Historic America has been spending a lot of time in cemeteries lately! We launched a Youtube series, Dead, White & Blue, which explores the final resting places of famous Americans. We visit their gravesites, share their stories with careful attention to how they expired and spotlight the historic cemeteries where they’re buried. Our upcoming episodes take place in a 22 acre cemetery in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington DC. Oak Hill was founded in 1848 and its grounds contain the remains of well known politicians, publishers, military officers, diplomats and philanthropists. Located in an idyllic setting overlooking Rock Creek, the cemetery is a prime example of the Rural Cemetery Movement. Steeped in nineteenth century Romanticism, the space was consciously designed to provide sanctuary, adornment, and quiet beauty. Visible from the eastern boundary of Oak Hill, are the graves of less renowned but equally important Americans. The three hallowed acres adjacent to Oak Hill are technically two distinct cemeteries; the Old Methodist Burying Ground and the Female Union Band Society Cemetery. There is no fence or other visible demarcation separating these two additional cemeteries, and as consequence are often referred to as one; Mount Zion Cemetery. They also share mutual neglect. Our focus today is a call to action; Mount Zion, and the histories within, must be honored and preserved.

The difference between the two cemeteries is illustrated here by Mt. Zion Cemetery in the foreground and Oak Hill Cemetery in the background

A service road near the intersection of 27th & Q streets NW divides Oak Hill Cemetery and Mount Zion Cemetery. On one side of the road, a parklike setting with well manicured grass, carefully tended headstones and Victorian style markers memorializing Washington’s elite. On the other side, just beyond a chain link fence, broken piles of headstones and overgrown vegetation. Oak Hill is the final resting place for famous Washingtonians; mostly White. Mount Zion is the final resting place for lesser known Washingtonians; mostly Black. The stark contrast of these historic sites is a visual representation of both segregation and gentrification.

This history of interments at Mount Zion Cemetery begins in 1809, when the grounds were under ownership of the Montgomery Street Methodist Church (now Dumbarton United Methodist). The earliest burials in the ‘The Methodist Burial Ground’ were parishioners of European descent, and the people of African descent they held as property. The churchyard also hosted burials for Blacks who were not enslaved, as Montgomery Street Church was one of the few local churches that accepted free Blacks as members, although the services, and burials, were segregated by racial identity. Less than a decade after the church was founded, in 1814, 125 Black parishioners decided to establish their own congregation. The group, then known as ‘The Colored Members of Georgetown Station,’ purchased a lot at 27th and P streets NW and built a church. They eventually adopted the name Mount Zion in 1844; the congregation is the oldest known Black church in Washington DC. Mount Zion Church served as an anchor for the Black community in Georgetown.

The broken headstones of Mt. Zion Cemetery tell a story of not only segregation and gentrification, but neglect

The Methodist Burying ground, later ‘The Old Methodist Burying Ground,’ hosted segregated burial for both Black and white folks through the first half of the 1900s. The western half of the churchyard was purchased in 1842, by a group of free Black and Native women called the Female Union Band Society (FUBS). Benevolent societies like this were structured somewhat the way we think of insurance groups, the members pledged to care for each other financially in the case of illness, provide a gravesite and pay funeral service costs. This cemetery would become the final resting place for hundreds of African Americans, both free and enslaved. Oral histories also indicate that the structure used for corpse storage was used as a waystation on the Underground Railroad.

Upon FUBS purchase of 1.5 acres, there was no visible delineation between their tract of land and The Old Methodist Burying Ground. Mixed burials had occurred on this land since its earliest internments, but once Oak Hill cemetery was completed, many white descendants disinterred the remains of their loved ones for reburial just across the road. Just as the lives of Washingtonians were increasingly segregated by race, they were so divided in death. Over the next thirty years, there were fewer and fewer White burials on the Old Methodist grounds. The parent church, known as Dumbarton Street Methodist Church since 1850, leased the land to Mount Zion Church in 1879 at the cost of $1 for 99 years.

So what happened to Mount Zion cemetery from then until now? In order to understand what happened to the cemetery, we must also understand what happened in the neighborhood.

Black population in Washington D.C. from 1800-1830

Georgetown (named after King George II) was founded in 1751 and became a bustling tobacco port in the British colony of Maryland. From those early days as a commercial waterfront, both enslaved and free Blacks lived and worked in Georgetown. After the American Revolution, the port was essential to the development of a newly planned national capital on the Potomac River, and the town became part of the District of Columbia in 1791. As DC was being built, Georgetown continued to grow.

Although Washington DC didn’t get the nickname “Chocolate City” until after it became the first majority African American city in the United States in the 1950’s, a large African American population shaped its history and culture. In 1800, a third of DC’s population was Black; and over 80% of that third was enslaved. In the decades that followed, the free population outpaced the enslaved, even as the domestic slave trade continued to flourish in and around the city. Between manumision by purchase, migration and the occasional lawsuit, the majority of African Americans in DC were free by 1830. The trend continued until Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act in 1862, abolishing slavery within the District.

Children arriving on Mount Zion Methodist Church bus c. 1950

From 1860 and 1880, the African American population in our nation’s capital doubled, and Georgetown became one of DC’s most important Black communities. In the 1880s the waterfront prospered and Georgetown thrived. Flooding in the 1890’s caused severe damage to the C & O Canal and the neighborhood slipped into economic decline in the years that followed. The neighborhood was both diverse and resilient; boasting businesses, churches, community organizations and schools; despite ongoing economic adversity. Declining steadily through the First World War, Georgetown was a far cry from the air of affluence it projects today. By WWII, a dramatic transformation was underway. The passage of discriminatory policies such as the 1934 Alley Dwelling Elimination Act and The Old Georgetown Act of 1950, unapologetically changed the historic demographics. The two acts in conjunction with widespread redlining, made it financially impossible for many long time residents to stay. Black churches, like Mount Zion, had once been anchors, but now served as tethers; drawing former residents of Georgetown back to the neighborhood on Sundays.

At present, Georgetown is distinguished by carefully preserved Federal and Victorian style homes, a lively waterfront, and cobblestone streets. It is a regional destination for both dining, shopping and entertainment. The homes are consistently some of the priciest in the city, and according to niche, it’s residents are over 70% white. Georgetown is a preservationist's paradise, but at what cost? What was lost for this gain? The character of Georgetown that we celebrate is directly connected to the mass expulsion of people that called this place home. In Black Georgetown Remembered, the author conveys that the “The black population of Georgetown fell from nearly thirty percent of the general population in 1930 to less than nine percent by the 1960 census, and the racial diversity that had been so much a part of Georgetown’s historical character was virtually lost”.

Thanks to the efforts of the descendants of those interred there as well as community organizers and leaders: Mt. Zion Cemetery has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This plaque was unveiled in January 2021.

Now, let's return to the story of Mount Zion cemetery. We left off with the acquisition of a 99 year lease. In those 99 years, Georgetown changed drastically. It went from being mostly black and integrated, to predominantly white and segregated.

Mary Logan Jennings was the last internment at Mount Zion in 1950. She was a past president of FUBS, and the granddaughter of one of its founders. Three years after she was laid to rest, the city prohibited further internments because the grounds were not up to Health Department codes. Neither Dumbarton Methodist or Mount Zion had the financial means to maintain the burial grounds.

Simultaneously, developers were taking note of the lots; gentrification was raising the value of Georgetown real estate and the land was looking awfully lucrative. In 1957, Dumbarton Methodist had a mind to sell, and over the next eighteen years; on multiple occasions, the two cemeteries would come narrowly close to an irreversible fate. In 1963, a court order granted permission to disinter the deceased, and thankfully provoked an impassioned push to preserve the historic grounds. The activism of community organizers, church leaders, and descendants of the deceased culminated in 1975, when the fight to reverse orders of disinterment was won and the location was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

What societies choose to preserve and discard reveal both their values and aspirations. Historic preservation has a history of its own, and just like every other institution in the United States, the discipline itself is marred by racial injustice. Construction of narratives about the past reveal much about the present, and inform the integrity of our future. Nations are defined by the history they choose to preserve; we are responsible for America’s legacy. Landmark status has been achieved for Mount Zion Cemetery, but what’s next?

Preservation is underway, but much like other sites excluded from public remembrance for far too long, the financial needs outweigh the resources. Just this year, on January 18th, 2021, a plaque was unveiled to acknowledge the cemetery's historic designation. The effort to honor overlooked and undertold threads of our national fabric is an uphill battle, but you can help! Mount Zion welcomes volunteers to assist in grounds maintenance and clean up, artifact preservation, archival research and sharing the rich history of the burial grounds with visitors. Become a volunteer here, and if you are able, explore other ways to give here.

A message from The Mt. Zion / Female Union Band Historic Memorial Park, Inc. (Foundation) is a 501(c)(3) :

We have an unprecedented opportunity to rediscover nearly two centuries of lost African American history in Georgetown and to develop a historic memorial park as a sacred space for quiet reflection and respectful commemoration of the past.

A place to promote unity, appreciation, and most of all to EDUCATE: to remember and preserve the heritage, contributions, and sacrifices these founders of Georgetown made during their lifetimes; and provide insight to their families and the community in which they lived during a time of deep segregation.

Learn More About Mt. Zion Cemetery

Explore Georgetown’s Black History: www.blackgeorgetown.com

Instagram: Follow @blackgeorgetown and @reclaimourpast

Preserving Mount Zion

Learn More About Mt. Zion Cemetery

Further Reading