Alarmed by the ‘indifference’

Tax Watch

David McKay Wilson

Rockland/Westchester Journal News

USA TODAY NETWORK

Seven years ago, storytellers Vienna Carroll and Keith Johnston created theatrical performances based on the lives of fictional characters from The Hills of West Harrison, Westchester County’s biggest Black community in the mid-1800s.

Both are now aghast that Stoney Hill Cemetery, the historic burial grounds for the African Americans who lived in The Hills, is now under threat by Mount Hope AME Zion Church, which has put up for sale five of the cemetery site’s six acres.

The church, which is located in White Plains, 1½ miles from the cemetery, is seeking $1.5 million for three building lots, with the church preserving one acre for a memorial garden.

Carroll and Johnston, who developed the sketches while artists in residence at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, focused on The Hills’ involvement in the Civil War. That’s when 36 of 52 able-bodied African American men from the community enlisted in the Union army after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863.

Thirteen of them are buried at Stoney Hill.

Artist Keith Johnston: ‘It’s sacred ground’

Johnston said it was wrong for the church to liquidate most of the cemetery land, which was part of property given to enslaved people freed by Quakers at the Purchase Meeting House in the late 1770s.

'It’s sacred ground,' said Johnston, who will perform May 10 at the Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site in Yonkers, at the Pinkster Jubilee celebration. 'The Hills was a safe haven for the formerly enslaved people, where our ancestors created beautiful structures and systems. They built their own little area, with their spunk and strong wills. We need to hang on to every bit of what we can hang on to.'

Carroll and Johnston are among a few African Americans in the region who have criticized Mount Hope AME for putting up for sale almost all of the six-acre cemetery site, which is listed on the national and state registers of historic places. While many of the graves are clustered along the African American Heritage Trail off Buckout Road, historic preservationists say there’s a good chance that burials were done throughout the six-acre site.

The muted response comes in stark contrast to the highly publicized uproar in 1999 and 2000 when the church unsuccessfully fought to gain clear title to the land, after the town of Harrison claimed it was the rightful owner of the abandoned cemetery.

Harrison officials remain mum on the status of town’s claim to ownership a quarter-century ago.

‘There needs to be a groundswell of voices’

'It’s the indifference that’s alarming,' said Barbara Edwards of Mount Vernon, who chairs Westchester County’s African American Advisory Board. 'There needs to be a groundswell of voices.'

The cemetery sale was discussed at the advisory board’s April meeting. Edwards said she was disappointed that the church wants to cash in the historic cemetery lands.

'They seem more focused on greed than reverence,' she said.

Carroll said many in Westchester’s political and religious leadership have turned their backs to the historic African American burial ground in West Harrison.

'They aren’t good shepherds of the history of that land,' said Carroll, who will perform on May 13 at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village. 'It needs to be made clear to them how vital it is to preserve that history. They just want to speak about it as a real estate deal.'

No comment from AME pastor, regional official

The Rev. Gregory Robeson Smith, pastor of Mount Hope African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, who had earlier maintained the internments would not be disturbed, did not return numerous phone messages.

The pastor who oversees 25 AME Zion churches in the Westchester region, the Rev. Stephen Pogue, of Greater Centennial AME Zion Church in Mount Vernon, also did not return phone messages.

Though Westchester County never owned the cemetery property, in 2022 the county Board of Legislators approved granting a 'quit claim' deed to Mount Hope AME Zion, which county officials said was intended to clear up the title. At the time, legislators were told by Smith and an historian who wrote about The Hills that granting the deed would help preserve the six-acre historic cemetery site.

There was no mention that the church wanted to sell most of it for a high-priced subdivision.

County Legislator Ben Boykin, D-White Plains, in whose district the cemetery is located, declined to say whether he knew about the church’s development intentions when he promoted the county’s quit claim deed transfer to the church.

Quit claim deeds are legal documents used to transfer property ownership from one party to another without any guarantees about who has the title or ownership. The county essentially gave up its interest in the property.

Boykin is among six African Americans on the 17-member Board of Legislators. I recently reached out to Boykin and the five others. Legislators Jewel Williams Johnson, D-Greenburgh, and Tyrae Woodson-Samuels, D-Mount Vernon, the board’s majority leader, said they were deferring to Boykin because the cemetery lies in his district. The others declined comment or did not respond to the inquiry.

'We are following his lead,' said Woodson-Samuels, who referred to Boykin as Mr. President, citing his role as president of the influential New York State Association of Counties.

Boykin said that Mount Hope AME Zion was the rightful heir to the historic cemetery land. He noted its ties to the long-defunct Asbury Colored People’s Church, which had a chapel near many of the fieldstones that serve as unmarked gravestones.

The church’s foundation still stands in ruins, not far from the 'For Sale' sign.

'The church does exist,' said Boykin. 'It just moved over to Lake Street. It’s the same church with a different name.'

Rep. George Latimer, D-Rye, who signed the quit claim deed in 2022, referred all questions to his successor, County Executive Ken Jenkins, the first African American to hold the post. In mid-April, Jenkins said he’d take a look at the matter, while county spokeswoman Catherine Cioffi said Westchester acknowledged 'the deep legacy this land holds and remains committed to supporting efforts that preserve and protect sites of cultural and historic importance.'

The Jenkins administration has yet to identify what efforts it supports to preserve and protect the Stoney Hill Cemetery.

The county’s application for the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 stated there were at least 200 burials in the cemetery, many of which were beyond the quarter-acre set aside for the burial area in the 1800s. It stated there could be several hundred graves throughout the six-acre site. Former County Legislator Damon Maher, D-New Rochelle, said he would not object to the church selling part of the land, as long as the graves were not disturbed. Digging foundations in the rocky landscape and installing septic fields could disturb wide swathes of land.

'I wouldn’t object to the church’s selling part of the six-plus acres for good money to be used to further its mission of glorifying God by helping those in need,' he said. 'But I do hope the church is also doing the work that was the thrust of the historic ‘pitch’ to us on the board at time, including identifying all the burial sites, making sure any development of the property leaves those sites undisturbed, and providing new markers from the VA for the deceased Union soldiers.'

At the cemetery in late April, Carroll called the proposed sale 'a travesty.' She was concerned that the internments were not just in the one-acre area where many of the burials were clustered.

David McKay Wilson writes about tax issues and government accountability. Follow him on Twitter @davidmckay415 or email him at dwilson3@lohud.com.