September 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 30

MEMBER TO MEMBER

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARYLAND NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSION

A group gathers at the Peace
Cross in Bladensburg, Maryland,
circa 1920s.

fore, " said Bill Jarret of the Chamber of Commerce in an interview
with The Washington Post in 1979.
When the cross fell, citizens were
not allowed to replace it. However, a new cross was erected in 2009
on Black Rock Mountain on land
owned by the Raburn Cross Society.
In San Francisco, a cross known
as the Mount Davidson cross that's
more than 100 feet tall was erected, with a clear Christian intent, on
what was originally private land.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, via the press of a telegraph
key, lit the Mount Davidson cross
from the White House in 1934,
a few days before Easter. Visible
from many viewing points in the
city, the Mount Davidson cross
sits in the middle of 20 acres at the
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Parks & Recreation

top of a hill on land the city
eventually purchased for a
public park. Easter sunrise
services were held from the
cross for decades and even
broadcast from the park in
the 1950s and '60s.
Eventually, the religious
purpose of this cross was
seen as improper on government-owned land, and
the American Civil Liberties Union, the American
Jewish Congress and Americans United for Separation
of Church and State sued
the city for its violation of
the Establishment Clause.
The cross was ruled illegal in
1996, and, in 1997, the city
auctioned off a half-acre of
land on which the cross sat.
That half acre was acquired
by the Council of Armenian Organizations of Northern California,
which installed a plaque to memorialize the victims of the 1915
Armenian genocide. By court agreement, the cross is lit two days per year.
In Pensacola, Florida, a suit
brought by the American Humanist Association and joined
by the Freedom from Religion
Foundation, asserted that a Latin cross that's been standing since
1941 in Bayview Park, violated
the Constitution and must be removed. A federal district court
judge declared this cross unconstitutional in 2016, a decision that
was upheld by a federal appeals
court in 2018. In response to a
question if non-Christians in the
community object to the cross or

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if there is general acceptance for
its historic and cultural value, the
city replied: " The current city administration is not aware of any
objections to the cross had been
raised prior to this lawsuit. Again,
the city's position is that the Bayview Cross is a valuable part of
our history, and we feel that our
efforts to defend the cross reflect
the overall sentiments of our community as a whole. "
It is uncertain what impact the
Supreme Court decision on the
Bladensburg Peace Cross will
have on the cross in Bayview
Park. Representatives for the city
are continuing to work to keep
the cross at its current location in
Bayview Park, as the city awaits a
new ruling from the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
The cross, they say, is a valuable
part of Pensacola's history and
sense of community at the park.
Whether the Supreme Court decision on the Peace Cross continues
to reverberate through cities and
states that have other monuments
and memorials with religious symbols remains to be seen. It is not
surprising to note that parks are often at the heart of some of the most
important First Amendment issues
our nation faces. Parks are a place
where our values and principles as a
democracy are shaped and the crucible in which they are forged. The
exercise of our unalienable rights
- life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness - and the continuing
issues of freedoms which are at the
heart of our democracy will continue to be defined by the public
spaces we know and value - our
public parks.
Richard J. Dolesh is NRPA's Vice President
of Strategic Initiatives (rdolesh@nrpa.org).
September 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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