Sacred Ground: Burial program approved yet descendant families still waiting

(InvestigateTV) — Every day, African American burial grounds face erasure, abandonment, and threats of construction and development. Despite a bipartisan federal law passed a little more than a year ago to help protect those grounds, the law still has zero funds allocated to help descendant communities.

Some congressional leaders say not funding the program is a broken promise for families across the nation.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) started pushing for federal funding back in 2020 after visiting Union Baptist Church Cemetery in Cincinnati and noticing that the cemetery had fallen into great disrepair.

“Cincinnati was a major area for escaped slaves. It was a major area for people coming north on the great migration. And also, there are cemeteries around Ohio and a number of counties where African Americans fled to,” Brown said.

He is urging Congress to allocate funding for African American communities to halt the desecration of Black burial grounds and its rich history.

“It has not been funded because Congress too often engages in petty fights. I mean, it’s why people do not like Washington too often,” Brown said.

Signed into law in December 2022, the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act establishes a program at the National Park Service to provide grants and technical assistance to federal agencies, state and local governments as well as private nonprofit organizations to research, identify, survey, and preserve African American cemeteries.

Although the law establishes the program, Congress is required to appropriate funding for the program. The National Park Service proposed $3 million for the program, as well as an increase of $1 million to spread across other grant programs. But to date, the National Park Service hasn’t enacted its 2024 budget, leaving zero dollars allocated to preserve the sites.

In InvestigateTV’s series “Sacred Ground,” our national investigative team spent months exposing a problem happening across the country where African Americans have fought constant battles to protect and preserve their history and the remains of their loved ones.

Rep. Alma Adams also introduced and sponsored the act in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Democratic lawmaker heard of cemeteries in her home state of North Carolina needing funding and maintenance.

“We’re trying to identify them and a lot of them we do not even know about, but we know that they are there. I mean, we had a situation in my district where there is a company wanting to build a little golf thing. And the community was very concerned because as they began to do that, they discovered there is African American cemetery. And so, they worked out an agreement where they had to stop the project and find another place to do it...But, you know, we have other situations where you might find three or four tombstones that are above ground and below ground there, 300 or 400 sites there,” Adams said.

Both Brown and Adams say they understand the importance of preserving these sacred grounds and want the families to know they are not forgotten.

“Some of us do care. And we fought to get this bill passed. Not enough of us care, which is why we pushed my colleagues in Congress in both parties to do this right,” Brown said.

Adams is hoping that fellow lawmakers make this a more pressing matter.

“We have to get enough people to put this as a priority item. I also have to get my colleagues to think that as well,” Adams said. “It’s about the sacredness of our families and respecting people and respecting the sites that we’ve left them in.”

Adams and Brown say these cemeteries need more than just federal funding and support. They both agree that state agencies that oversee cemetery laws and enforcement should also pay closer attention to the preservation of Black cemeteries. Every state in the country has cemetery laws, but they differ from place to place.

In most states, violating cemetery laws and removing remains is a misdemeanor. In some states, it’s a felony. In Michigan and Mississippi, someone found tampering with or willingly digging up remains in a cemetery will face a felony charge and prison time of up to 10 years.

To prevent the desecration of cemeteries, states are responsible for issuing disinterment permits. But InvestigateTV found that the permit process is hardly tracked for African American cemeteries and sometimes the responsibility falls to local municipalities.

“States have a responsibility. The federal government has a responsibility to help the states in terms of providing the support, which is what we would be doing through the legislation that that we are proposing, because that money actually will filter down when the money comes,” Adams.

She says that when money leaves the federal government it trickles down to states. From there, states break down the money by community needs.

If Congress does not act to allocate funding, families of loved ones who have passed on are hoping the judicial system can spur action.

In Maryland, the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition, or BACC, is currently in a legal battle with a private developer and Montgomery County to preserve the burial grounds where enslaved people are buried. InvestigateTV first met Robert Stubblefield last year.

Stubblefield is the outreach coordinator for BACC, a nonprofit organization that supports descendants’ communities. BACC is trying to preserve the Moses Macedonia Cemetery. Stubblefield’s years of community-fighting has led him to the Supreme Court of Maryland to defend the cemetery from desecration.

“They paved a parking lot over it. That is on one part of the cemetery-the other part of the cemetery –they are trying to build a storage unit,” Stubblefield said.

In January, InvestigateTV attended the Maryland Supreme Court oral arguments and a rally orchestrated by BACC.

“There are times that I think we would have not have made it this far, but I don’t think it would have been as strong as we are right now,” Stubblefield said. “Thank you to InvestigateTV for covering this issue and really help bringing this issue into the national spotlight.”

Steven Lieberman, the lawyer representing BACC, hopes this case sets a tone across the country.

“This was the first time that a case of this sort has been argued in front of the Supreme Court in any of the 50 states,” Lieberman said.

He also wants the nation to pay close attention to issues impacting Black communities and to honor the dead.

“You would not want somebody parking on top of your grandmother. I do not want anybody parking on top of my grandmother,” Lieberman said. “The plaintiffs in this lawsuit should not watch cars park on top of their grandmothers.”

Lieberman says the outcome of this case could set a precedent nationwide.

“I think people all across the country are going to be looking to this court, to see if it’s going to say that our legal system can do justice here,” Lieberman said.

Attorneys for the developer did not answer our questions after delivering oral arguments but told InvestigateTV in a previous statement that they “properly observed the laws which protect burial grounds in Maryland,” and that they acknowledge, “The significance of the African American history affiliated with this site and will continue to respect and honor the legacy in the community.”

InvestigateTV also reached out to U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who represents the state. Raskin released a public statement about BACC’s oral argument:

“Protecting historic cemeteries and burial sites is an important public priority. Due to strict rules in the House of Representatives, I am prohibited from involving myself in cases related to specific ongoing litigation, but as the representative for Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District, I have pursued legislative solutions to properly protect and commemorate the gravesites of enslaved persons.

“I was proud to join my colleagues in the House of Representatives to pass the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act, essential legislation signed into law in December 2022, which established a program at the National Park Service to provide grant opportunities and technical assistance to local partners to research, identify, survey, and preserve these historic sites. Now I’m working with my colleagues to secure funding for the programs created by this law. This is a basic step at the federal level to ensure that historic cemeteries and burial sites will be protected, honored, and respected.”

Sen. Brown and Rep. Adams say they will keep pushing for federal funding and support, so descendant communities can visit their loved one’s burial sites, and not worry if their history will be destroyed.

“There is a proverb that (says) when you drink the water, think about who dug the well. And that is what we need to think about, it is the people that are buried in that cemetery that build up our communities. Our Black communities, our White communities, our communities overall and we honor them,” Brown said.

InvestigateTV attempted to obtain footage from the BACC court proceeding, but the Maryland Supreme Court denied our request to use the available video on its public website. InvestigateTV is currently working on an appeal.

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