Black cemetery advocates call for boycott of Montgomery County Juneteenth events

Advocates protesting the ongoing desecration of Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda are calling for a boycott of Montgomery County government-sponsored Juneteenth 2024 events. The Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition is organizing the boycott to highlight the failure of Montgomery County elected officials at the local, state and federal levels to condemn the desecration and intervene in the matter. BACC is asking residents to instead attend an alternative slate of Juneteenth events that it will be sponsoring.

The BACC Juneteenth events will include an interfaith program on June 15, 2024 at 1:00 PM at Macedonia Baptist Church at 5119 River Road in Bethesda, and a community program on June 19 from 3:00 to 6:00 PM at the church that will include speakers, food and cultural performances. Further details on the June 19 event are pending.

BACC announced the planned boycott yesterday, Memorial Day, by also recognizing an American Civil War veteran who is buried in Moses African Cemetery. Pvt. William H.H. Brown served in the 30th United States Colored Troops (USCT) Regiment. The 30th is credited with exhibiting incredible heroism in many critical events and battles, in the service of a Union that had given them nothing up to that point in its history. 

A Maryland state archive lists a Pvt. William H. Brown as having been mustered into Company E of the 30th on March 3, 1864. The record indicates Pvt. Brown was honorably discharged, like a majority of the 30th, on December 10, 1865.

The biggest of BACC's alternative Juneteenth events will be a celebration of Brown's service and heroism on June 18 at 1:00 PM, beginning at Macedonia Baptist Church. An honor guard of 30th USCT Regiment Civil War reenactors will lead a march from the church to the nearby Moses African Cemetery. There, they will lay a wreath, raise the Juneteenth flag, and sound Taps. The public is invited to join the march and ceremony. 

Private Brown is one of many whose graves either remain under a parking lot alongside and behind the Westwood Tower apartments in Bethesda, or whose remains were directly desecrated and illegally relocated into a mass grave elsewhere on the site. Montgomery County has blocked all attempts to conduct any independent archaeological examination of the two recognized cemetery parcels, one of which it already owned via the Housing Opportunity Commission's ownership of Westwood Tower, and the other - located across the Willett Branch stream from Westwood Tower's rear parking lot - it hastily acquired to prevent any search for remains.

A third parcel directly adjacent to the second is now being developed as a self-storage building by a private company. While that parcel was not officially part of the cemetery, concerns were raised during the project approval process in 2017 about burials that may have occurred just over the property line of the graveyard, a phenomenon not unusual in cemeteries of that era where boundaries may not have been physically delineated. Those concerns were brushed aside by the Montgomery County Planning Board, who called in armed police to intimidate cemetery advocates peacefully protesting at the public hearing. In addition to demanding silence of the protesters, officers ordered them to turn their signs around to the blank side.

The self-storage project has faced many delays since its approval. When excavation commenced, observers with the BACC reported seeing possible bones and funerary objects being removed from the site. An archaeological expert employed by the developer declared that the materials were not human remains or funerary objects, and they were trucked away and stored in a Virginia warehouse at an unknown location. The BACC and its own expert asked why, if the developer's expert was correct, they could not have a chance to examine the items themselves.

BACC officials have asked Montgomery County elected officials at the local, state and federal levels to condemn the desecration of the cemetery, and to intervene in several respects, including the release of the excavated materials for independent review. None have done so. 

The cemetery and Macedonia Baptist Church are the only physical remnants of a vibrant Black community that existed in the now-industrialized and commercialized area along River Road between Brookside Drive and Little Falls Parkway. Former slaves emancipated from the adjacent Loughborough plantation established the community after the Civil War. A River Road "colored school" provided education prior to desegregation of public schools. The community's descendants were forced from the land in the 1950s and 1960s by developers via various illegal or unethical means. 

Former resident Harvey Matthews - who grew up on a property now home to a Whole Foods Market - has cited the deceptions and intimidations employed by developers, including physical threats and actual violence by a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. He recalls that he and his family were beaten by Klansmen. Montgomery County government and law enforcement looked the other way at the time, and not only allowed the Black community to be forced out, but completely eliminated its history from the official County historical narrative.

The HOC recently violated Maryland law by trying to sell the cemetery property to a private developer, without contacting the descendants of those buried there. That matter is now before the Maryland Supreme Court. A recent concrete pour at the self-storage construction site only further angered the descendant community.

"This is the level of vile barbarism [and] White supremacy that is unmatched in history," BACC President Marcia Coleman-Adebayo said on WPFW FM last week, citing the shocking fate of Pvt. Brown's remains. "This is how Montgomery County, Maryland celebrates Juneteenth, and this is why the BACC calls for boycott of the Montgomery County Juneteenth program."

Photo of 30th USCT Regiment provided by BACC

Macedonia Baptist Church to lead march to Moses African Cemetery during Bethesda Juneteenth celebration event

Macedonia Baptist Church at 5119 River Road in Bethesda will host a Juneteenth celebration this Sunday, June 19, 2022 from 2:00-4:00 PM. The event will be about a current civil rights struggle as much as a remembrance of past history, as the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition will lead a march from the church to the nearby site of the Moses African Cemetery. Desecrated by construction workers building the Westwood Tower apartments in the late 1960s, the majority of the gravesites remain hidden under paved parking spaces at the apartment tower, and on a second site across the Willett Branch stream next to the self-storage construction site behind McDonald's. The church and coalition have been battling Montgomery County officials and developers to restore and memorialize the burial ground, prevent any further construction on it, and potentially transfer stewardship of the land to the church.

A banner will be raised on the Capital Crescent Trail bridge over River Road during the ceremony, and a traditional African libation ritual will be presented by Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Speakers at the event will include former resident of the lost black community on River Road Harvey Matthews, historian C.R. Gibbs, County Council At-Large candidate Brandy Brooks, Circuit Court Judge candidate Marylin Pierre, and activist Robert Stubblefield. 

Musical and dance performers will include Luci Murphy, Karen Wilson Ama Ethefu, Freedome Nsaroma Lee-El, Martha Peterson, and EverGreen Productions. Representatives from the Poor People's Campaign, UNIA, Party for Socialism and Liberation, The Claudia Jones Organization, and the Green Party will also be in attendance.

It will be a celebration, and also a tremendous educational opportunity to learn more about not only the past, but the direct legacy of that past in our own community of Bethesda and Montgomery County. Impacts of the loss of the River Road community in the 1960s included former residents moving and making major contributions to historic and growing African-American communities in East Rockville, Silver Spring and beyond, while still representing that living legacy of the Loughborough plantation in Bethesda. That makes this event of interest to residents of the entire Washington, D.C. region seeking meaningful ways to celebrate Juneteenth this year.

Tavis Smiley weighs in on Bethesda cemetery controversy

Broadcaster Tavis Smiley is the latest prominent figure to weigh in on the controversy over the desecrated Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda. He interviewed the Rev. Dr. Segun Adebayo, pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church on River Road, and Dr. Marcia Coleman Adebayo, head of the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition on KTLA in Los Angeles. Both organizations are among the plaintiffs suing Montgomery County's Housing Opportunities Commission over the HOC's intent to sell the Westwood Tower property that includes the majority of the cemetery site to Charger Ventures. The suit alleges the HOC did not inform the descendants of those buried there - some of whom are also plantiffs in the case - of their its intent to sell as required by law.

Like many locally and nationally who hear of the cemetery history and more recent fight over it, Smiley was stunned that the County, HOC and other parties would persist in attempting to further develop the property after knowing a black cemetery was on the site. "Why are they continuing to plow forward, to push forward with their plans anyway, although they know now full well it is a burial ground?" Smiley asked. "Once you discover that, that should be the end of these things, to me."

"What is the government of Montgomery County saying or doing about this?" Smiley queried Coleman Adebayo. She accused County Executive Marc Elrich of writing letters urging others to ignore Coleman Adebayo, and "calling me all kind of vicious names." Elrich was previously one of the only elected officials to support cemetery advocates when he was on the County Council in 2017 and 2018, when the now decade-long controversy boiled over in multiple protests that garnered media attention.

Montgomery County's government has "locked arms with the developer against the community. We don't have one member of the County Council that has stood up to say this is wrong to sell the bodies of these Africans. We do not have friends in local government."

Coleman Adebayo said the County was trying to "erase not only the youth, but the ancestors of black people." Noting that "developers literally run Montgomery County," she recalled the history of the black community on River Road that was founded by former slaves from the Loughborough plantation. That community "basically was wiped out through developers and the coalition between developers and local government" by the late 1960s, and the only remnants left are the church and the cemetery.

"Montgomery County has been clear about the fact that it will control black bodies, both alive and dead," Coleman Adebayo added. She said Maryland ranks number one in America in the incarceration of young black men. The desecration of the cemetery during the construction of Westwood Tower in the late 1960s, and the belligerence of the County government in blocking all efforts to conduct investigations or restore it, are an extension of that racial bias, she argued. "This is a hate crime. We're talking about criminal activity."

Smiley praised the Adebayos' success in winning a temporary restraining order against the sale. A possible preliminary injunction against it is being argued in a Montgomery County Circuit Courtroom today. Their initial victory was remarkable, Smiley said, because "communities of color rarely prevail in court fights with multimillion dollar corporations."

Coleman Adebayo first came to prominence as a whistleblower who fought the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and won. That was also how Smiley first became aware of her activism and historic victory over the EPA. "I feel sorry for the folks and the developers who are trying to take over this cemetery," Smiley said. "She's in the history book. She is a warrior."

Smiley said the Moses African Cemetery battle is "one of those David vs. Goliath fights," and is "starting to make bigger news on the national scene." As the segment concluded, Smiley told listeners, "This is a fight that all of us have a vested interest in, whether our ancestors were buried in this plot or not, whether you've ever been to Maryland or Bethesda or not. If they can do it to them, they can do it to you, they can do it to us, so I am pulling and praying for your success on Monday and beyond, as you fight to save this precious and sacred burial ground."

Photo via Twitter

Poor People's Campaign leaders call for Bethesda cemetery to be turned over to Macedonia Baptist Church

The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II 

The leaders of the Poor People's Campaign, a national organization that declares its dedication to finishing the work begun by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., are calling for Montgomery County to relinquish control of the Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda to the nearby Macedonia Baptist Church. Co-chairs the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, will speak via Zoom to a rally this Friday, September 10, 2021 at 11:00 AM at the church, which is located at 5119 River Road in Bethesda. The rally will be live streamed on the Maryland Poor People's Campaign Facebook page, for those who can't attend.

Dr. Liz Theoharis

Several past members of the church are buried in the cemetery. Some of their descendants are expected to be in attendance at the rally on Friday. Also backing the demand are the leaders of the Maryland Poor People’s Campaign chapter. "We stand solidly behind the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition's struggle to end the continued desecration of Moses Macedonia African Cemetery,” Rabbi Alana Suskin and the Rev. Angela Martin, co-chairs of the Maryland State Poor People's Campaign, said in a statement.

The cemetery, which was desecrated in the late 1960s during construction of the Westwood Tower apartments, was split into two parcels in recent deals related to the redevelopment of 22 acres in the Westbard area of Bethesda. One larger parcel remains in the hands of the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission, which recently attempted to sell Westwood Tower and the cemetery to a private capital investment firm, prompting a lawsuit after the church and descendants were not alerted to the sale as required by law. A smaller parcel was already acquired by the County, which has fought tooth and nail to prevent any archaeological study of the cemetery by renowned experts in the field of African-American cemeteries.

“One of my most sacred duties is committing the souls of the deceased, and ensuring the sanctity of their burial ground,” the Rev. Dr. Segun Adebayo, pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church, said Monday. “Because of the County, we can’t do that now at our Moses African Cemetery.”

Descendants of those buried in Bethesda cemetery file suit against Montgomery County HOC to block land sale

Descendants of those buried in Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda filed suit against the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission yesterday. The suit aims to block the HOC's sale of Westwood Tower at 5401 Westbard Avenue, the property on which nearly all of the cemetery is located. Earlier this summer, the HOC voted to approve the sale of the property to Charger Ventures of Bethesda.

Among the plaintiffs in the suit are descendants Darold Cuba, Nanette Hunter and Montani Wallace. The other plaintiffs are the Rev. Segun Adebayo, Pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church; and the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition (BACC). 

“It is immoral, disrespectful and unconscionable for the County to allow the sale of remains of kidnapped Africans or freed African-Americans” BACC President Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo said in a statement yesterday. “The County is participating in the trafficking of human remains in Moses Macedonia African Cemetery. The proposed 'sale' of the bodies of our ancestors, along with a building, is being treated as though they were just other inanimate objects. Our ancestors were human and they deserve dignity. This proposed 'sale' continues the County’s long history of not considering Black people as human.”

The plaintiffs are represented by Steven Lieberman, Jenny Colgate, D. Lawson Allen and Kristen Logan of Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, P.C., and Jennifer Semko of Baker & McKenzie. "In a beloved community where many profess to be liberal and progressive, the sale of human bodies, dead or alive isreprehensible and must be resisted by all those who believe in justice and truth," David Ward of the Engage Beloved Communities Pathway to Racial Justice at River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation said in the BACC statement. "For this to be happening in Montgomery County in the 21st century flies in the face of who we claim to be."

Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition condemns sale of Westwood Tower that conveys cemetery to investment firm

The Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition has condemned the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission's approval of the sale of Westwood Tower to a Bethesda real estate investment firm last Thursday. Moses African Cemetery lies beneath the side driveway and rear parking lot of the apartment tower property, which is located at 5401 Westbard Avenue. The cemetery was desecrated during the construction of the apartment tower in the late 1960s.

Remains encountered within the footprint of the apartment tower by construction workers were illegally relocated into a mass grave elsewhere on the property, according to witnesses at the time. Montgomery County, which until now has owned the entire cemetery via HOC and the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, has vigorously blocked all attempts by cemetery advocates to conduct archaeological investigation of the site.

Now, the County only retains the M-NCPPC (a state-chartered organization) parcel of the cemetery between Westwood Tower and the site of a self-storage building now under construction behind the McDonald's on River Road. BACC and the Macedonia Baptist Church at 5119 River Road were not contacted by HOC prior to the sale agreement being approved last week, the coalition said in a statement. 

"Black people and their ancestors are back on the auction block,” BACC President Dr. Marsha Adebayo said in the statement. “How does Montgomery County allow one of its agencies to sell off Black Dead Bodies without consulting the church that sanctified the ground in which our ancestors lie?" MBC Pastor Segun Adebayo asked. "The County has shown that it does not respect Black people either dead or alive. I call upon leaders of the faith community and people of conscience across the region to condemn this evil act, and to call upon the County Executive and County Council to put an end to this hateful plan." 

County Executive Marc Elrich, while still on the County Council, was one of the few elected officials to lend support to advocates for the Moses cemetery. But the BACC criticized Elrich in its statement for failing to fulfill his promise to resolve the cemetery issue. "We will remember this in the upcoming election," Robert Stubblefield of United Front for Justice said.

While the sale represents yet another transfer of the cemetery property, there could be a bright spot in the acquisition of Westwood Tower by Bethesda real estate investment firm Charger Ventures. Now that the property is out of Montgomery County's hands, it is always possible that the new private owner might consider working with BACC, and allow an archaeological investigation to finally be conducted at the site.

Tone P added to list of performers for Bethesda Juneteenth event

Hip-hop artist and producer Tone P has been added to a long list of speakers and performers for the first annual Bethesda Juneteenth celebration this Saturday, June 19, 2021. The event begins at noon at Macedonia Baptist Church at 5119 River Road, and includes a march over to the Moses African Cemetery site.

Photo via Tone P Facebook page

Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition to host 1st Bethesda Juneteenth celebration June 19

The Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition will host the first Juneteenth celebration in Bethesda on Saturday, June 19, 2021 from 12:00-4:00 PM. Attendees will gather at Macedonia Baptist Church at 5119 River Road in Bethesda at noon, and then march over to the site of the hidden Moses African Cemetery at 5204 River Road (behind McDonald's). A long list of speakers and performers has been assembled for the event, including:

Speakers:

Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition (BACC)

Carroll R. Gibbs, Historian

Baba Mosi Matsimela, President, Woodson-Banneker, Jackson Baye, Div. 33 - UNIA-ACL RC2020

Rev. Segun Adebayo, Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, BACC

Mr. Harvey Matthews, Descendant, River Road Community

Senghor Jawara Baye, 1st Assistant President-General Government of the UNIA-ACL RC2020

Arthur McCloud, Chair, WPFW, Local Station Board

Melody Cooper, Mother of Kwamena Ocran, killed by Gaithersburg Police

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., Hip Hop Caucus

Dr. Jack Rasmussen, Director, The American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center

Dr. Zainab Chaudry, Director, CAIR, Maryland Office

Josh Odintz, JD, Holland and Knight Law Firm

Dr. Mustafa Ali, V.P. National Wildlife Federation

Jeffrey Slavin, Mayor, Town of Somerset

Brandy Brooks, Candidate, Montgomery County Council At-Large

Perry Paylor, Candidate, State's Attorney

Bernice Mireku North, Candidate, State's Attorney

Gaithersburg City Councilmember Laurie-Anne Sayles, Candidate for Montgomery County Council At-Large

Ralph Wooden, BACC

Martha Peterson, BACC

David Mott, Poor People's Campaign, Montgomery County

Howie Hawkins, 2020 Presidential Candidate, Green Party

Vanessa Till, BACC

Ari Gutman, BACC

Hanna Schwadron, Structures for Change

Dr. Dante O'Hara, Claudia Jones School, CP

Robert Stubblefield, BACC, DSA

Adam Simon, BACC, Anti-Racist Coalition

Mia Carmel, BACC, Anti-Racist Coalition

Artists/performers:

Evergreen Productions, Nana Malaya Rucker, Ayomi

Dr. Karen Wilson Ama'Echefu, Andrea Hines, B.E. Farrow,

African Drummers and Dancers

Support Organizations:

United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Woodson-Banneker, Jackson Baye, Div. 33 - UNIA-ACL RC2020

Maryland Green Party

Bethesda Anti-Racist Coalition

Hip Hop Caucus

United Negro Improvement Association - National

WPFW - 89.3 FM

CAIR

Poor People's Campaign, Montgomery County

Claudia Jones School

Cameroon American Council

National Alliance Against Racial and Political Repression

Standing Up for Racial Justice

Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition awarded 400 Years Commission grant

The Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition, led by Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo of Bethesda's Macedonia Baptist Church, has been recognized for its ongoing work by the 400 Years of African-American History Commission. Comprised of high-profile institutions including the Smithsonian Institution of African-American History and Culture, Howard University and the National Park Service, the commission has awarded BACC with a financial grant to further its work.

Coleman-Adebayo said the grant will fund a pop-up tabletop exhibit that will tell the story of the ongoing desecration of the Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda, and of the River Road community around it, which was founded by former slaves from an adjacent plantation. The exhibit will have removable panels that will allow it to tell different versions of the story to students of different grade levels. It could also transition from an exhibit on the present movement to save the cemetery for an activist audience, to a historical exhibit on the River Road community for an audience of historians.

The excitement over winning the grant is tempered by the ongoing cemetery fight, Coleman-Adebayo said, which at the moment is centered on excavation of property at the cemetery's edge for a self-storage building. “While we are humbled and delighted at the recognition this grant represents, we receive it with heavy hearts, as at this very moment when we should be celebrating, aggressive heavy equipment is destroying our ancestors’ final resting place. It is well beyond time for County Executive, Marc Elrich, to stop this blatant and racist destruction of a national and international treasure."

Bethesda cemetery protesters block cement trucks at construction site

Protest leads to confrontation

with Park Police

Protesters blocked two cement trucks from entering the construction site of a self-storage building behind the McDonald's on River Road in Bethesda Tuesday. Advocates for the desecrated and hidden Moses African Cemetery held the first of three protests this week at the site, over concerns that human remains could be disturbed by the project. When a Park Police SUV arrived at the scene near the end of the peaceful protest, demonstrator B.E. Farrow blocked it from entering as well, leading to a confrontation with the officer.

"We're on police business, back the f*** down," Farrow recounted the officer saying in a statement released by the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition today. Another protester, Chris Rigaux, recalled the unmasked officer saying, "Get the f*** out of my way. I am on official police business," to Farrow, who was wearing a mask. No arrests were made.

BACC has been monitoring the site daily, and report that there is no archaeologist on-site, as was required by the project's approved plan for the building's foundation work, the group said. The organization said they were forced to physically halt the work going on at the site after their pleas were ignored by the Montgomery County Council and the County Executive.

While the self-storage building's footprint is not within the recorded boundaries of the Moses African Cemetery, the concern has been that remains improperly buried beyond the property line could be disturbed during excavation. This has been a common issue with many black cemeteries. Advocates for the cemetery had suggested searching the site to ensure it was clear before approving the project, but that suggestion was unanimously rebuffed by the Montgomery County Planning Board. The Board also acquired an adjacent parcel of the property that actually was part of the burial ground, in order to prevent BACC from having any archaeological studies performed on that piece.

"This is a crime scene," Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, president of the BACC, said in a statement Wednesday. "This cemetery holds the bodies of innocent boys and girls, girls that were brutally raped unto death to provide slaves for the immoral slave trade. We will not allow their bodies to be further desecrated, to be covered by concrete, and their memories forgotten forever."

"We will be back every day until this digging is halted and Moses Cemetery is returned to its rightful owner: Macedonia Baptist Church," Dr. Coleman-Adebayo added.

Photos courtesy BACC

Justice Monday protest tomorrow in Bethesda

Organizers demanding action to stop

construction by cemetery site and

on police shootings of black men

A Justice Monday rally and march will be held in Bethesda Monday, June 8, 2020 at 5:00 PM at Macedonia Baptist Church at 5119 River Road in Bethesda. Organized by the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition and Showing Up for Racial Justice - Montgomery County, the event will protest and draw attention to the start of construction of a self-storage building at the edge of the hidden Moses African Cemetery, as well as to black men who have been killed by police in Montgomery County.

The organizers are calling for a halt to construction at the Bethesda Self Storage site behind McDonald's on River Road, a boycott of non-black/non-POC-owned Montgomery County businesses every Monday, and the arrest and charging of officers in the Emmanuel Okutuga, Robert White, and Finan Berhe shooting cases.

Justice Mondays will be held weekly until the demands are met, the organizers say. Monday's event will include a march to the self-storage site and cemetery. They are asking each participant to wear a mask, and to stay 6' apart from others.

Excavation for self-storage building begins at edge of Moses African Cemetery site in Bethesda

A day after Bethesda residents marched in a Black Lives Matter parade, heavy equipment was moved onto the site of a former auto repair facility behind the Bethesda McDonald's on River Road. And Thursday, those machines were digging up the property, which became embroiled in the controversial case of the Moses African Cemetery in recent years. The parcel being dug up is directly adjacent to the cemetery, which was already desecrated by a construction crew building the Westwood Tower apartments in the late 1960s.

Leaders of the nearby Macedonia Baptist Church on River Road and cemetery advocates had fought the proposed self-storage project's approval. Outlet Road, on the McDonald's side of the property, was once the route of funeral processions from the church to the cemetery.

Part of the property that literally was part of the burial site was hastily transferred from the property owner to Montgomery County at the behest of the Mongomery County Planning Board, which has blocked every effort to identify gravesites across the entire cemetery, which lies beneath asphalt and fill dirt. Board Chair Casey Anderson infamously called police on African-American church leaders and protesters at several board meetings, including the one where he and the board unanimously approved the self-storage project.

In a County that pledged "Black Lives Matter" verbally this week, the white Anderson faced no blowback from his Democratic colleagues in political office nor the press, despite national campaigns exhorting whites to "stop calling the police" as a convenient way to remove an inconvenient situation involving African-Americans such as this. When my camera came out to capture the scene, reporters for the Washington Post and other local media outlets conspicuously put theirs away. Anderson was unanimously reappointed chair of the board by the all-Democrat Montgomery County Council last year, despite his actions, and over the objections of the black community and progressive activists. In fact, Anderson continues to be rewarded for his loyal work on behalf of the Montgomery County political cartel, including being named "Montgomery County's Most Influential Person" by The Seventh State's Adam Pagnucco this year. Anderson is "one of the greatest planning board chairs ever," Pagnucco gushed, predicting the County will bear Anderson's stamp "for the next 50 years."

Protests against the self-storage project centered around two concerns. First, the County consistently blocked efforts to identify specific gravesites, and the piece the landowner transferred to the County meant that once again cemetery advocates would be blocked from any archaeological investigation on that plot.

The second concern relates to a common phenomenon in historic African-American cemeteries, many of which - like this one - have been neglected, or built over by developers: cemetery boundaries were often unclear. Sometimes casket would be mistakenly buried over the official boundary of the graveyard. So while the portion of the property being redeveloped for the self-storage building was not part of the cemetery according to land records, there is a legitimate fear that remains buried over the property line by mistake could be disturbed by the excavation and construction. Or, given the construction method planned for the building, any such graves might simply end up under a self-storage facility.

Calls for an archaeological study to ensure this did not happen were rebuffed by County officials, just as they were in the larger case of the cemetery portion that belonged to Equity One and - later - the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission. As of now, construction on the River Road site is full-speed-ahead.

Bethesda self-storage project moving forward again

A self-storage building approved by Montgomery County in December 2017 has yet to be built at 5204 River Road. While the auto maintenance facility on that property located behind the River Road McDonald's was torn down soon after the approval, the project has stalled for nearly two-and-a-half years. Now the developer is reviving the plans, but is seeking to amend the approved site plan.

Three key changes have been proposed by the applicant, Bethesda Self Storage:

1. A reduction in the setback for the front of the building, from 33' to 20'
2. A reduction of the rear setback from 19' down to 16'
3. Confirmation of a parcel donation to Montgomery County of 4792 SF

There were actually two land issues involved with the self storage proposal in 2017. First, is the applicant's role in transforming Outlet Road into a pedestrian path (this is the road that runs along the back retaining wall behind the McDonald's property, and was also a funeral procession route from Macedonia Baptist Church to the Moses African Cemetery on the Westwood Tower site).

Second, the applicant was to donate a parcel of property to Montgomery County Parks that is known to be part of the cemetery. Unknown, and of concern to the church and community advocates, is whether any bodies may have been intentionally or mistakenly buried or reburied within the footprint of the proposed self-storage building. No one has ever excavated the site yet, so that remains unknown. Those concerns were dismissed by the Montgomery County Planning Board in 2017, despite protests at the meeting, as were concerns about stormwater management.

One condition of approval for the site plan amendments will be the applicant making a "good faith effort" to convince McDonald's to construct an ADA-compliant ramp from its property down to Outlet Road. The Outlet Road path is conceived as a walking route to a future linear park along the Willett Branch stream.

A public hearing on the proposed amendments is tentatively scheduled for August 20, 2020. As we all know, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, everything is very tentative right now.

Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda to receive royal visitor Saturday

Bethesda will be honored by a royal visit tomorrow, Saturday, October 12, 2019. King Toffa IX of Benin will pay tribute to his ancestors by personally paying his respects at their final resting place in Moses African Cemetery, located on the Westwood Tower property on Westbard Avenue. The king is embarking on a tour of African gravesites in America that have powerful stories to tell. Moses African Cemetery was desecrated in the late 1960s by construction crews building the apartment tower, and a majority of the graveyard's area was paved over for the building's rear parking lot and driveway.

Among those buried under up to 60' of asphalt and fill dirt are former slaves who were brought from Benin, and members of Macedonia Baptist Church at 5119 River Road, where Saturday's program will begin at 2:30 PM. The king and all who attend will then march across River Road to the cemetery, where a special ceremony will take place. The public is invited to attend.

Artifacts of slavery in Montgomery County, which - contrary to contemporary assumptions - was a hotbed of Confederate sympathy during the Civil War era, will be on display at the event. The owner of the nearby Loughborough plantation where many of those buried here were enslaved would travel behind enemy lines wearing a Union uniform, and then switch into his Confederate uniform to join the fight against the Union. Many of the top families of Montgomery County, whose names still label major roadways and landmarks across the county, had members who did the same.

Speakers expected to appear include Ms. Ada Brown, President of Roots to Glory (which is coordinating the king's tour); Dr. Laurel Hoa, Co-Founder: Showing Up for Racial Justice - Montgomery County; archivist Dr. Tim Willard; historian Amy Rispin. Dr. Eric L Williams of the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture; Dr. Judith Belton, Executive Director, Sandy Spring Slave Museum; Macedonia Baptist Church Pastor, the Rev. Segun Adebayo; and Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo of the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition.

"King Toffa is making history on Saturday," Coleman-Adebayo said. "The slave trade broke important bonds between Africans and African-Americans. King Toffa's leadership is designed to start the healing process."

"Montgomery County should be ashamed that King Toffa's ancestors are lying in a desecrated burial ground," Dr. Laurel Hoa of SURJ said. "The County must insist that Moses African Cemetery is conveyed to Macedonia Baptist Church, the only institution that has not betrayed this community."

The existence of the now-hidden cemetery had been covered up by Montgomery County officials and previous property owners for decades. After being brought to light in 2011 in my testimony before the Montgomery County Council, Planning Board, and National Capital Planning Commission, and being located in 2014 with the help of eyewitnesses to its desecration, the cemetery and its fate have been a source of major controversy since the passage of the 2016 Westbard sector plan. That highly-unpopular plan, the passage of which broke 3 laws, envisioned a parking garage being built atop the graves.

After a powerful activist campaign by Macedonia Baptist Church and supportive residents and organizations - and ultimately the establishment of the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition - the garage plan was halted. But new owners Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County and County elected officials have not yet responded to calls to restore and memorialize the cemetery and the black community that once existed in that area of River Road. Expect tomorrow's speakers to weigh in on that, and the role of United Bank in the HOC acquisition, among other topics.

Photo courtesy Roots to Glory

Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition calls on Elrich to veto Anderson reappointment

Return of Planning Board chair

who called police on black protesters

was seen "through the lens of

white privilege," activists say

Activists with the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition are exhorting Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich to veto the County Council's reappointment of Casey Anderson as chair of the County's Planning Board. Anderson has faced criticism for calling in police on African-American protesters at Planning Board meetings over the last two years. Elrich did not endorse Anderson's bid to return for an unprecedented third consecutive term at the board's helm, but has made clear he would not veto the Council's decision.

"For members of the Black and progressive communities who have faced armed police as a result of Casey Anderson actions, Elrich’s reasoning is totally unacceptable and smacks of looking at our lives through the lens of white privilege," the BACC said in a press release. "It is well within Marc Elrich’s authority to veto Anderson’s nomination," Standing Up for Racial Justice - Montgomery County founder Dr. Laurel Hoa said. "After intimidation by armed police of peaceful protesters at the Planning Board, we need to know that Marc Elrich will not tolerate any unnecessary use of police —especially when the police are enforcing systemic discriminatory County policy."

The Rev. Segun Adebayo, pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church in Bethesda, called Anderson's record of calling in "armed police to intimidate unarmed, peaceful protesters" opposing continued desecration of Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda "disqualifying." As a Council member, Elrich was the only among his colleagues to fully support the cause of the cemetery. Now some cemetery activists are alarmed that he will not at least attempt to block Anderson's reappointment, in which the controversial white chairman was chosen over a prominent African-American activist who applied, Brandy Brooks.

"Is there a difference between candidate Elrich and County Executive Elrich?" Rev. Adebayo asked.

"If Mr. Elrich does not use his veto, which Montgomery County voters conferred upon him, he is indeed saying that black lives do not matter!" BACC President Marsha Coleman-Adebayo said.

Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition fundraiser tonight at 7 PM

An event to raise funds for the ongoing fight to preserve, restore and memorialize the Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda will be held tonight, Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 7:00 PM at the American Legion Post, located at 8110 Fenton Street in downtown Silver Spring. For a $10 admission fee, attendees will enjoy food, a cash bar, entertainment and speeches.

Noted guests will include master of ceremonies the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Harvey Matthews, 2018 County Council candidate Brandy Brooks, Luci Murphy, Maceo Kemp & Friends, Alfonso Coles & the Capitol African Drummers, and the "HOC 7," who were recently acquitted of all charges after being arrested during peaceful protests at the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission, which owns the land the cemetery is located on at Westwood Tower.

Montgomery County drops all charges against cemetery protesters

The Montgomery County State's Attorney's office has dropped all charges against seven protesters who were arrested during peaceful protests at the County Housing Opportunities Commission in Kensington. Protesters were advocating for the restoration and commemoration of an African-American cemetery on the site of HOC's Westwood Tower apartments in Bethesda when they were arrested.

Initially, the State's Attorney's office were seeking a deal that would require the seven to never again protest at the HOC. After the defendants stood their ground, all charges were dropped anyway. “We were adamant in our rejection of this plea,” said Dr. Laurel Hoa of Showing Up for Racial Justice - Montgomery County (SURJ). “Plea bargains have become the instrument of choice for DA’s intent on incarcerating black people for minor offenses. We felt it was imperative to reject that offer, particularly since accepting it would have been to relinquish our 1st Amendment rights and would further entrench this odious practice by DA’s across the country.”

In related news, County Executive Marc Elrich joined cemetery advocates led by the sole remaining cemetery stakeholder Macedonia Baptist Church at Westwood Tower last week. Elrich was there to observe an engineering study of the feasibility of replacing the current vehicle access to the rear of the building over the gravesites with another access or parking solution.

“Both Macedonia and HOC have requested that Mr. Elrich set a date for a meeting between us, the County, and Regency Group, the developer implementing the Westbard Sector Plan, to begin the final negotiations toward a long overdue resolution to this impasse,” said Rev. Dr. Segun Adebayo, Pastor of MBC. “We are hopeful that Mr. Elrich will seize this opportunity post haste.”

3 cemetery protesters arrested at HOC meeting

Three citizens protesting the stonewalling of the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission on the desecration of the Moses African Cemetery on the Westwood Tower property in Bethesda were arrested at the commission's monthly meeting this week. Town of Somerset Mayor Jeffrey Slavin, and Macedonia Baptist Church Pastor Rev. Segun Adebayo were among those issued citations by Montgomery County police for refusing to leave the public meeting.

Protesters knelt at the front of the commission dais holding crocheted tombstones bearing flowers of African nations, and the names of several ancestors known to be buried in the cemetery, which was desecrated in the late 1960s during construction of Westwood Tower. Contrary to rumors being circulated by the Montgomery County cartel, the cemetery was never relocated prior to the 1960s construction. Those rumors are just that - there is not a single official document of evidence for any such relocation, which requires a formal public process overseen by the State of Maryland. In contrast, the cemetery is shown in land records and burial announcements, as well as in the similar public process that was required to establish it in the beginning.

The Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition leading the effort to restore the sanctity of the cemetery and establish a memorial and museum on the site will be meeting with Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, one of the few County elected officials to offer support for the cause. Slavin has also been engaged on the issue in recent years.

Among notable figures testifying in support of the Moses Cemetery were the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, and Robin Ficker.

MoCo NAACP grapples with Moses African Cemetery issue

Montgomery County Councilmember Craig Rice (D - District 2) and County Housing Opportunities Commission Executive Director Stacy Spann appeared at last night's meeting of the Montgomery County NAACP chapter at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Rockville, to discuss affordable housing and the ongoing controversy over the desecrated Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda. Their comments aligned with a new narrative County officials debuted this fall, which attempts to downplay the status of Macedonia Baptist Church as the sole contemporary party to the cemetery so far, and tie the specific story of these graves to a more general narrative about black cemeteries countywide. Under this narrative, there may be an effort to memorialize the cemetery, but the potential remains for bodies to be removed for development under existing Maryland law, or for a sham study to declare no remains exist due to the extreme depth at which many of the graves now lie - far beyond the range of ground penetrating radar.

Something will likely be done to memorialize the cemetery, Rice told attendees, which included representatives of Macedonia Baptist Church and their supporters, as well as members of the NAACP chapter. What that will be, whether everyone will agree on its adequacy, and who will pay for it, were subjects of disagreement in the room. There were also more-fundamental disagreements between the version of events so far given by Rice and Spann, and the church's version. That led to the NAACP announcing near the end of the meeting that it would appoint two mediators from its membership to meet with Macedonia and the HOC. to see if the parties can reach an agreement among themselves and developer Regency Centers on how to proceed.

One new detail that came to light is that Regency Centers had expressed some openness to the possibility of giving HOC an easement across part of its Bowlmor site, to access the rear parking garage of Westwood Tower. Currently, drivers pass over the parking lot to the side and rear of the building, that was laid atop the intact graves outside of the Westwood Tower footprint. That asphalt is believed to rest on top of as much as 60' of fill dirt dumped on the graves by the builder of Westwood Tower in the late 1960s, who also desecrated the cemetery.

However, when Macedonia Baptist Church officials took the potential offer to HOC, they say HOC declined to respond. That is at least one point NAACP officials hope their mediation can resolve.

"This is something that deeply touches my soul, what happened to our people," Macedonia Baptist Church Pastor Segun Adebayo told attendees after Rice and Spann spoke.

Rice had suggested taxpayers would pick up the tab for whatever memorial might be erected on, or near, the site. Adebayo sharply disputed that, saying his church has sought no money, and would raise any such funds from private donors itself.

Macedonia Baptist Church Social Justice Ministry Chair Marsha Coleman Adebayo reminded attendees of just how far cemetery advocates had come on their own over the last two years. "It took two years for the County to acknowledge it was a cemetery," she said, holding up a County map of the two graveyard parcels. She noted the church and their supporters had used public pressure - through marches, rallies and other actions - to temporarily stop Montgomery County, Regency and HOC from building a parking garage on top of the cemetery.

"Everything that we've gained so far, we've gained because we had the courage to go into the street and fight for it," Coleman Adebayo said. She added that 18 American University students are now researching the cemetery, and the vanished black community that existed around it from the end of the Civil War to the 1960s. They are collecting oral histories, and any remaining physical artifacts, she said. Such materials could be archived and displayed in the museum church officials envision being constructed at the site one day.

Cemetery advocates shut down HOC meeting again (Video)

Bethesda resident Lynn Pekkanen
testifies at HOC on behalf of Montgomery County
Councilmember-elect Andrew Friedson,
who was stuck in traffic

Advocates for the preservation and memorialization of the desecrated Moses African Cemetery descended on the monthly meeting of the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission, to protest the HOC's revived plan to develop new building atop the Moses African Cemetery on the Westwood Tower site in Bethesda. For the second time in a year, protesters successfully shut down the meeting, as HOC commissioners hastily voted to adjourn and retreat into a nearby sealed room to escape chanting activists who outshouted HOC Chair Jackie Simon.

This was the biggest turnout yet at the HOC to preserve the cemetery. The crowd of protesters exceeded the fire code capacity of the meeting room, forcing two HOC employees to bar the doors, letting additional attendees enter as others left one-by-one.

Protesters also brought more power behind their cause in the form of County Executive-elect Marc Elrich, the only County Councilmember who has stood in solidarity with Macedonia Baptist Church and the descendant community in the cemetery fight.  Elrich indicated that the cemetery is high on his very busy agenda by making his speaking appearance for the cause his first official action as County Executive-elect. The next executive struck a tone of cooperation with HOC in resolving the issue, but there's no doubt Elrich has the power to replace every commissioner currently on the board when their terms end.

As successive speakers took jabs at the HOC, the tone quickly became more combative, concluding in shouts of "Give us the land! Give us the land!" that drowned out Simon's attempt to read a legal statement about the HOC's new cemetery redevelopment effort. The HOC is attempting to minimize the church's status as the sole existing party to the cemetery by creating a blue ribbon commission on the graveyard with stakeholders who don't actually have any direct connection to the graves.

Outshouted and losing control of the meeting, commissioners hastily voted to adjourn and fled the room. Protesters were asked to leave. But at the same time as protesters and HOC security and officials argued over whether or not Macedonia Baptist Church Social Justice Ministry Chair Marsha Coleman-Adebayo had been threatened with arrest by the HOC, MBC trustee Harvey Matthews and HOC Director Stacy Spann had a more quiet and cordial discussion on the other side of the room.