Cemetery expert calls for halt to work on self-storage project in Bethesda

Noon protests to continue today

and Thursday at site

Internationally-renowned anthropologist Dr. Michael Blakey, an expert on African-American burial sites and known for his role in the development of the African Burial Ground National Monument in New York City, has joined other experts and advocates in calling for a halt to construction on a self-storage building behind the McDonald's on River Road in Bethesda. Based on his review of photographs taken of the site, Blakey says there is a "possibility" that human remains and funerary objects may have been disturbed in the excavation of the construction site, but that he cannot verify this from photographs only.

The site sits directly adjacent to the historic Moses African Cemetery, which was desecrated and paved over during the construction of the nearby Westwood Tower in the late 1960s. A longstanding concern of cemetery advocates has been the possibility that some remains may have been buried beyond the property line of the cemetery, a common finding in other black cemeteries across the country. Those concerns were unanimously dismissed by the Montgomery County Planning Board in 2017, at a meeting where Chair Casey Anderson called in armed police to confront activists peacefully protesting to stop the project.

"The photograph I was shown...shows fragments of light-colored elongated material consistent with skeletal material, but is not currently verifiable as such," Blakey writes. "Also, a suspicious flagged area of possibly organically rich soil (a unique area of vegetation is growing there) recently covered with gravel, could represent a burial."

Blakey's concerns add to those of Dr. Adrienne Pine, Professor of Anthropology at American University, Dr. Rachel Watkins, Associate Professor of Anthropology at American University, and Dr. Tammy R. Hilburn, an archaeologist and cultural property crime specialist. Hilburn has observed the excavation and construction work at the site from beyond the property line on an almost-daily basis since June 8.

"I have seen no screening of dirt nor manifestation of the items or personnel typically associated with proper archaeological methodologies," Hilburn says. "I have seen archaeological strata and possible biomass, as well as possible osseous fragments, not to mention other cultural material, in piles being shifted around and re-used on the site that is to be the new storage facility."

Despite his stellar credentials - or as some suspect, because of them - Montgomery County has steadfastly denied Dr. Blakey access to conduct any studies on any part of the cemetery even before the self-storage project was proposed. In fact, the County moved to hastily acquire a piece of the cemetery which a property owner was willing to allow Blakey and other experts to investigate to locate gravesites, specifically to prevent such revelations from surfacing that would threaten planned development in the area.

Cemetery advocates, led by the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition, say they will rally and attempt to block work at the site today and tomorrow, July 1 and 2, from noon until 1:00 PM.