Families keep up fight against moving graves

Descendants of several people buried in historic African-American graves have asked a Clayton County Superior Court judge to turn a cemetery over to them and halt the relocation of their ancestors’ graves.

On Wednesday, the Clayton County Commission issued a permit to Stephens MDS to relocate 311 graves —- including those of some slaves —- from an abandoned College Park graveyard to a public Riverdale cemetery.

Family members, the NAACP, National Action Network and other civil rights organizations are trying to stop that move. This week, the families filed a lawsuit and asked for a grand jury probe, accusing the County Commission of racism and accepting bribes.

All five commissioners had received campaign contributions within the past four years from John D. Stephens, who owns the rock and dirt company.

District Attorney Tracy Graham-Lawson said she never received a request for an investigation, but spoke with the families and is now looking at the information they submitted.

A decision on whether to launch a probe will be made in the next few weeks.

The Union Bethel AME Church Cemetery, which dates back to the 1800s, now lies in the shadows of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport’s fifth runway.

Overgrown and inaccessible, it sits between Stephens’ construction debris landfill and a quarry.

“There were no visitors for nearly a decade, and the reality is that cemetery is in the middle of a 200-acre industrial zone with no safe access for visitors,” said Shawn Davis, a spokesman for Stephens MDS. “Now the graves and their visitors will no longer be threatened by the construction activities around them.”

Betty Bowden, 72, said she doesn’t want anyone moving her grandfather’s grave. Bowden and her relatives allege the property doesn’t even belong to Stephens and should be turned over to her family.

“We want the pleasure to put our brothers where we want them moved, not where someone else wants them moved,” she said.

Michael King, an attorney for the descendants, said a 1929 title traces back to the church and some of Bowden’s relatives.

This week, King filed suit in Clayton County Superior Court, asking a judge to set a hearing to determine the 1-acre property’s rightful owner.

“We think Stephens doesn’t have the legal title to that property and no right to move the graves,” King said Thursday.

Clayton County attorney Michael Smith and representatives from Stephens MDS say a certified title shows the property belongs to Stephens.

Smith said the descendants’ request came too late: The lawsuits were filed three days after a 30-day appeal period ended. King said his clients weren’t aware of the public hearing.

State law allows developers who wish to move graves to apply for a county permit, hire an archaeologist and attempt to find the descendants through a public hearing.

That process was done and no descendants filed any objections to the move, Smith said. After the commission approved the move, however, dozens of family members objected.

Descendants also allege some of the graves already have been moved, but Davis said that is not correct.

The company has not set a date for the relocation, but promised to allow citizens and an archaeologist to watch, Davis said.

Only eight of the 311 headstones remain; the others were lost to neglect and vandalism, according to archaeologist Jeff Gardner, who was hired by Stephens.

Stephens’ workers rediscovered the cemetery while expanding the 200-acre landfill.