This article discusses the ongoing battle over an African American cemetery and the issue of exploitation and disrespect towards black bodies.
For 63-year-old Nanette Hunter, the fight over the Moses Macedonia African cemetery in Bethesda, Maryland, is a personal one.
Hunter is a direct descendant of people interred in the Maryland cemetery, a burial site used for formerly enslaved people. The site itself is buried by an apartment complex and parking lot and is embroiled in a legal battle that could have national implications.
The HOC, which owns the complex, originally attempted to sell the building to private developers in a $51m deal in July 2021, without prior court approval.
Members of the coalition opposing such sales have argued that the remains of more than 200 people are buried in the cemetery, and that efforts to sell the land violate a Maryland statute that requires court approval before selling certain types of burial grounds.
Demonstrators also say the risk of further development on the land is an additional desecration of a Black burial site.
Currently, there are no visible signs indicating that there is a cemetery under the apartment complex and parking lot.
The burial site was paved over in 1950s.
A 2017 archeological study found that the burial site was probably intact under the concrete and recommended no future disturbances be made to the land.
In 2021, a judge blocked the $51m sale until litigation involving the apartment complex was resolved. But in 2023, a Maryland appeals court ruled that the HOC could move ahead with the sale, a decision opposed by the coalition, which mostly includes descendants of those buried.
Demonstrators also say the risk of further development on the land is an additional desecration of a Black burial site. Photograph: Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty Images
For organizers, the latest trial represents more than the ongoing property dispute.
It is also about further gentrification of Bethesda, especially as similar examples of displacement occur across the US.
“I’ve seen it more often than I would have liked to in my 63 years because it’s happened many places all over the county,” Hunter said, adding that in her observation white developers were trying to “erase any existence of people that were there”.
In addition to being a burial ground, the cemetery is what remains of Bethesda’s River Road community, a historically Black area that was overtaken by white developers in the 1960s.
Harvey Matthews Sr was raised in River Road and spoke at Monday’s rally. Now in his late 70s, Matthews said he calls River Road the “Lost Colony” after Black families were pushed out of the community.
“What once was there is gone,” he said.
Matthews remembers witnessing white developers “swindle” Black families out of their homes and lands.
Olusegun Adebayo
He added that he witnessed members of the Ku Klux Klan beat his relatives in an attempt to intimidate Black families.
“I was young enough to have seen that and to have witnessed that,” Matthews said. “That’s why I can tell the story.”
Matthews and others say the fight for preservation is also about the lack of dignity given to Black people, including when they have died.
Olusegun Adebayo, a BACC member and pastor of the Macedonia Baptist church in Bethesda, said a ruling against organizers from the Maryland supreme court would be “devastating”.
“It would just be a terrible signal to indicate that our ancestors have no rights, and that they don’t have any dignity, even in death,” he said.
In response to ongoing litigation, HOC has said it “has no plans to disturb the land nor infringe upon the rights of its descendants” if the complex is sold, the Post reported.
But organizers believe that HOC and other developers can’t be trusted when it comes to preserving the land.
“We can’t look for them to have any conscience because their conscience is in their wallet,” Hunter said.
Following the hearing last Monday, a ruling is awaited. Organizers say that they are hopeful for a positive outcome and plan to continue to fight for the cemetery and for preservation of Black burial grounds regardless.
“Y’all done did it all over the country. But you oughta know, we not going down like that,” Matthews said, speaking of developers.
