Norton Announces Agenda for Saturday's ‘Clean-up Our History Day at Woodlawn Cemetery'
WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced the agenda for the first of several planned "Clean-up our History Day at Woodlawn Cemetery," on Saturday, October 19 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at the cemetery (4661 Benning Road SE). Most of the time will be spent on cleanup, but there will be brief opening remarks by Norton, Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander, Lonnie G. Bunch, Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Major General Errol R. Schwartz, Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard, Steve Shulman, Executive Director of Cultural Tourism DC, and Dr. Vincent Hill, University of the District of Columbia Mortuary Science Program Director.
The kick-off also will initiate a volunteer sign-up for scheduled clean-ups every Saturday, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., until November 23. The weather forecast for this Saturday is 68 degrees with nearly no chance of rain.
The guided community cleanup of the historic cemetery will include instructions on equipment by National Guard volunteers. Cleanup volunteers will be working in an area that has been cleared of heavy brush by the National Guard and Woodlawn volunteers. Cleanup volunteers will be asked to help rake, pick and bag debris, weeds, shrubbery and leaves around grave sites of notable African Americans and on cemetery grounds. If possible, volunteers are asked to bring gloves, but the work to be performed is not unlike basic garden work.
"With good fall weather expected, our initial ‘Clean-up Our History Day' is tailor-made for residents to join us at Woodlawn Cemetery," said Norton. "We will begin the work of restoring this historic landmark and at the same time we will be honoring and learning about distinguished African Americans during one of the most important periods in African American history," said Norton.
The cemetery is the final resting place for more than 36,000 African Americans, including such notable individuals as Blanche K. Bruce, the first African American U.S. Senator; Mercer Langston, the first African American Member of Congress from the state of Virginia, the first dean of Howard University Law School, and the first African American President of Virginia State University; John Willis Menard, the first African American elected to Congress; Elnora Dickerson Davis, the wife of Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr., the first African American general officer in the United States Army and mother of Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the first African American general in the United States Air Force; and many other distinguished Americans.
The Woodlawn Cemetery was placed on the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites in 1991 and on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. It is located in Ward 7 on 22.5 acres. The daily operations of the cemetery are entrusted to the Woodlawn Cemetery Perpetual Care Association, which is comprised mostly of volunteers who have loved ones buried there. Norton asked D.C. National Guard volunteers to help the Association and they have been working diligently to develop the cleanup plan to restore this sacred site. Norton noted that their current efforts go beyond what anyone had a right to expect from volunteers, including digitizing an aerial map and grid layout of the cemetery.
Published: October 17, 2013