This summer, on an industrial and com- nations from the community, even though mercial section of River Road near the Capi- they already paid for public schools through tal Crescent Trail in Bethesda, you can regu- taxes. At The Sugar Bowl, the local tavern, larly find area musician Brian Farrow in the men who worked as caddies at the nearby roadway playing “Potter’s Hornpipe,” a song Whites-only golf courses could have a drink written by Black composer Francis Johnson after work. The neighborhood had homes, a in 1816 in honor of a destroyed African Ameri- church, and a burial ground. Jeremiah Botts’ 1912 burial is the first recan cemetery. Nearby, protestors hold signs that say “Black Ancestors Matter” and “Black corded in Moses Cemetery, although oral hisLives Matter from Cradle to Grave,” while tories say that burials took place on the land Marsha Coleman-Adebayo of the Bethesda before the cemetery was officially established. African Cemetery Coalition and Macedonia At his time of death, Botts was living with his Baptist Church leads chants of “Save Moses wife Cora in the Reno subdivision of NorthCemetery!” Amid the national and local calls west D.C., in what is today Tenleytown. In 1911, a Black benevolent association, of “Black Lives Matter,” these activists gather to insist that the Black lives in their final rest- White’s Tabernacle No. 39, bought two paring place at River Road Moses Cemetery not cels of land on River Road that would become the cemetery. Developed in the same only matter, but continue to be honored. In April, Bethesda Self-Storage Partners vein as mutual-aid organizations across the LLC began construction on land adjacent African diaspora in the Americas, White’s to the historic African American cemetery Tabernacle promoted Black empowerment. At a time when Jim on River Road. No one Crow segregation limknows exactly where ited where Black people the boundaries of the could be born, go to cemetery are, how school, eat a meal, and many people are bureven be buried, orgaied in the cemetery, or nizations like White’s where those once inTabernacle defrayed terred there now lie. burial costs or provided Because of this, the a place for members BACC feels this conto be buried, providstruction “risks the desed assistance to sick ecration of these burial members, and put on grounds,” according to celebrations like Emana statement from Revcipation Day parades. erend Segun Adebayo A similar organization, of Macedonia Baptist Morningstar TaberChurch, and must be nacle No. 88 in Gibson stopped immediately. Grove, near Cabin John, The Montgomery Counhosted dances, dinners, ty Planning Departand meetings with liment, which is part of turgical readings. the Maryland-National By K ristina Gaddy One reason White’s Capital Park and PlanPhotoGraPhs By Tabernacle specifically ning Commission, and wanted to establish BSSP disagree, howdarrow MontGoMery a cemetery on River ever, and see no need to Road was because the stop construction. Contention regarding the delineation of first Moses Cemetery in D.C. was under the cemetery, questions about what parcels of threat of development. Its leaders wanted to land people are actually buried in, and ram- transfer those buried in that cemetery to the pant development that either didn’t recog- new plot of land they bought on River Road. nize or disregarded the cemetery’s existence Historian David Rotenstein, who compiled have persisted for years after the centuries of a report on the history of Moses Cemetery, enslavement, oppression, and segregation in writes, “there were no subsequent reports on Montgomery County. The request to stop con- whether the graves in the Tenleytown cemstruction arises from what the BACC feels is etery were actually excavated and the markmorally right and its mistrust of the develop- ers and bodies relocated,” meaning people ers, the County Council, County Executive could still be buried under what is today Marc Elrich, and Montgomery Planning’s Chevy Chase Parkway NW. Although death notices in the Washingintent to “do the right thing,” says Joshua Odton Star note Jeremiah and Cora’s place of intz, the pro-bono lawyer for the BACC. burial as Moses Cemetery, their gravesites This stretch of River Road two miles and those of the others buried there would northwest of D.C. was once home to a tight- be impossible to find without substantial arknit Black community that turned to each cheology, including ground-penetrating raother for support in the face of segregation. dar and digging test trenches, according to a In 1869, just five years after Maryland abol- 2017 report by The Ottery Group. Today, Macedonia Baptist Church is ished slavery, African Americans began buying and renting property on River Road, shadowed by a massive, 19-floor residential some living in cabins where they had for- building called The Kenwood. When Colemerly lived while enslaved. The River Road man-Adebayo first saw Macedonia, she reSchool was one of 15 segregated schools in calls, “to me, it just looked like a little Black Montgomery County funded by philanthro- church.” She knows that it may look out of pist Julius Rosenwald, the county, and do- place next to the larger buildings that domi-
BURIAL GROUND In Bethesda, people are protesting construction that they say risks the desecration of a historic Black burial site.
10 august 28, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com
