Montgomery County’s housing commission can sell a Bethesda property containing a historic Black cemetery to a developer over the objections of the descendants of the dead and a group seeking to block the sale, a Maryland appeals court ruled this week.
, which was paved over in the 1960s for a parking lot for the 200-unit Westwood Tower Apartments in the Westbard area.
Steve Lieberman, an attorney for the coalition, blasted the appeals court ruling and said the coalition would appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court in the coming weeks. The court did find descendants of those interred on the site may be able to make claims against future owners of the site. Lieberman said it could mean “open season” on some of Maryland’s historic Black burial grounds if the decision is not reversed.Chelsea Andrews, executive director of the commission, said the ruling shows the agency properly followed the laws governing burial grounds in Maryland and its involvement with the Westwood Towers has been in the service of its mission to provide affordable housing.
The coalition has fiercely fought development plans for the site, saying it would desecrate the bones of the up to 400 people buried at the site. The cemetery and the Macedonia Baptist Church across the street are some of the final pieces of a Black community that once thrived in the area. Leaders of the church are spearheading the coalition.
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