Group pushes campaign to write in to Planning after tombstones removedBy Ceola WilsonCitizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB) has launched an appeal for an “in-depth consultative process” on how the Tucker’s Town grave site should be memorialised.This after tombstones at the historic site were removed to make way for plans submitted by Marsden First United Methodist Church to erect a new cemetery monument.The historic burial site is the final resting place of countless enslaved blacks buried over 218 years and free blacks since 1790 who owned and worked hundreds of acres in Tucker’s Town of predominantly free blacks who Tucker’s Town.The plans were submitted by the church on January 24, CURB filed a formal objection to the plans on March 7 to Planning.Co-Chairman of CURB Lynne Winfield wrote an opinion column published in this newspaper on Saturday.She sent out an appeal yesterday for objectors to send e-mails to the Planning Director Trevor Leach at ttleach@gov.bm.Ms Winfield wrote: “The removal of the tombstones shows a lack of sensitivity for the descendants, and we have been told that many of them are upset.“This graveyard is of national importance, but more importantly there are living descendants who remember their relatives buried there.”When contacted she said the appeal prompted several phone calls and e-mails. “There is huge interest in the community,” she said.The call for action was sent to local and international CURB members, and she was contacted by the Planning Department soon after.“Since then we have had a number of local and international organisations and supporters call us.“Other organisations have also advised they are or have circulated the information to their members for comment and action,” said Ms Winfield.“We understand that prior to the tombstones being destroyed permission should have been sought from the Department of Planning as the site is designated as a Historic Protection Area and the Historic Buildings Advisory Committee should have been consulted, we understand this did not happen.”She noted however, that the Pastor at Marsden Church had been in contact to “indicate that they are open to allow community input”.The main focus she said is to ensure that the “process is open to the wider community, especially those individuals who have family buried there”.“CURB is seeking to ensure Tucker’s Town cemetery is added to the Historic Buildings List to ensure this site is restored and protected for future generations of Bermudians,” she said.Although the site is located on private land she stressed that it is of “national importance to us all, and may well be one of the few remaining sites of its kind in the western hemisphere”.But more importantly she said open consultation will “bring healing around the history of the Tucker’s Town Cemetery”.A spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, Planning & Infrastructure said: “ We are reviewing the relevant data and will provide a response upon the conclusion of our review.”The recommendation to list the graveyard as a historic site was made by Ombudsman Arlene Brock, in a report entitled ‘Today’s Choices Tomorrow’s Costs’ on Special Development Orders.Tucker’s Town Historical Society Chairman Keith Dubois said: “It is a recommendation the former Progressive Labour Party Government ignored twice.”A formal objection to the proposed plan will be filed by the group this week.The letter bound for the Planning Department states: “The Marsden Church graveyard is one of the last remnants of the black community that was driven out of Tucker’s Town in the 1920s by a Land Appropriation Act introduced by the Bermuda Government.“In another 60 years when most people that knew something about the old Tucker’s Town are dead, they’ll allow the area to overgrow again, and quietly remove the memorial, clean the area up and no one will be the wiser.”Mr Dubois also questioned how the Tucker’s Point Resort was “allowed to develop a driving range over a graveyard in the first place”.Society member Eugene Stovell, a descendant of Tucker’s Town said: “Most of my family’s genetics are buried in that cemetery, my genes, my family history.“If Queen Victoria was buried down there they would never have done what they did, and they would have never built that golf club where it is.“I’m disgusted that you can’t even go there without the risk of getting hit upside the head with a golf ball, there are hundreds of them in and around the graveyard,” said Mr Stovell. “What upsets me most is the fact that we should have been consulted. But I’m hopeful that everybody wants to do the right thing.”