Over the next couple of weeks, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors will hold several meetings on the county's strategic plan for 2021-2024 and related budget. A scheduled "work session" on June 15th will include a vote on the budget for initiatives around studying historic cemeteries. A regular meeting is scheduled for June 22th at 2pm, and will be followed by a "listening session" scheduled to begin 7:30pm for them to hear feedback on the plan from the public. We need to lift our voices RIGHT NOW to contact these 8 decision-makers by email or phone to urge them to address the CURRENT DISPUTES in order to stop the continued desecration of known Native and Black burial sites in Thoroughfare, an historic town of Freedmen of Color outside of Haymarket. Why can't we wait until the 22nd?
Min. Dulany and Frank Washington, brothers who have four generations of ancestors buried in four identified cemeteries in Thoroughfare, hosted a community meeting with county staff on Sunday, June 6th. The pain over the desecration was palpable by Black and Native descendants who were present as well as from the community at-large. Two days later, the owner of one of the land plots cleared around the edges of one cemetery, despite the current dispute over its boundaries and existence of more unmarked graves discovered beyond the known borders. The landowner recently dug up a Native field stone found among the trees, claiming residents planted it to deceive the county. The family's Scott cemetery with more than 100 graves has already been bulldozed by its landowner, who has gated the access road to stop public entry, which has prevented public access to a third burial site further down the road, a potter's field. This site, Peyton cemetery needs to be investigated because the county archaeologist shares the family's belief that more Native graves are covered by forest brush. - WATCH VIDEO: Min. Dulany Washington records the recent land cleared around the Fletcher-Allen cemetery (June 8)
- WATCH TRAILER: A documentary is in the works, The Roadblock in Thoroughfare, Virginia. Listen to the descendants in this clip.
- READ ARTICLE: A detailed account of what has led to the formation of the Coalition to Save Historic Thoroughfare to fight to protect and preserve the town's historic burial sites (June 3)
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