A Pastor Rescues A Cemetery For Enslaved People, Then Buries Her Son In It

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Surrounded by loved ones, Pastor Michelle Thomas grieves at the stone marking her son’s grave at the African American Burial Ground for the Enslaved at Belmont. Her son, Fitz Alexander Campbell Thomas, 16, died in June and is the first free African American to be buried at the site.

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Rough, unmarked stones mark graves at the African American Burial Ground for the Enslaved at Belmont. Enslaved people once made up more than a quarter of the county’s population, but their graves, like these, were often neglected.

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Thomas poses for a portrait at the African American Burial Ground for the Enslaved at Belmont. Thomas restored the graveyard and then used it to bury her teenage son when he drowned in June.

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«It’s very rare to hear of someone burying their loved one in an old, underserved cemetery,» said Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

«It’s the reclaiming of history and space, and the way communities can ensure that Black cemeteries are cared for and respected in perpetuity,» he wrote in an email.

Fitz’s grave has since become a pilgrimage site for family and neighbors, many of whom have questions about the circumstances of his death.

«Fitz was a strong athlete, young kid, swimming all his life,» said Phil Thompson, former president of the Loudoun NAACP and an attorney who advised Thomas following the drowning. «I live in that neighborhood. The creek was maybe 20-30 yards. It shouldn’t have been a tough swim.»

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Flowers and a wind spinner mark the grave of Fitz Thomas. «My son is the first African American person who was born free to be buried in this cemetery,» says his mother, Pastor Michelle Thomas.

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Sharon Koorbusch, right, hugs Thomas at a march for Thomas’s son Fitz in Landsdowne, Va. in August. Koorbusch and her husband tried to save Fitz on the day he drowned.

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The incident included several recommendations for changes, including implementing new software to pinpoint the location of emergency callers, mapping the river to make it easier for callers to explain where they are, and training dispatchers to listen better.

«Obviously, it’s a tragic event. And I believe we have done everything we can do to make the changes,» Johnson said.

Thomas says those changes should have been implemented long before her son went swimming. Now she says she wants a say in the oversight of the changes. She also seeks compensation for what she believes is wrongful death.

A rallying point and a sanctuary

Thomas’s demands have found a receptive audience in Loudoun County, where the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis drew crowds onto the streets. In July, following public pressure, the Daughters of the Confederacy removed a monument that stood outside the county courthouse for more than a century.

On what would have been Fitz’s 17th birthday weekend, about 200 people joined Thomas for a rally in her son’s memory. They framed his death as part of the call for a reckoning on race, shouting:

«What do we want?»

«Justice!»

«Justice for who?»

«Fitz!»

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Thomas leads her late son’s family and high school friends on a march to his grave in August. She is demanding changes in public safety after first responders took nearly 40 minutes to arrive to the site where he drowned.

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Family, classmates and teammates mourn Fitz Thomas at Loudoun County’s African American Burial Ground for the Enslaved at Belmont, where he is buried.

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Family, classmates and teammates mourn Fitz Thomas at Loudoun County’s African American Burial Ground for the Enslaved at Belmont, where he is buried.

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• George Floyd protests
• cemeteries
• slavery
• race