A banner has been placed at a former car wash site to remind the public that there was a church at this location in the Montgomery Hills area of Silver Spring - and that many of its members remain interred beneath more recent buildings and asphalt today. Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church was a landmark at Georgia Avenue and Seminary Road from 1825 to 1964. The church was sold in 1964, but the burial ground associated with it was somehow allowed to be built over by Montgomery County. This was hardly an unusual abomination in the County during the 1960s, tragically.
The good news is that the descendants of some of those buried here are on the case now. Ground penetrating radar has identified over 100 confirmed or potential graves. Some may even be beneath Georgia Avenue itself. The descendants are asking the Maryland State Highway Administration to exhume remains from graves under Georgia Avenue, and reinter them within the burial ground, and return the properties associated with the cemetery to a memorial park use.
It's heartening to see the tragedy of Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda lead to a reexamination of similar travesties countywide. The fascinating part is that the political cartel that runs the County behind the curtain loudly declares its purported belief that "Black Lives Matter," but pushes back with every ounce of strength against actual Black people advocating for the poor souls whose eternal rest has been - and still is - threatened by the rapacious real estate development that is The Only Thing That Matters to the Montgomery County cartel.
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