Black Georgetown Foundation-dba

10/13/2026

A week of learning, community, and giving these cemeteries some love. 💚

Thank you to Washington Waldorf School, BRIDGE the District, and everyone who joined Saturday’s headstone-cleaning workshop. From clearing ivy and gathering fallen limbs to learning how to care for headstones, you helped care for our Outdoor Library.

A special thank-you to the Waldorf students who cleared leaves and ivy from Nannie’s grave and the offerings left in her memory.

Every headstone a book. Every name a story. Thank you for helping us care for them.

10/10/2026

10/10/2026

Standing with volunteers as we ended our workshop we notice people ignoring the road closed signs. The entitlement is disgusting...

D.C. Department of Transportation this isn't working! We need protection.

10/03/2026

Walking in the Rain! First Baptist Church, Georgetown is celebrating 164 years and invited church members and Georgetown community to explore Herring Hill. I gave a tour and talked about the First Baptist members I know who are buried here and other 19th Century history.

We also noticed a tree down on Lyons Mill Road and on top of Oak Hill Cemetery - D.C. fence. HEY D.C. Department of Transportation this is what happens when you don't manage your unmanaged road. Good thing it didn't fall on a person!

09/30/2026

https://georgetowner.com/articles/2026/09/28/mt-zion-fubs-cemeteries-update-ddot-discloses-118-collected-items/

BGF previously documented over 30 days of deep utility excavation — reaching nearly 13 feet — before an archaeological monitor was on site. DDOT stated its contractor found no artifacts during that unmonitored period. However, once a monitor arrived, 118 items were collected. They are currently being cataloged by the Office of Planning.

“A construction contractor saying it did not find artifacts is not the same thing as an archaeologist determining that no artifacts were present,” Fager noted. BGF is not asserting the items are cemetery-related, but is seeking catalogs, photographs and field notes to evaluate their origin within the historic landscape.

What is DDOT hiding? And who holds them accountable when they don't follow the law?

09/30/2026

Yesterday we turned the cemetery into an outdoor classroom—and Georgetown into the textbook.

I welcomed a class from the University of the District of Columbia for a tour of the Mount Zion and Female Union Band Society Cemeteries, then we took the history beyond the cemeteries.

We talked about free and enslaved Black Washingtonians, the 125 Black members who left the white Methodist church in 1816 to establish what became Mount Zion Church, the free Black women who organized the Female Union Band Society decades before Emancipation in DC, the Underground Railroad, Nannie, and the thousands of people whose stories are still being recovered here.

Then we walked Georgetown, connecting the cemetery to Rose Park, Black churches, homes, streets, and the people who actually built communities here.

That is why I keep calling this place an outdoor library. The headstones are only part of the collection. The landscape, the neighborhood, the archives, the names—and even what has been erased—all tell the story.

And sometimes the best way to learn history is to sit right in the middle of it.

Thank you, UDC, for spending the afternoon with us. ❤️

09/22/2026

Please let us know if you find an ancestor in our database — or if we’re missing an ancestor you know to be buried here.

And please DM us if you know or suspect that your family has ancestors buried in the Mt. Zion Cemetery or Female Union Band Society Cemetery. We want to hear from you.

If you use Ancestry.com or another genealogy platform, take a look at your ancestor’s death certificate and check the place of burial.

You may see:
Mt. Zion
Mt. Zion East
Mt. Zion West — Female Union Band Society Cemetery

And if your ancestor died before 1879, the burial place may even be listed as Methodist Burying Ground.

Every name, family connection, photograph, document, and story can help us piece together more of this extraordinary community.

Are your people here? Let us know.

09/19/2026

New research identifies thousands who profited from trafficking enslaved Africans and traces some financial links to institutions still operating today

Exclusive: New research identifies thousands who profited from trafficking enslaved Africans and traces some financial links to institutions still operating today