FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition Dr. Marsha-Coleman Adebayo - 240-731-9577 This Memorial Day: Montgomery County Builds Storage Units on Black Soldiers’ Graves Bethesda, MD. 05/26/25 Memorial Day is meant to honor the fallen. But in Montgomery County, Maryland, Black veterans lie buried beneath a parking lot and a high-rise apartment building. Now, a self-storage facility is being built over them. At Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda, Black soldiers like Pvt. H.H. Brown, a U.S. Colored Troops veteran, was laid to rest with dignity by the River Road community a once-thriving Black settlement post emancipation.Their service to this nation is undeniable. Their sacrifice is recorded. But their graves have been paved over, built on, and desecrated with the full knowledge and permission of County and the State of Maryland. The apartment complex known as Westwood Towers sits directly atop the graves of these men, women, and children. A parking lot ...
A good friend and historian, Chris Graham, just posted this nice bit of background for the laying of the cornerstone of the spanking new Richmond city hall building in 1887: about the man who gave the speech and his apologies to Whites for the burden of slavery in the wake of the crushing of an attempt at Black and White labor and political unity. I love context, it gives the chatter mill around a controversy (or a seemingly non-controversy) a little grist and grit. Tonight, 6:30 pm at VMHC, Coming Together Virginia will host a panel, " Richmond City Hall: The Untold Story ," Tickets are $20. Registration: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/akgzv2y The 1880s were a bubbling cauldron of struggles over the racial character of Richmond's society and future of Reconstruction's progress toward creating a multiracial society. Jim Crow would win that battle and hold it for the next 100 years, but every victory for the side of unity and equity contributed t...