Over a year ago, the Washington family and members of our community began a crusade to save their family burial ground in Thoroughfare, a historic community in the Gainesville District of Prince William County. Unfortunately, after a year of advocacy and working with county officials and members of the Board of County Supervisors, the cemeteries in the area are still under threat.

I recently sat down with Qasim Rashid and his client Frank Washington, leader of the Coalition to Save Historic Thoroughfare, to discuss their fight to save the Scott Cemetery, which has been desecrated after the land was purchased by Bill and Michelle DeWitt, who operate the Farm Brewery at Broad Run on the property. The DeWitts purchased the property at a tax auction in 2020 because property taxes hadn’t been paid on the land since 1995, when its last resident passed away. According to Rashid, it is unclear whether the family was properly notified about the tax sale.

The Scott Cemetery dates back to the 19th Century, a time when Thoroughfare was a community of free Black people, formerly enslaved Black people, and Indigenous Americans. According to Rashid, it was recognized as a cemetery as early as 1937 and again by the United States Geological Survey in 1966. The existence of the cemetery was confirmed again in the 1990s by a local historian who worked for the county. It has been found that there are between 75 and 100 bodies buried in the cemetery. Washington’s family was among those who have called Thoroughfare their home since the 1800s, and the family has taken care of the local cemeteries for generations. 

According to Washington, the issue began just over a year ago as his family was laying his aunt to rest in another local cemetery in Thoroughfare. Prior to that, he had never had any issues tending to the cemeteries, but his concern grew when he found a locked gate and a boulder blocking access to the Peyton Thoroughfare Community Cemetery. Despite numerous calls, Washington says he was never informed of why the access to the cemetery was being blocked. One report cites claims by the DeWitts that the land was plowed, and the boulder and gate were put in place so that they could plant sunflowers near the brewery. From there, the trouble only grew. At one point, Washington received a call from someone in Culpeper who claimed to own the cemetery and threatened legal action against Oakrum Baptist Church and the family if they continued to bury people there. 

Soon after the boulder and gate were put in place, the Scott cemetery was bulldozed for the first time. According to Rashid and Washington, three feet of topsoil were removed from the cemetery, likely removing many graves as those buried were likely only two to three feet underground. 

After the first desecration was reported to the property owners and the police in 2021, the Commonwealth Attorney decided not to press charges against the DeWitts because there was no evidence of willful intent in their desecration of the gravesites.

The initial response from members of the BOCS was one of outrage. Supervisors vowed to do more to protect and preserve historic cemeteries in the community. According to Washington, BOCS Chair Ann Wheeler was eager to address the issue but didn’t want to place blame on those responsible. To Washington, that didn’t seem reasonable because if there were no repercussions, then there could not have been any accountability.

In May 2021, the BOCS allocated $765,000 for FY2022 for studies and historic preservation in the Thoroughfare community and others like it in the county. The board voted unanimously in support of this.

Initially, after the BOCS’s vote, there was more oversight of the cemeteries. A member of the planning commission and an archaeologist employed by the county walked the land to begin discussing restoration efforts, but that process has yet to begin and the oversight has faded away.

The action taken by county supervisors should have been a turning point for the Scott Cemetery and others in the area, but unfortunately, it seems it hasn’t had much of an effect on the issue. Washington was upset to learn that the land is still being excavated. On this past Saturday morning, March 26, digging on the land continued, likely bringing further desecration to the gravesites on the land. 

Washington reported the digging to the police, but they refused to address the issue without direct orders from the county to intervene.

Below is a video of a bulldozer on the property provided by Washington and Rashid:

According to Rashid and Washington, the property owners have claimed that there is no proof of a cemetery because the family is unable to provide names for any individual buried there. This only displays their complete disregard for the history of the community. Thoroughfare was a community of Indigenous Americans and previously enslaved Black people that existed at a time when those individuals were denied basic human rights because of their race. The cemetery is marked by fieldstones that don’t display names or dates, and some graves are only identifiable by an indentation in the ground. The families of Thoroughfare did not have the resources to keep family records. Claiming they did not exist because of a lack of documentation is nothing more than an attempt to dehumanize them in death, the same way they were dehumanized in life. It is a blatant disregard of what we know about this history and a continued disrespect not only of those who were laid to rest there, but also towards their descendants.

It is not up for debate whether there is a cemetery on the property. It is a well-documented, undeniable fact. The land is the resting place of members of the historic Thoroughfare community. 

Washington expressed his discouragement about how no matter who he speaks to in the county, they never take concrete action to help his family save their ancestral gravesites. 

Rashid and Washington believe one of the biggest obstacles in this fight is racism. Thoroughfare was a community of Black and Indigenous Americans who were denied their rights in life, and now, they are being denied peace in death.

(Editor’s Note: The original article stated it was located in the Coles District, we have made a correction.)