This is the sixth of a series
of 12 profiles that chronicle Alexandria's Living
Legends, people who are today's history makers. Living
Legends of Alexandria is a joint project of the Rotary
Club of Alexandria and the Alexandria Gazette Packet.
Conceived and directed by Nina Tisara, it is designed as
an ongoing project to identify and honor those
individuals whose vision and dedication make a tangible
difference to the quality of life in Alexandria. For
more information or to nominate a Legend for next year's
program, visit a
www.tisaraphoto.com/legends.
Lillie
Finklea and Louise Massoud were both born in Washington,
D.C., within a year of each other, before the Civil
Rights Movement and before the Wilson Bridge connected
Virginia with Maryland, but while a small parcel of land
in Alexandria was still marked as an African-American
cemetery.
Lillie moved to Alexandria as a child
and Louise moved to Arlington. The area boomed following
the Second World War. Roads became busier, and the
Eisenhower Interstate system created a grid across the
country and a loop around the nation's capital. A new
bridge spanning the Potomac was planned, and
entrepreneurs explored building motels and service
stations to accommodate the influx of residents and
visitors.
The crossroads in Alexandria where the
George Washington Memorial Parkway met Washington Street
would now reach across the Beltway. After a proposal to
build a hotel there was thwarted, the small parcel of
land became the site of a Flying A gas station.
MORE THAN 40 years after the Wilson
Bridge was finished, plans called for expansion. Without
question it would greatly affect the south side of
historic Old Town Alexandria. Neighbors were concerned
about noise, pollution, traffic, and impact on natural
and historic resources. Lillie and Louise, both now
living on the south side, shared those concerns. Then in
January 1997, they read a Washington Post article about
the tragic history of the small parcel of land where the
gas station and later an office building were standing.
The site had been Freedmen's Cemetery, a burial
ground established by the military during the Civil War
occupation of Alexandria. Housing, diet and sanitation
during the war were poor, and thousands of African
Americans flocking to Alexandria to seek freedom were
faced with deteriorating conditions. Hundreds of them
died, and in 1864, the U.S. Army established a cemetery
for them on the southern edge of town, directly across
from St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery.
Over the next
four years, more than 1,800 freedmen, or contrabands as
they were often termed by military officials, were
buried there. The superintendent documented the names,
ages and, when available, other details in a written
record. In 1868, burials ceased and the federal
government abandoned the cemetery. Confederate loyalists
in Alexandria tried to put the defeat of the war behind
them but memorialized the sacrifices of their brothers
in gray. African American residents, many who had been
born in slavery, made their homes, found work, built
churches and schools, and struggled to find family
members who had been sold away.
THE
WOODEN MARKERS that had memorialized the dead at
Freedmen's Cemetery decomposed. A brick company hauled
away clay soil and compromised the graves. In the early
20th century, the George Washington Memorial Parkway was
built over part of the graveyard. The Beltway
construction destroyed the southern edge of the
cemetery. And although a 1939 tax map clearly identified
the "Negro Cemetery," that did not keep a gas station
from shattering countless more graves. With time, the
memory of the cemetery faded until it was indeed
forgotten.
Alexandria historian Michael Miller
had re-discovered the existence of the site, and
Virginia historian Wesley Pippenger recovered the
cemetery superintendent's burial records and transcribed
the names. Lillie and Louise wondered, how could this
cemetery have been so violated while St. Mary's remained
so well maintained?
Lillie appealed to the
African-American churches in Alexandria but received a
limited a response. She contacted City staff who were
supportive but couldn' do much since the gas station
and office building were now private property. She
pleaded with City officials who were facing many
problems posed by the bridge, and she continued to tell
the story of Freedmen's Cemetery to anyone who would
listen.
In 1997, as plans for the new Wilson
Bridge emerged, Lillie and Louise not only wanted to
ensure that it would not further impact what remained of
the cemetery, they wanted to see the site memorialized
as the sacred ground it had once been. They both had
grown up with an appreciation for their ancestors and as
children, remembered visiting the cemeteries where their
family members rested. On Memorial Day, they left
flowers on the graves of their ancestors, so Louise
suggested that they do the same thing at Freedmen's
Cemetery.
In May of 1997, they hosted a special
tribute on Memorial Day at the cemetery, a wreath-laying
event that helped publicly identify the site as a
cemetery. Two members of the Alexandria City Council
joined them, and a proclamation was issued declaring the
last week of May a "Week of Remembrance of the Freedmen's Cemetery." Interest from other Alexandria
officials grew, and Lillie and Louise expanded their
efforts. They had nothing to lose and never hesitated to
ask for support.
THEY FORMED the Friends
of Freedmen's Cemetery, and each Memorial Day, they
returned to the cemetery to place flowers at the site.
More City Council members joined them, and soon some
churches and civic associations made donations to the
group. The local branch of the NAACP showed interest.
The media started to take notice and public awareness
increased through their news coverage.
Lillie,
Louise and the rest of the Friends secured a grant from
the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities to build a
Web site and to produce a pamphlet. They put up a small
sign, illustrated with a hopeful rainbow, on the chain
link fence between the Beltway and the gas station. They
raised money for a Virginia historical highway marker
and continued to hold annual memorial tributes with an
official proclamation for a week of remembrance.
The City of Alexandria had filed suit to stop
the proposed Wilson Bridge expansion and when they
settled, it was only after assurance that historic
resources would be protected. Lillie and Louise wondered
if that would include Freedmen's Cemetery.
Archaeological investigations determined that graves
still remained and many were likely intact. Federal
funds could be used to protect the site, but how much
could be done with a gas station on top of so much of
the cemetery?
Bridge construction began and
Lillie, Louise and their neighbors saw the steady parade
of dump trucks and heard the deafening pile driving.
Both women worked closely with City archaeologists and
with staff at the Alexandria Black History Museum, which
opened an exhibition about the cemetery. Stories in the
Alexandria Gazette, the Washington Post and the
Washington Times captured the hearts of people in
Alexandria and beyond.
The City determined that
mitigation funds could be used to save Freedmen's
Cemetery. In 2007, the City purchased the office
building and the gas station and tore down both
structures. In June, the site was officially rededicated
as a cemetery and City archaeologists worked the rest of
the year to document remaining grave shafts, discovering
nearly 500. Lillie and Louise were appointed to serve on
a steering committee to select a winning design from a
public competition that yielded dozens of entries from
across the country. This fall, the City of Alexandria
announced the winning concept for the Alexandria
Contrabands and Freedmen's Cemetery Memorial.
Lillie and Louise set out to protect, preserve
and restore the cemetery, and their mission is nearly
complete. For being the voice of approximately 1,800
once-forgotten African Americans, many who experienced
only months or weeks of freedom before their deaths,
Lillie Finklea and Louise Massoud are indeed Living
Legends.
By Amy Bertsch
Office of
Historic Alexandria