Douglass Cemetery
FOLKLORE & ANCESTORS
What is an ancestor? Our ancestors are the people who came before us and now reach out from the distant past. We honor them by remembering their lives and history. Sharing their stories and how they dealt with the human condition. The oral history and traditions they passed on create the folklore we share to sustain our customs and heritage.
The Hope of Remembrance
My name is William Patterson. I am a second-generation Washingtonian. I live in DC
and enjoy discovering the Nation's Capital undiscovered historical and cultural aspects. I went to the University of the District of Columbia as an undergraduate and majored in Urban Sustainability. I am an environmentalist and live by the creed of preservation, conservation, and minimalism towards finite resources.
I have a master’s degree from George Mason University in Folklore. Folklore
encompasses many different fabrics of culture. The practice of a folklorist is the sustainability of relevant cultural expression and behavior. I aim to combine the two disciplines as Folklore and Environmental Sustainability are interdisciplinary and cannot exist without each other.
As a Folklorist, it is my duty to document and describe relevant cultural practices. Relevant cultural practices are cultural expressions (Lore) created by people (Folk) that still exist and have not ceased. Many people understand this to be what is called folklore. There are oral traditions and culturally expressive forms passed on by various communities and groups. These cultural expressions help us navigate through the twists and turns in our life journey. Many consider cemeteries as resting places for loved ones, friends, family, and acquaintances. The deceased secures a final resting place of peace for the soul that probably experienced certain hardships from the human condition.
In harmed communities, this is a place to go and empathize with the life cycle. In most cemeteries in America, there is green grass, bushes, trees, flowers grown and brought there by the griever, and usually a small, medium, or large tombstone. The custom of visiting cemeteries can be viewed through two lenses that intertwine as one to bring relief, comfort, and a spiritual connection to the people left behind who care for the departed soul.
The first is tangible culture, something you can touch and see. This would be the tombstone created to leave a mark and often a brief description of their timeline, and sometimes words written in adoration and remembrance of the individual. In the afterlife, their old, restless hearts run towards tranquility. The tombstone is considered material culture, a relic that gives the person an anchor to the person whose body is beneath the monument, but the spirit has departed the remains. The second is intangible culture. This is the ritual of visiting the grave site on anniversaries like birthdays, the day they died or were buried.
Why is this a intangible culture? Because you cannot see or touch it because it is invisible and untouchable, but you can feel and sense it. It helps the mourner grieve the loss and stay connected to the essence of the person they cared for by having a place that matters to commune with them. The cultural practice of visiting a cemetery and spending time with the deceased is not only a ritual and ceremony that goes back to the beginning of human existence. Equally important is its function to the person or group participating in this cultural behavior. It is a way to continue oral historical traditions such as sacred ceremonies performed by First Nation people and African Americans who have ceremonies to remember the dead before laying their remains so as not to be disturbed in the earth they were born on. The culture I am describing is called folklore, which is the passing on of oral traditions to the next generation. This means the verbal transmission of the previous generation to the next of ceremonies, rituals, habits, and knowledge that demonstrate expressive culture through history, people, groups, and communities.
These customs connect the physical body with the spiritual and create transcending human experiences with moments that nurture us to maintain sanity and a drive to push forward and continue to live.
Lastly, the person who carved the tombstone is a stone mason who must learn their craft from a master stone mason orally. Depending on their work, the one who by hand makes the tombstone aesthetically pleasing with a human inscription to further push the oral traditions and history of folklore for others to resonate with and possibly have the hope of remembrance. The craft of stone masonry is therapeutic for the creator and the person who uses the tombstone to remember. It is another vital cultural expression that helps us accept and deal with the human condition.
Douglass Cemetery the Reflective Mirror
Douglass's cemetery was established due to segregation, which did not permit African Americans to be buried in the same burial sites as White Alexandrians. This an outward sign that even in death, there is a hierarchy, and living or dead African Americans were considered inferior. The cemetery was the final resting place for family members to be buried near each other, and it is estimated that 2,000 people are buried there, but only 700 have grave markings. The descendants of the ancestors buried in Douglass cemetery are now utilizing their combined resources with the support of the City of Alexandria and the Office of Historic Alexandria (OHA) to rectify the neglect of the cemetery and right the wrongs of many of the injustices these African Americans experienced while living.
This past year the Douglass Community History Initiative was launched to preserve and showcase the history of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Cemetery. This initiative is a collaboration between City staff and a Descendant Advisory Group, made up of representatives from the Friends of Douglass group. Douglass cemetery was constructed in 1895 when the orator, abolitionist, violinist, and self-taught French speaker Fredrick Douglass died. In remembrance of his accomplishments and duty to America and African Americans, the cemetery was named after him, and a monument was erected to mark the community anchor of African American contributions and relevance in Alexandria, Virginia. Above all, we must conceptualize the cemetery name and the monument built inside it.
Frederick Douglass, once an enslaved man, said many things that painted a clear picture of not only the past but the present-day realities of the gap that remains in race relations in America. Fedrick Douglass had this to say: “Though the colored man is no longer subject to be bought and sold, he is still surrounded by an adverse sentiment which fetters all his movements. In his downward course, he meets with no resistance, but his course upward is resented and resisted at every step of his progress. If he comes in ignorance, rags, and wretchedness, he conforms to the popular belief of his character, and in that character he is welcome. But if he shall come as a gentleman, a scholar, and a statesman, he is hailed as a contradiction to the national faith concerning his race, and his coming is resented as impudence.
In one case he may provoke contempt and derision, but in the other, he is an affront to pride and provokes malice. Let him do what he will, there is at present, therefore, no escape for him. The color line meets him everywhere, and in a measure shuts him out from all respectable and profitable trades and callings.”
Systemic Racism in America produces visible and invisible disparities for African Americans and other minorities. In the case of Douglass Cemetery, history shows you how an African American cemetery goes unkept. While the neighboring White cemeteries right next to it are in pristine condition. However, through death, we observe the unfortunate mirrors of the effects of these racial disparities.
The cemetery is right next to a Condominium built in the 1990’s which might be the reason for the over-flooding in the cemetery. There needs to be drainage for kitchens and bathrooms and these amenities would take precedence over the care of a Black cemetery. Many of the people who live there walk their dogs in the cemetery and do not pick up their pet poop. An outward sign of disrespect for the deceased and African American culture. The goal of the Initiative is to center descendants throughout the process by collaborating with the Descendant Advisory Group to inform every aspect of the Initiative.
City staff are providing resources and support to complete oral history recordings, collect material objects, and use the collections to showcase the history of Douglass to the public. While this Initiative continues to be worked on, the city is also working on the physical restoration and preservation of Douglass. Historic preservation is vital to maintaining the structures that convey the material culture of the past. It is a significant marker for the communities and people who lived there.
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