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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, Monday expressed support for a bipartisan federal bill sponsored by Representatives A. Donald McEachin (D-VA-04), Alma Adams (D-NC-12), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-01) in honor of Black History Month and to help preserve historic African-American burial sites across the nation.
H.R.6805, the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act, would give the National Park Service $3 million a year for the preservation of African-American and other burial sites. A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate.
SEE: McEachin, Adams, Fitzpatrick Introduce African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act
Bill from Donald McEachin would give $3 million annually to preserving Black cemeteries
Last month, CAIR expressed support for a bill in the Virginia General Assembly that would help protect historic African-American and Native American cemeteries.
Introduced by House Delegate Danica A. Roem (D), HB 961 (Cemeteries; registration, publication prior to sale), would tighten requirements for notification of heirs before the sale of property containing graves.
“We welcome any legislation at the state or federal level designed to protect historic African-American and Native American cemeteries and burial sites,” said CAIR Director of Government Affairs Department Robert S. McCaw. “The historic sites of all Americans should be recognized and protected.
McCaw noted that last year, CAIR welcomed a vote by Virginia’s Prince William Board of County Supervisors to purchase land in the Thoroughfare, Va., community on which historic African-American and Native American cemeteries are located.
Those cemeteries are the final resting places of at least 300 enslaved people, freedmen/freedwomen and Native-Americans.
SEE: Coalition to Save Historic Thoroughfare (CSHT)
He added that CAIR has joined calls for a stay on development activity in the historic area and has supported the preservation of such sites nationwide.
SEE: CAIR Welcomes Temporary Halt to Sale of Historic African-American Burial Ground in Maryland
Video: CAIR Supports Protection for Historic Va. African-American, Native American Cemeteries
Also last year, CAIR welcomed a judge’s order to temporarily halt the sale of the historic Moses Macedonia African Cemetery in Bethesda, Md.
