WASHINGTON — A Bethesda, Maryland, community is planning to march from an African-American church to the site of an old graveyard to save “sacred ground” from further development.
This is the latest in an ongoing effort to prevent a parking garage from being built over the burial ground that may contain the bodies of some of the first freed slaves.
The Nov. 12 march would start at the Macedonia Baptist Church on River Road, near the cemetery site.
The church is one of few remnants from of a community comprised of the first generation of free African-Americans.
Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, who’s with the church, said they’re trying to save the site once called African Moses Cemetery.
But this isn’t a new battle for the members of Macedonia Baptist Church and preservationists.
Coleman-Adebayo said that in the 1950s, 90 percent of the cemetery was turned into a parking lot.
She alleges that the Montgomery County’s Housing Opportunities Commission is stonewalling them since they’re not allowing an investigation into the grave site to prove its existence.
They plan to march because the battle is at a standstill, she said.
“They are just refusing to allow us to honor our ancestors and they’re determined to put a garage on a sacred burial ground,” said Coleman-Adebayo.
Harvey Matthews who lived in the African American community says he knows that the cemetery existed since he played in the cemetery as a child.
“We’re fighting for that to be considered sacred ground,” said Matthews. “We figure the loved ones that have died, passed on, should have [the] right to rest in their resting place and not be disturbed by more construction.”
Coleman-Adebayo says the HOC is planning to build the parking garage over the known location of the African cemetery that is on the site of the Westwood Towers in Bethesda.
