A foundation preserving a historically Black cemetery in Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood will receive a grant from the D.C. Office of Planning to assist preservation efforts, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Feb. 2.
The Mount Zion and Female Union Band Cemeteries, founded in 1808 and 1842, respectively, have been cared for since 2005 by the Black Georgetown Foundation, the nonprofit organization that oversees the cemeteries due to their historical significance. The $125,000 grant comes from the Paul E. Sluby, Sr. Historic Burial Grounds Preservation Program, an initiative of the D.C. government that, starting this year, provides grants to preserve sacred spaces of Black history in the District.
Anne Brockett, a historic preservation specialist from the Office of Planning who focuses on the District’s cemeteries, said the grant program is the result of community activism for cemetery preservation.
“From my understanding, this was really a community-driven effort, directly to the D.C. Council,” Brockett told The Hoya. “The Council passed it and recognized the need and the importance of preserving this history and enacted this law that provides the Paul E. Sluby Historic Burial Grounds Preservation Program, which is the source of the grants.”
Lisa Fager, the Black Georgetown Foundation’s executive director, said the foundation worked with D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie to advocate for the funding, citing similar programs in neighboring jurisdictions.
“We documented the site’s needs, brought those issues to City Council, worked with Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie’s office and submitted a proposal through the Office of Planning,” Fager wrote to The Hoya. “Around the country, including Maryland and Virginia, we were seeing public dollars redirected from Confederate monument maintenance toward preserving Black cemeteries, but D.C. hadn’t made that same investment yet. So we met with local and federal leaders, shared what we were seeing on the ground, and made the case for support.”
The Mount Zion Cemetery was founded by the Montgomery Street Methodist Church in 1808 and later leased to Mount Zion United Methodist Church in 1879. In 1842, a group of women from the Female Union Band Society, a group of freed Black women, purchased the adjacent plot for their members.
Kelsey Moore, a professor of Black Studies at Georgetown University who researches historically Black cemeteries in South Carolina, said Black cemeteries are often overlooked because many contain the remains of enslaved people.
“Oftentimes those cemeteries are not seen as having any kind of historical importance,” Moore told The Hoya. “Especially depending on how old the cemetery is, many Black cemeteries, older ones, are cemeteries of enslaved people. Being part of the legacy of once having been property is that people do not see those resting places as such, because those folks were not considered human in many ways.”
The Mount Zion Cemetery is believed to hold the remains of enslaved persons.
Brockett said that because new bodies are not buried in the cemeteries, they lack funding for preservation and improvement.
“It’s always going to be a matter of funding,” Brockett said. “The challenges of maintaining a site that has no income and are huge properties are fairly substantial. That’s why these grants are so important, because they provide dedicated funding to do work that makes the sites more accessible and gives them a more public face, so that people can appreciate them and understand their history.”
Fager said the foundation plans to use the grant for preservation and educational projects, including a full survey of the land and enhanced educational resources.
“The funds are going toward very specific preservation priorities: a full tree and land survey, vault stair replacement, conserving the historic iron door, stabilizing headstones and improving overall site conditions,” Fager wrote. “We’re also adding better interpretation and educational tools so visitors and students can understand what they’re seeing when they walk the grounds.”
Moore said the grants are an important step in ensuring that Black cemeteries do not fall to commercial development.
“It’s important because as developers across the country are looking to build whatever infrastructure that they’re looking to build, black cemeteries are often on the chopping block,” Moore said. “I think D.C. giving grants to these different organizations is a step in the right direction, and I think it’s a positive.”
