In Washington, the fight to preserve African-American cemeteries

The Black Georgetown Foundation is fighting to preserve the memory of places and their dead at a time when the Trump administration wants to erase episodes of African-American history, such as an exhibit on slavery in Philadelphia.

"There are leaning, broken tombstones," describes Lisa Fager, director of the organization, who estimates that eight to ten thousand people are buried at the two sites.

While some graves have lost their inscriptions and others are overgrown with weeds, the challenge is to "know everyone's names," she continues. The Black Georgetown Foundation has managed to identify 4.500 people buried there.

Remaining active until the 1950s, the cemeteries of the black church Mount Zion and the Female Union Band Society (created by freedwomen) were founded in 1802 and 1842 for the inhabitants of the district, including slaves or notable African Americans.

There, a stele bears the name of Reverend Cartwright, born into slavery, who died in 1851 and was the first Black Methodist minister in the Baltimore area (east). A short distance away lies Nannie, a seven-year-old girl who died in 1856, whose grave is adorned with children's toys.

Georgetown, which has become one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the American capital where multi-million dollar colonial houses stand side by side, was largely gentrified in the 1930s.

"Moral duty"

Opposite the African American graves, Oak Hill Cemetery, founded in 1848, where only a handful of people of color are buried, bears witness to a history in black and white. Its neat paths and flower-adorned headstones contrast sharply with the tall grass and scattered graves of its neighbor.

Antoinette Jackson, an anthropologist at the University of South Florida, directs the Black Cemetery Network, which catalogs African American cemeteries in the United States. The 210 sites identified by the network – three-quarters of which have disappeared under various constructions – are "only the tip of the iceberg," she explains.

"These cemeteries have never benefited from the same resources as white cemeteries," the researcher says. And during segregation, "the protections and legal provisions that usually apply to the management of a cemetery were not extended to the Black community," she adds.

In 2022, Congress passed a law on the preservation of African American burial sites which has, to date, received no funding.

Charles Turner, the great-grandfather of Black Georgetown Foundation president Neville Waters, was freed at the age of six and worked for the federal government. He is buried in the Female Union Band Society cemetery.

"We have a moral duty to preserve the memory of those buried here, regardless of the government in power," stresses Neville Waters, who still lives in Georgetown.

"Don't forget"

For over 70 years, a large portion of the wastewater from a nearby street has been discharged into the cemeteries. In 2021, the Black Georgetown Foundation lobbied the city, which finally began work in late 2025. The construction is still ongoing.

"The financial resources were limited. There were many promises, false starts and stops. We experienced flooding problems," but "we are entering a kind of renaissance," says Neville Waters.

In December 2025, the association received a $125,000 grant from the city of Washington to restore cemeteries.

"Now we want to transform this place into a memorial park to raise awareness of the history of the United States," the kind that is not "taught in school," says Lisa Fager.

"The current political climate is precisely what encourages people to want to know more," she adds.

The association takes schoolchildren on tours of the cemeteries and organizes commemorations, notably for Juneteenth, a day celebrating the end of slavery in the United States.

In 2023, little Nannie's grave and her offerings were burned, explains Lisa Fager, holding a charred toy. "That's why we keep these charred objects. So we don't forget," she says.