WASHINGTON (7News) — Three historic Black cemeteries in Washington, D.C., are getting a financial boost as the city moves to preserve sacred ground and the stories tied to it.
The District announced two grants totaling $250,000 for the care and preservation of cemeteries in Georgetown and Benning Ridge. Two nonprofits, the Woodlawn Cemetery Perpetual Care Association and the Black Georgetown Foundation, will each receive $125,000 to support research, maintenance, and community education efforts during the next fiscal year.
City leaders say the investment is part of a broader push to recognize and protect Black history in the nation’s capital, especially places that were historically underfunded.
"Black Washingtonians add to the richness and diversity of our city’s heritage,” said Anita Cozart, director of the D.C. Office of Planning. “Just like many of our schools and parks and our libraries and other resources were segregated, there was segregation that happened in some of our cemeteries as well and that meant that some cemeteries had more resources than others."
The grants will support work at Woodlawn Cemetery in Southeast D.C., established in the late 19th century, and the Mount Zion and Female Union Band Society cemeteries in Georgetown, which date back to 1808.
At Woodlawn, funding will go toward removing hazardous trees, repairing fencing, improving signage, and making the site safer and more accessible. The cemetery is the final resting place of thousands of African Americans, including John Mercer Langston, a founder of Howard University’s law program and a pioneering political figure as the first person of color to represent Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In Georgetown, the Black Georgetown Foundation plans to conduct detailed tree and boundary surveys, improve on-site infrastructure, and upgrade its cemetery information system.
Preserving these cemeteries requires careful attention not just to what’s visible, but to what lies underground.
Archeology has been done to some extent at both sites, including ground penetrating radar So we have a lot of information on how to protect what’s below ground,” said Anne Brockett, an architectural historian with D.C.’s Historic Preservation Office. “The goal is to actually make improvements that are beneficial to each of these cemeteries in order to better be able to preserve and protect them."
Those improvements include drainage and erosion control, repairing stairs, and addressing long-standing maintenance issues, all while avoiding damage to burial sites.
Brockett said cemeteries offer a powerful lens into the city’s past.
"Cemeteries are a reflection of the people who are buried there It’s a cultural microcosm, and I think that preserving them and the work that these grants will enable is essential to us understanding our shared history,” she said.
City officials described the funding as a starting point, not a final solution.
“What I would say is this feels like a down payment of sorts,” Cozart said, noting the grants are meant to build on years of advocacy and preservation work already underway.
The announcement also kicks off the city’s commemoration of 100 years of Black history in Washington. Information about the cemeteries is already available through the city’s interactive Black History Sites map, which includes more than 300 locations across D.C.
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