The desecration of historic tombstones at Tucker’s Point should be a “catalyst” for Bermuda to recognise its continued suppression of black history and start a healing process, an anti-racism group has claimed.

Lynn Winfield, from Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB), said Ombudsman Arlene Brock’s report on Marsden Methodist Memorial Cemetery hit the nail on the head in identifying those to blame and calling for accountability.

But she added: “I am more concerned about, a) what led us to this place ie, the consistent historical suppression and continued minimisation of black history in our society and b) the need for this to be a catalyst, not only to restore the cemetery, but to find a way to use this tragedy as a vehicle for a process of healing and reconciliation.”

CURB, along with Tucker’s Town Historical Society, has called for the cemetery to be regarded as a national site since 2007.

It sits beneath Tucker’s Point Golf Club and is the final resting place of countless enslaved and free blacks who were part of a community which owned and worked the area until a 1920 compulsory acquisition order forced them off the land.

Its position now, beneath a practice tee, means golf balls “rain daily” onto the graves. Ms Brock writes that descendants of the landowners removed from Tucker’s Town “as well as many others” agree that this constitutes desecration.

In 2012, Ms Brock recommended that the cemetery be given an extra layer of protection as a historic monument but the Department of Planning failed to act on her advice.

She says in her ‘A Grave Error’ report that if it had, the historic tombstones covering the graves would not have been destroyed in October, 2012 by Marsden First United Methodist Church and Rosewood Tucker’s Point to make way for a “dignified lawn”.

Ms Brock says the church and the hotel acted on the advice of Bermudian archaeologist Edward Harris and Canadian archaeologist John Triggs, who came to the wrong conclusion that the tombstones were false.

“One person said it. Others repeated it. The Department adopted it. No one researched it.

“No one checked with long-term employees of Tucker’s Point or other descendants.”

The Ombudsman adds in her report: “No one asked perhaps the most obvious question: was it a credible notion that an elite private tourist resort would suddenly build false tombs in the middle of its golf course — without reason, pressure, provocation or incentive?”

Ms Brock describes the cemetery as the “last relatively intact relic that evidences the communal life of a wholly unique population in Bermuda’s 21 square miles and 400-year history” and says it must be recognised as a “national heritage site with resonance even beyond its stones”.

She writes: “Persons of good will are capable of working together and taking the high road over the next seven years until 2020 (the 100th anniversary of the compulsory acquisition) to work together to create fitting tributes — not only to bring dignity to the ancestors but also to bring unity to the living.”

Ms Winfield said: “It is clear there were mistakes made by a number of individuals, not just the Department of Planning. Everyone is so busy pointing fingers that this is being overlooked.

“We tell children to own up and say ‘I’m sorry’ when they do something wrong. It’s a pity that those adults involved in the destruction or inaction over the cemetery can’t do the same.

“We could then move on to the work necessary to restore and commemorate the cemetery and the history of the Tucker’s Town community.”

She added that she was “horrified” by what happened to the cemetery, after Marsden gave assurances that consultation on its fate would take place, and urged everyone to read Ms Brock’s entire report at www.ombudsman.bm.