In Touch With Resistance
By Betty Miller Buttram
FWIS Contributing Writer
In past issues of the Ink Spot dated February 16, 2023, and October 26, 2023, I shared two stories about land occupied for generations by a church in Bethesda, Maryland, and inherited land in a family since the Civil War in Hilton Head, South Carolina. There have been some new developments in these stories.
Bethesda, Maryland
The article in the February 2023 issue of this newspaper told the story of the Moses Macedonia African Cemetery located on River Road in Bethesda, Maryland. Moses Macedonia Baptist Church was established in 1920 and had various locations in Bethesda until it moved to River Road in 1936 and became known as the Black community of Westbard. Parishioners came to the church from other black enclaves in Bethesda and like most Black churches, cemeteries were behind the church.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, development came to the Black community of Westbard and the demand for this land became so great that the land and deeds changed hands so many times which caused the disappearance of the Westbard community; but the church remained with the cemetery behind it. A well-known Washington, D.C. architect designed a 15 storied building with apartments on the upper floors and the lower levels for offices of a government agency. This building is behind the Moses Macedonia Baptist Church and a paved parking lot covers the graves of the deceased buried in the River Road Moses Macedonia African Cemetery. In the February 2023 article, the church was still battling the Montgomery County government about the graves buried beneath the paved parking lot.
On Monday, January 8, 2024, as reported in the Washington Post, this long-running dispute over the Moses Macedonia African Cemetery and the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC), owner of the land on which the apartment complex stands, was before the Maryland State Supreme Court in Annapolis. The justices are considering a statue, BR 5-505, and the technical nuance of whether state law could be used to halt the sale of property that includes the burial site. In recent years, the HOC has been trying to sell the property to developers.
The 95 supporters that were packed into the courtroom were there to back their efforts to restore and properly m the area. The church is asking that the least the Montgomery County government can do is put up a plaque like the one in Manhattan when the bones of the buried African Americans were found during an excavation.
The seven-members of the Maryland State Supreme Court did not issue a finding on Monday, January 8, 2024.
Hilton Head, South Carolina The article in the October 2023 issue of the Ink Spot told the story of Josephine Wright, a 93-year-old African American widow who was living on the property inherited by her late husband’s family. This is property that has been passed down from generation to generation after the Civil War to the descendants of the slaves. All Josephine Wright wanted was to be left alone and to live on her property in peace and quiet. But a developer, Bailey Point Investment, LLC, was intimidating and harassing her to get off her property so that the company could develop a residential area next to her parcel of land. Baily Point sued her in February 2023 claiming that her satellite dish, shed and screened-in porch were intruding on the developer’s land and causing the delay in constructing new homes. Wright filed multiple counterclaims that accused the developer of harassing her and trashing her property.
On January 7, 2024, surrounded by family, Josephine Wright transitioned to another home. Her funeral was held on January 13, 2024, at Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church on Hilton Head Island. She leaves to mourn her passing are four adult children, 40 grandchildren, 50 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. Wright’s granddaughter, Charise Graves, stated that her grandmother’s legacy is one of a pillar of strength, wisdom, and commitment of justice.
Before the article that was written and published in the Ink Spot on October 16, 2023, the Town of Hilton Head Island on August 3, 2023, informed Baily Point Investment, LLC that a Certificate of Compliance is required for the developer to obtain building permits and cannot be issued until the dispute of the property has been properly resolved.
Macedonia Baptist Church in Bethesda, Maryland and the late Josephine Wright of Hilton Head, South Carolina have fought their battles with resistance. The fight is not over because the final decisions rest with a court system and a town. The parishioners and supporters of the church and Josephine Wright are pillars of strength to their Black communities.