‘No longer forgotten’: Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial in Alexandria recognized nationally

Valerie Bonk | vbonk@wtop.com

July 24, 2021, 10:56 AM

A cemetery dedication in Historic Alexandria Saturday morning was an important step in efforts to honor civil rights history in Virginia.

A wreath was lain at the site of the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial as the area celebrated its inclusion in the National Park Service African American Civil Rights Network.

“This site helps tell the story of an important and often neglected piece of our nation’s past,” said archeologist Elizabeth Moore with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

The cemetery was established in 1864 and is the first site in Virginia, and one of the oldest sites ever, to be added to the network.

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Local site added to Civil Rights Network: Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial first location chosen in Virginia

July 8, 2021

By Katherine Hapgood | khapgood@alextimes.com

The work of a citizen-led effort has finally come to fruition as the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial will be dedicated as a new site to the African American Civil Rights Network on July 24. The memorial will be the first site recognized in Virginia as part of the national network.

The citizen-led crusade for “preserving, commemorating and researching” of the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial was led by Lillie Franklea and Louise Massoud, who founded The Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery in 1997, after archaeological remote sensing revealed the presence of more than 1,700 graves of “contrabands” and freed men, women and children in 1996, according to the Friends.

This increased attention to the cemetery was brought by improvements that were supposed to be made to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, as this remote sensing in 1996 was used prior to drawing up plans for the bridge, Eleanor Breen, the city’s archaeologist, said.

While Franklea and Massoud led the charge for proper recognition and dedication for the cemetery, the Alexandria Archaeological Commission, the nation’s oldest commission of its kind, led the initiative for the memorial to be recognized by the National Park Service as part of its African American Civil Rights Network.

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