary pro-Westbard plan group. "
Mr. Bowles, as I have noticed you are a regular reader of this Blog, it is disingenuous of you to pretend that there has not been frequent comments left here that the whole Cemetery Protest is nothing more than a McGuffin, or red herring, for the Anti-Westbard folks. While I do not doubt the sincerity of many involved in the Cemetery protests, Dyer's reporting on the issue has exaggerated, distorted, or has invented many aspects of this issue, particularly the motives of the HOC, the Montgomery County Police, the Developers involved, and the County Council. Sad.
2:15 PM Let's be clear: I haven't seen one iota of evidence that Mr. Dyer had exaggerated anything about the burial site. Everyone who has attended the meetings or been involved have touted Mr. Dyer's reporting as important.
ReplyDeleteNow, I haven't seen anyone publicly dispute that. A lone racist Internet troll who says the church is lying can't change the facts! Indeed, the existence of the burial grounds is an inconvenient truth for the developer. I recommend they deal with the issue in an humane way and not attack the community and church messengers.
2:55 PM Race plays an issue with this matter. If it was the Berliner family plot (for example), I doubt the county would have proceeded in the same way or impugned the motives of the church.
ReplyDeleteThis is part of the reason why I support a memorial museum on the site. If we don't study history, we'll never learn from our mistakes. The county actually wanted to desecrate the cemetery again.
"This is part of the reason why I support a memorial museum on the site."
ReplyDeleteSo you're in favor desecrating the cemetery a second time, to build this "memorial museum"?
3:15 = #UnsignedBoyceBowles
ReplyDelete5:51 PM The museum/memorial wouldn't involve desecrating the cemetery again.
ReplyDeleteThe history of the Westbard area of Bethesda must be told.
@3:15 If it was the Berliner family plot, and they cared about it, they wouldn't sell it. This plot was sold more than 50 years ago. They didn't care about it.
ReplyDelete"The history of the Westbard area of Bethesda must be told."
ReplyDeleteJust make a nice binder and leave it in the reference section of the Little Falls Library, so the 2 or 3 people who are actually interested can read it there.
The Westbard Plan has little in the way of community space, arts or historical features. The museum could help satisfy these needs.
ReplyDeleteStudents would be able to learn the hidden history of Bethesda.
The museum is a waste of money and doesn't serve the actual needs of the community. Carpetbaggers = exactly what this church represents in the way of their leadership. As others have mentioned, the developer and the community who work, play (shop and live) need what this developer is offering. Also, yes, not everyone is a free lancing protestor and complainer like Sue Schumacher et alia, so they cannot be heard as easily. People are tired of the eyesore and lack of density there in the way of retail and housing.
ReplyDelete