Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition seeks hate crimes charges against HOC

The Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition has filed an official request with the office of Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy asking him to investigate hate crimes by the County Housing Opportunities Commission in the ongoing desecration of the Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda. "We are confident that the results of your investigation will result in criminal charges against HOC, [HOC Chair] Jackie Simon, [HOC Executive Director] Stacy Spann, and HOC’s entire Board of Directors," BACC President Marsha Coleman-Adebayo wrote in the letter, which was hand-delivered to McCarthy's Judicial Center office in Rockville.

BACC letter stamped "RECEIVED" by
MoCo State's Attorney's office

Grave markers in the Moses African Cemetery were bulldozed by at some point in the 1950s, after the property changed hands from the African-American fraternal organization that founded it. The graves themselves were then desecrated in the late 1960s by construction workers excavating for the Westwood Tower apartment building on Westbard Avenue.

According to witness accounts, initial remains discovered were illegally relocated and reburied in a different black cemetery near the Howard County line by the building's architect, indicating the builders knew full well they were disturbing a black cemetery. After that, bodies located in the footprint of the future building were illegally relocated into a nearby mass grave. Fill dirt was allegedly brought in and dumped atop the cemetery. Graves that were under the planned parking lot area were left in place, and the asphalt lot was placed on top of them.

"The desecration of Moses African Cemetery will be considered among the most egregious, callous, and racist in US history," Coleman-Adebayo wrote to McCarthy. " It is therefore incumbent upon you, as the chief law enforcement officer in Montgomery County, to protect Moses African Cemetery and to bring criminal charges against any and all of the parties who have knowingly participated in the desecration," the letter concludes.