U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in case about war memorial cross
The Bladensburg Peace Cross, which bears the names of 49 men who died in World War I, is on land now owned by a Maryland government commission.
To Steven Lowe, who drives past it routinely, the 40-foot concrete structure in the middle of a Maryland traffic circle plainly is a Christian cross.
To Mary Ann LaQuay, who also lives nearby, the Bladensburg Peace Cross which bears the name of her late uncle, Thomas N. Fenwick, and 48 other men who died in World War I is “a symbol for remembrance,” she said. “That to me is where my uncle is buried, even though his body is not there; his spirit is there with all these other men.”
Erected by the American Legion and dedicated in 1925, the memorial was meant, according to local lore, to evoke the crosses that stood over the local men’s graves in Europe.
