This Memorial Day: Montgomery County Builds Storage Units on Black Soldiers’ Graves
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 was poured over them. Now, the County has green-lit the construction of a self-storage facility on this sacred ground.On this day of national remembrance, Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition calls out the hypocrisy.
You cannot honor Black soldiers while destroying their final resting places.
You cannot wave the flag and bury the truth.
This Memorial Day, we remember H.H. Brown and all the Black veterans buried at Moses Cemetery by demanding what they were never granted in life or death- dignity, justice, and protection. Pvt. Brown fought in two of the bloodiest battles of the civil war to free Black people from slavery but he now lies under concrete in Moses African Cemetery.
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