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."
4 comments:
Yep, usually the biggest hypocrites are the "progressive" liberals who are just lying through their teeth when they say they care about anyone other than than their own greed and virtue. Should be ashamed but just deflect.
No one is selling human remains. These ppl are insane.
5:02: Well, if you are selling land with occupied graves on it, you technically are.
Those poor people are Black. The rich white liberals couldn't give two sh..ts about them - just look at their actions.
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