Note: This petition is for residents of Montgomery County Maryland to sign. It is a local issue.  Otherwise, please read.

There is an area off River Road (generally behind Westbard Towers) that was a burial ground for former slaves and a cemetery of the Moses African Methodist Church. The area has been divided into parcels of land for development but there is no consensus about which parcels may contain human remains.
The MC Planning Department historian gathered comprehensive information about the cemetery and possible location of burials, but the report seems to have been suppressed and no solid plan to memorialize the cemetery sites has been proposed. For its part, the MC Council has failed to require developers of the area to search for and properly honor remains prior to development. We, as residents of Montgomery County, demand that no further development take place without searching for human remains in the area, regardless of which parcel is involved. Further, we demand that all remains that are found be handled in accordance with the wishes of the Pastor and congregation of the Methodist Church and Maryland State Law and that there be constructed, beside the Capital Crescent Trail at its intersection with the Willett Branch, a memorial to honor the memories of former enslaved African people who lived and died in that part of Montgomery County.