Monday, January 20, 2020

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.

22 comments:

Anna said...

Ludicrous legal claim. Any lawyers want to chime in?

Anonymous said...

Why isn’t the Africa American fraternal organization that sold the cemetery ever mentioned as being at least partially at fault here if they sold the cemetery and did not relocate the graves before the sale? They clearly didn’t honor their dead, but cashed out of the property.

I don’t disagree that later owners now have a responsibility to at least properly survey and likely move the graves to an appropriate site, but the real desecration occurred when the original owners decided to abandon their ancestors graves and apparently failed to disclose this information to the buyers.

Anonymous said...

Hate crimes for something that allegedly occurred at least 50 years ago? Heres's why this will fail:

- Statute of limitations
- Who's the injured party? Possibly the descendants of anyone supposedly buried there, but who is that, specifically? They've never named anyone who has provided proof their relative was buried there.

If the church cares so much about this plot of land, they can offer to buy it fair and square. Notice they've never offered to do so -- they just want it to be gifted to them.

Notice also that if they care so much about this "history", why haven't they at least set up a temporary memorial on their existing property? They have plenty of room in their back parking lot, if they don't mind giving up a few of those spaces.

Anonymous said...

What the heck is Robin Ficker doing in that picture?

Anonymous said...

Can this really be called "ongoing desecration"? The HOC did not exist at the time the cemetery is alleged to have been paved over.

Anna said...

No one knows for sure if there are still occupied graves on that site, or where on the site they may be.

I'm not denying there are graves. I'm not agreeing there are graves.

I'm talking the truth. There are indications, from old papers to old memories, that the graves were disturbed...moved, but there is no proof of where they currently are located.

Shouldn't that be determined first?

Anonymous said...

Would make a great purple line station....

Anonymous said...

An affordable housing complex would be the best memorial to the folks buried there.

Boyce Bowles said...

I'm hoping for a museum on the site to tell the story of slaves in the Westbard area. The new development needs a community amenity like this.

Anonymous said...

1:52 PM All those new EYA townhomes going to the poorest of the poor. Sure. LOL.

Anonymous said...

2:11 PM I think it's great if the folks bagging your groceries will be able to walk a few steps to their new EYA tomnhome.

Anonymous said...

Why does another blogger continue to post here claiming to have scoops when it's always stuff Robert broke weeks, months, or in this case, years ago? :)

Rose said...

That is so true. When was this, I’d love to see. Please post links so we can prove it to Saul.

Anonymous said...

Gentle reminder: Dyer is the only MoCo blogger to NOT post false stories about Barrel & Crow

In Dyer we trust.

Anonymous said...

6:43 PM "Barrel & Crow cited for health violations"

Anonymous said...

7:42 PM Both were false reports from other blogs, my friend. No real live humans contacted before reporting. Barrel & Crow were irate with the smears from what I understand.

Dyer, meanwhile got the correct closure dates for Sears and the shooting gallery.

Marriott spox confirmed Dyer's reporting on Tastee during a public meeting.

Dyer had extensive reporting on the final days of Sears at Lakeforest AND Montgomery Mall. Please see his reporting for the last video tours of both stores. Saved for all MoCo history.

Captain MoCo said...

7:59 PM
Love Dyer's video tour of Sears Lakeforest. We need to preserve our MoCo history!

Anonymous said...

8:01 PM
I agree, Cap!

Anonymous said...

If you can't beat Dyer, then fantasize about him being banned..lol
weird local bloggers around here. Pro tip: just do you and don't focus on Dyer so much.

Anonymous said...

9:44, the child who wrote a story for their middle school paper would beat Dyer in Journalism.

Anna said...

It's like the Emperor's New Clothes in here.

The Dole said...

Robert
If you can’t beat Hans, then fantasize about him being banned...lol
Weird local bloggers around here. Pro tip: just do you and don’t focus on Dyer so much.