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DC’s oldest Black cemeteries commemorate Juneteenth with community education, preservation
By Carly Cavanaugh and Diana Anos,
June 20, 2025
On Juneteenth, the Black Georgetown Foundation gathered visitors at the city’s oldest Black cemeteries to reflect on and preserve the neighborhood’s Black history.
Just beyond Q Street, beside the brick walls of Dumbarton House, lie the Mount Zion and Female Union Band Society Cemeteries —the two oldest Black cemeteries in the District. On Juneteenth, the Foundation held an event at the site, inviting attendees to walk the grounds and offering a window into the cemetery’s history and ongoing preservation efforts. (click here for the full story)
Howard University's WHUT presents The Legacy Series - Living a Legacy. Georgetown resident descendants share family and personal insights into life in historical Georgetown - unique perspectives of living in an integrated yet segregated community.
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Discovery Science Channel's series on The Underground Railroad highlights burial grounds preservation and public education efforts at the Mt Zion Cemetery in Georgetown, Washington, DC. Mt Zion Cemetery is the oldest Black cemetery in Washington, DC, and it served as the final resting place for free and enslaved Black persons beginning in 1808.
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D.C. youth volunteer to preserve long-neglected and historic Black cemeteries
Sep 3, 2024 6:25PM EDT
"Madam Regent and Ladies
It is with great pleasure that I present Ms. Lisa Fager, the Executive Director of the Mt. Zion / Female Union Band Historical Park, also known as the Black Georgetown Foundation, with our Excellence in Historic Preservation Medal...."
Over the past few decades, as Georgetown grew in prominence as one of the District’s top tourist locations, the Mount Zion-Female Union Band Society Cemetery served as a reminder of the neighborhood’s rich African American history.
New Security Beat
Wilson Center
Reclaiming Community Identity Through Opera: Voices of Zion
By Blair A. Ruble, June 10th 2022
"Voices of Zion", an Immersive Music-Theater Experience in Observance of the 160th DC Emancipation Day
Giving Voice to the Ancestors in the Oldest Black Cemeteries in Washington, DC
Special Premiere Performance at THEARC, Saturday, April 16th
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 22, 2022 Contact: Lisa Bediako - 202.253.0435
Mount Zion & Oak Hill From the trails of Rock Creek Park to its sacred grounds
By Megan O'Meara
(Republished October 2021, from the Virtual Memorial of James Thomas O'Meara)
Washington Post
While working to restore two historic Black cemeteries, she discovered a construction crew digging on burial grounds
,Theresa Vargas, Columnist, October 9, 2021
NBC News Washington DC
Celebrating Emancipation Day in DC
By Tom Segrave, NBC News, April 16, 2021
The Washington Post
Someone keeps leaving toys and birthday cards at a 7-year-old’s grave in a historic Black cemetery. No one knows who.
By Theresa Vargas, Columnist, , April 16, 2021
HARVARD LAW TODAY
Harvard Law Bulletin - Fall 2020
Hidden History
Teaching a class concentrated on two predominantly African American cemeteries, Tom Duckenfield ’89 helps uncover the stories of people who may have been forgotten but whose lives mattered
By Lewis Rice, October 15, 2020
Citizens Association of Georgetown Newsletter
A Treasure In Georgetown
Lisa Fager, Executive Director, Mount Zion-Female Union Band Historic Memorial Park, Inc., Foundation
The Washington Post
They were names on headstones until the pandemic. Then they became reminders that 'Georgetown was Black.'
by Theresa Vargas September 23, 2020
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United States Air Force Academy Association of Graduates "CheckPoints" Magazine
Soul Searching - USAFA Grad Helps Restore Historic African American Cemetery
by Jeff HolmQuist September, 2020
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the New York times
At 2 Georgetown Cemeteries, History in Black and White
by nicholas fandos october 20, 2016
The Georgetowner
Mt. Zion Cemetery ready for its own Ressurection
by Robert Devaney April 13, 2017
