Montgomery County has ignored a second deadline to relinquish over 200 bone fragments excavated from a site directly adjacent to the Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda to cemetery advocates and the descendant community for testing. Attorneys for the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition had set a deadline of August 15, 2023 for the County, a developer excavating the site for a self-storage project, and a contractor to release the bone fragments from their current location in a Gainesville, Virginia warehouse. Advocates, and descendants of those buried in the cemetery, want to confirm if any of the excavated fragments are indeed human remains. They have sought assistance from County Executive Marc Elrich and Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin (D - 8th District) in this effort, to no avail so far.
This was the second time BACC had set a deadline. The first was on Juneteenth earlier this summer. This latest deadline was the first submitted by the organization's attorneys. BACC is now asking the public to write to Raskin and Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen (D), to ask them to facilitate a federal intervention in the matter.
Moses African Cemetery was desecrated in the late 1960s during the construction of Westwood Tower, and remains hidden under two parking lots astride the Willett Branch stream behind the apartment tower. The current standoff over who will possess the potential human remains is eerily reminiscent of the horrific and illegal use of African-American remains in medical experimentation during the 1800s and 1900s, and the retention of many of those remains in American institutional collections to this day.
"Montgomery County is engaged in grave robbing to signal its contempt for Black people and to line the pockets of developers," BACC President Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo said in a statement Tuesday evening. "Not only is this sick but clearly criminal. How can a County that prides itself on being 'progressive' allow Black bodies to be trafficked from Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda, Maryland (represented by Congressman Jamie Raskin) to a warehouse owned by an US govenment contractor - without any legal consequences? We call upon the Department of Justice (FBI) to initiate a federal investigation leading to prosecution. No one is above the law. What is happening in Bethesda is a hate crime that must be punished to the full extent of the law."
14 comments:
Aren't these just animal bone fragments from the archaeological survey? Montgomery County is one of the most pro-BLM jurisdictions in the country, it seems silly to believe there's some grand conspiracy at play here to hide human remains.
I can understand the county ignoring Coleman-Adebayo's "deadlines." If the county delivers the animal bones to her, there'll be a Washington Post article, and maybe it even goes national. If they ignore her, very few people will notice.
Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe there are dozens of human skeletons being hidden in a Gainesville warehouse by a conspiracy of MoCo officials... Literal skeletons in the closet... But I really, really doubt it.
Once again, the original cemetery owners sold the land, fair and square, but apparently may not have fully relocated the graves of their ancestors. They are the ones who are responsible for this problem, not any subsequent land owners. And once again, any human remains found on site should be respectfully relocated. And yes, the descendants do have a right to test any bone fragments for human DNA, but not to stop any construction on the site.
When does the march and sign waving start?
A self -storage business? Is this the best MoCo can do? Low number of jobs. Moribund, I'll tell ya.
maybe they can recruit people from that weird caucasian church that holds up BLM flags every friday night on river & whittier
Why does BACC think they can unilaterally set deadlines for other to follow? What nonsense!
Actually, self-storage seems appropriate for a cemetery…
Just before MC Gubmint writes a check.
Haha, I was thinking the very same thing! I'm a years long alumnus of that very church. Let's say "I saw the light," eventually! It's funny that not once have I seen the 'aggrieved party' at one of their sign waving exercises.
They should be trying to raise funds themselves vs complaining and cajoling.
5:49: I think you have to remember that Black cemeteries were largely the result of segregation, and were often founded and maintained by African-American benevolent societies and organizations. Once America began to desegregate, the need for these cemeteries declined, and I would imagine the funds to maintain them began to dry up.
We don't know why this specific cemetery was sold. But we do know that the desecration by one of the next 2 landowners was illegal. Clearly, the original owners did not bulldoze the headstones. One of the next 2 owners did. Dr. Tauber began construction on the site, and the actions of the architect following disturbance of the graves indicates it was known during Tauber's ownership as a Black cemetery.
Finally, as I noted in the article, the self-storage site is not part of the cemetery. However, it was very common for unfenced Black cemeteries to have burials occur outside the property line by mistake. That was the central concern of the church and descendant community, which was completely ignored by the Planning Board when it approved the self storage project. Casey Anderson did, however, call police officers to come into the hearing and harass and silence Black protesters. That was not the first time he had done so, yet the County Council reappointed him with full knowledge of this.
5:18: At this stage, we don't know, because Montgomery County hasn't allowed an independent examination of the fragments. They could well just be animal bones, but how do we know until they are looked at by an outside source?
Robert: The bones were examined by a professional archaeological firm, no? Thunderbird? I'm not sure why their report should be dismissed. They're not county employees.
MoCo doesn't want the kind of bad noise that Coleman-Adabayo tends to make. If they give her the animal bones to test, it's going to turn into a big news story. She's going to claim they're covering up the real bones, they didn't provide everything, or the real bones were secretly disposed of, etc. It's a losing proposition for county officials.
8:56: My initial understanding was that the developer's firm was a reputable one. However, here is one of my previous articles that quotes several archaeological and anthropological experts, who expressed concern about what they observed during the excavation:
http://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2023/06/black-cemetery-advocates-call-for.html
Well, whatever the case may be with those bones, it's worth noting that the construction of the self-storage facility seems to have ground to a complete halt. That hole in the ground has been there for 3 years, with zero progress made. And I've been tracking their permit for a couple of years, because until that self-storage facility is built, there won't be any connection between Westbard Avenue and the Crescent Trail. The connection has been cut since the self-storage site went under construction. Right now, the only ways to access the crescent trail are to go all the way down to Mass Avenue, or ride on the sidewalk of River Road down past where Sarah Langenkamp was killed on her bike, or go through Kenwood to Dorset.
Anyways, it turns out that the construction permit's status was changed from "ISSUED" to "EXPIRED" at the end of July. Check for yourself, permit numbers 843066 and 838332. One for the construction, and one for the excavation.
https://permittingservices.montgomerycountymd.gov/DPS/online/eSearch.aspx?by=Address&SearchType=DataSearch#
I suspect that the owner has scrapped their plans, and the future of the parcel is now in limbo, unfortunately.
Post a Comment