Washington auxiliary bishop leads efforts to identify unmarked graves

NEW YORK – To describe the breadth of the task of finding the unmarked graves of enslaved people in the Archdiocese of Washington, Bishop Roy Campbell reminded that the 500+ year old remains of English King Richard III weren’t found until 2012.

“Things can get lost, even for kings,” Campbell, an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Washington told Crux. “So for people in their lifetime who weren’t considered human and weren’t considered deserving of any respect – why would those who enslave them show any due respect in burying them?”

In recent years, Campbell has led efforts in the Archdiocese of Washington to identify unmarked graves of enslaved people, and honor them. Now, before the end of the year Campbell said he and a team he’s been working with will submit a proposal for approval to the archdiocese that will detail how they plan to find and address unmarked graves first across the archdiocese, and then across the rest of Maryland.

It’s an effort that Campbell said will take time, but is necessary “to help correct a wrong that nobody today is guilty of, but is our responsibility as Christians and Catholics to correct as best we can for the honor of those who are buried there and for their descendants.”

“This is significant in trying to rectify a wrong as much as possible for those who were enslaved, who were buried, and no one knows who they are or where they are, and also it’s for those who have come after them,” Campbell explained. “This is what the project is trying to do.”

Efforts to identify and honor unmarked graves of enslaved people in the Archdiocese of Washington dates back to about 2018, when Cardinal Donald Wuerl, then-archbishop of Washington, provided Catholic cemeteries in the archdiocese markers to honor the unknown enslaved men, women, and children.

At the time, Wuerl said “in this simple gesture … we make a visible and permanent declaration that, in ground made holy by their remains as a temple of the Holy Spirit, we mark and remember them.”

Fast forward to December 2022, and a landscaper contracted by Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bowie, Maryland, noticed stones laid out in a pattern in the areas he was clearing. He notified the pastor. The pastor contacted an archeologist, who through imaging concluded that the sites were likely human graves, specifically those of enslaved people because they were unmarked.

From the mid-18th Century into the 19th Century that area was a part of the Jesuit owned White Marsh Plantation. After the archeologist’s find, an investigation determined there might have been between 200 and 500 unmarked graves at different sites on the property. Sacred Heart then established a cemetery committee and expanded its work, and has since discovered that there are over 2,000 sites of unmarked graves on the property, according to Campbell.

Cardinal Wilton Gregory blessed the site in February 2023, acknowledging “there is a lot of work that needs to be done so that the lives and the identity and the dignity of the people who were once in shackles will be held in honor by those of us who remain.”

Sacred Heart is but one example. Campbell said they know there are a number of other sites. Gregory, who blessed many other parish cemeteries for the same reason, has also acknowledged that there are “thousands of people who rest unidentified” in Archdiocese of Washington cemeteries.

For the work of finding and identifying these sites, Campbell said the Jesuits – who have acknowledged their history of slave ownership nationwide – have worked hand and hand with the archdiocese. He said he and the team have also worked closely with descendants, as well as the Archdiocese of Baltimore and Diocese of Wilmington, which also have footprints in Maryland.

“We think that this is something not just in the Washington, D.C., area, but is something state wide,” Campbell said. “We know that this could be anywhere and maybe almost everywhere in parishes that have Catholic Cemeteries.”

Campbell said the biggest challenge before them is figuring out where the unmarked graves are. He said one place he knows they’ll look is the cemetery of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, which is the Jesuit run church at Georgetown University. He also said Sacred Heart, which was established in 1729 on the White Marsh Plantation, kept “very good records,” which they’re going to use to try and find leads to identify other grave sites, and parishioners.

As for a timeline, Campbell noted that the Sacred Heart cemetery committee is developing a five year plan for what they’re going to do going forward, and they’ve already been at it for two years. That reality, he said, shows that it will “take some time” to go through the whole state of Maryland.

“We really don’t have any idea of how many graves there might be and where to locate them, but we’re going to work methodically to try and identify them,” Campbell said. “We’ll find out. A lot of it is identifying disruptions in the ground that could be graves.”

Looking further ahead, Campbell said he hopes to see these kinds of efforts nationwide.

“The same thing applies in other areas, looking at it as your diocese taking initiative for a task force or whatever you want to call it to search and see what’s going on,” he explained. “It’s not just going to be the Catholic dioceses in these areas … I think the states and local jurisdictions have an interest in this too, and I think we can work with them and we can all work together for the same common goal.”