Advocates for the desecrated Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda plan to stage a protest at an EagleBank branch at 5480 Wisconsin Avenue in Friendship Heights tomorrow, Thursday, October 1, 2020 at noon. Organizers of the protest say the Bethesda-based bank loaned $21 million to 1784 Holdings for construction of a self-storage building behind the McDonald's on River Road.
The self-storage project is directly adjacent to the hidden cemetery's property line. Concern has been that burials at cemeteries like this did not always strictly follow property lines.
An archaeologist hired by the self-storage company has said no remains or funerary objects have been found during excavation of the site. Advocates have disputed that conclusion, citing their own photographic evidence, and have held a series of protests at the construction site. "EagleBank must acknowledge that Black Lives Matter in Life and in Death, and change its policies so that in the future funds are not provided that harm the Black community or support the erasure of Black history," the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition said in a statement this afternoon.
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