Settlement and Thoroughfare Historic Preservation
Joyce Hudson, Alliance to Save Carver Road
May 18, 2021
Good evening, my name is Joyce Hudson and I reside in the Potomac District and a property owner in the Settlement community in the Brentsville District
- I’m addressing the proposal on historic preservation
- With the proposal being discussed today, it appears the county is really taking historic preservation of African American and Native American sites and cemeteries seriously which is very encouraging so let’s get it right
- First, a little background
- Only 2% of historic places in this country are African American and that’s because of criteria used to select them
- Historic preservation laws were enacted following the Civil War to prioritize Confederate cemeteries and burial grounds
- Slave quarters were not considered important or significant…this led to their decline which led to limited numbers of African American historic areas
- This is evidenced by the recent attempts to designate the Settlement as a state or national level historic site…we were told there weren’t enough structures remaining so it failed the test.
- Thankfully the county has the ability to designate a county level historic site which is what happened with the Settlement
- The fact is preservation of African American history is at a disadvantage
- However, there are actions this county can take to do a better job on equity and preservation, starting with the county’s actions being proposed today and others including:
- Purchase land in the Settlement and provide space where that community can celebrate their history, build interactive facilities where our kids and others can remember their history and ancestors
- In Thoroughfare, stop property owners from continuing to destroy cemeteries by issuing and enforcing stop work orders; I understand that is being worked on
- Return cemetery land back to Thoroughfare families by purchasing the land
- REQUIRE not ENCOURAGE property owners to file cemetery documentation; the owner of the Scott cemetery moved forward without addressing cemetery so encouragement is not enough
- Acknowledge native Americans in this proposal, we tend to leave them out
- Address the loop holes in how property owned by heirs is sold, the families here today weren’t aware of cemetery land being sold
- Address how sales of property for delinquent taxes are done
- In some cases, the county can go beyond state level regulations; don’t allow excuses; others have done it, figure out how they did it
- Give more emphasis to African American historic concerns
- Are there any African Americans on the county historic commission?
- Involve new commission on racial and social justice;
- Our history is our history, it happened whether we’re proud of it or not