Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition (BACC) had its two days in court this week in a years-long effort to honor their formerly enslaved ancestors buried in Moses Cemetery on River Road in Bethesda.
On Monday, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge placed on hold a request for a summary judgment, saying there was not enough evidence to continue. Therefore, BACC and the development company 1784 Holdings, which is building a self-storage facility near the former cemetery, will return to court in about a half year for a status hearing.
Therefore, as the case continues so will construction on the River Road site.
Tuesday’s Hearing
On Tuesday, the court delayed for up to two weeks a decision on a similar matter concerning a parking lot at Westwood Tower Apartments in Bethesda owned by the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County (HOC).
BACC has asked the courts to stop the HOC from charging apartment residents who park in the lot, which is the site of the former cemetery.
HOC attorney Frederick Douglas said it would be wrong to ask HOC to stop when the parking lot was there before HOC purchased the building. He disagreed with what he said was the BACC’s request the land be given to them when the coalition never owned it in the first place.
He also countered the BACC’s claim that direct descendants of those once buried on the River Road site are being harmed. There are no direct descendants, only a cousin or third or fourth generation relative by marriage, he stated. Therefore, they have no standing to cite their emotional distress, Douglas concluded.
Judge Karla Smith could rule to dismiss BACC’s case or allow the case to proceed to discovery.
Earlier Findings
Since the late 1960s, the burial ground in Bethesda has been paved over and used as a parking lot for Westwood Tower on Westbard Avenue. In 2018, HOC acquired the 212-unit apartment building.
Alia Ayub, and her children Zara and Rafay Campbell-Crawford, attended Tuesday’s hearing.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich has said in the past that the land under the Westwood Tower Apartments parking lot on Westbard Avenue was a cemetery but abutting land that contains the self-storage unit was not. That parcel shares a corner with the land adjacent to the Westwood Tower Apartments parking lot.
Both BACC and Elrich agree that a cemetery did exist on land currently owned by the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County and the County Parks department.
According to Elrich, a forensic study of the bones located beneath the self-storage units were most likely from animals. No skulls or hip bones were uncovered, he asserted previously.
The Coalition Responds
“We are complaining about the sale, every month, of permission for parking” over ancestors’ bones, said BACC attorney Steve Lieberman of Rothwell Figg. “Parking cars on top of someone’s relatives” is emotional stressful, he added.
While BACC President Dr. Marsha Adebayo said she was pleased with both rulings, she is also dismayed the land in question is not being preserved as a memorial to those who were once buried there.
“It’s shameful with all the evidence that we have that this is a burial ground, we still do not have one elected official calling for the construction to discontinue,” she said, pointing specifically to U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin and County Executive Elrich.
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