37,000 Gravestones Trashed in the Potomac River by DC Developer Will Be Reunited With Remains

On Monday, fifty-five gravestones of Black people from the Columbian Harmony Cemetery in Washington D.C. were relocated to a one-acre memorial site at the National Harmony Memorial Park in Landover, Maryland.

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam were in attendance.

“We are committed to righting that wrong,” Mayor Bowser said.

“It’s our duty to make sure these headstones are returned to the graves they were intended to mark and honor,” Virginia Governor Northam said. “As we reckon with the many impacts of systemic racism, we must tell the full and true story of our shared history, including indignities inflicted on people of color even after death.”

Virginia Senator Richard Stuart and his wife Lisa discovered the tombstones in 2016 while walking outside of their farm along the Potomac River. The lawmaker discovered that the land was a dumping ground for thousands of gravestones.

“She looked at me, and she said, ‘Is that?…’ and I finished the sentence, ‘a headstone.’ And we saw another one. And we saw another one. And we saw another one,” the Senator said. “I felt like somebody punched me in the stomach, and that is the best way I can describe it.”

The Columbian Harmony Cemetery was the final destination for more than 37,000 Black residents in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area from 1859 to 1960.

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ two sons were buried at the cemetery along with Phillip Reid, Black Union Army veterans and one of D.C.’s first Black police officers.

“We know that the 37,000 people who were laid to rest at Columbian Harmony Cemetery were the men, women, and families who helped build Washington D.C. into the city we are today,” Mayor Bowser said. “They were talented soldiers, civil rights leaders, dressmakers, and so much more — they were moms and dads, grandmothers and grandfathers, friends and neighbors. They made and continue to make our families, our city, and our nation proud, and today were honor their lives.”

The land was sold in 1960, and most of the remains were transported to the National Harmony Park without the original tombstones.

According to WUSA 9, a farmer in Virginia is responsible for discarding the tombstones in the Potomac River. The farmer used the grave markers for erosion control along the river.

Virginia will fund $4 million for the recovery and restoration of the gravestones and the creation of a shoreline memorial.

H.R. 1179 — African American Burial Grounds Network Act was introduced by Representatives Alma Adams and Donald McEachin in 2019. The bill will provide grant opportunities and technical Assitance to local communities to recover and preserve historic African American burial grounds before they are lost to time, decay, or new development.

“These men and women were freed slaves, civil rights champions, veterans, mothers, fathers, workers in communities. We need to act now before these sites are lost to the ravages of time or development,” Senator Sherrod Brown said.

“As soon as we learned of the massive undertaking to recover these headstones, we offered the full support of our entire Maryland team,” Governor Hogan said. “We have no greater responsibility as leaders in a democracy than preserving for future generations the importance of clearly differentiating between right and wrong.”

The District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland are partnering with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and the History, Arts, and Science Action Network (HASAN) to help with relocation efforts and to research the individuals that were buried in the cemetery.

“Ensuring these grave markers and the memories of those they recognized are treated with dignity and respect is another victory in our battle for historic justice in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Matthew J. Strickler, Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources, said. “While we cannot undo the harm caused in the past, we can do our best to tell the stories truthfully and strive to foster better understanding and a new harmony in the present and future.”

“HASAN is honored to be a critical part of this initiative and to help elevate and center the voices of the descendants throughout the process,” Dr. Kelley Fanto Deets, a representative for HASAN, said.

The National Guard in Maryland and Virginia will work to dig up and recover headstones this coming fall.

“The desecration of the tombstones should never have happened. While we can’t correct that wrong, we can handle them with dignity and respect and try to reunite them with the people they are demoralizing,” Clyde Cristman, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, said.