[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 18 (Friday, February 3, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E139]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RECOGNIZING WOODLAND CEMETERY

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, February 3, 2012

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of 
Representatives to join me in recognizing the historic Woodland 
Cemetery located in our nation's capital, one of the only remaining 
19th centaury African American burial sites.
  Woodland Cemetery was established as the successor to Graceland 
Cemetery, which decided to relocate due to the imminent expansion of 
the District of Columbia. Woodland cemetery initially interred the more 
than 6,000 African Americans who were buried at Graceland, but as time 
went on, the location became more desirable for prominent figures in 
the D.C. African American community. The cemetery is the final resting 
place for such notable individuals as, Blanche K. Bruce, the first 
African American U.S. Senator; Mercer Langston, the first African 
American President of Virginia State University and the first dean of 
Howard University Law School and also the first African American Member 
of Congress from the state of Virginia; and John Willis Menard, the 
first African American elected to Congress. There are also many other 
distinguished people, who made our country what it is today, buried on 
this hallowed site
  Woodland Cemetery remained a highly desired location for African 
Americans to be interred until the 1970s. In the early 1990s Woodland 
earned the distinct honor of being placed on both the District of 
Columbia's Inventory of Historic Sites and the National Register of 
Historic Places. Today, the daily operations of the cemetery are 
entrusted to the Woodlawn Cemetery Perpetual Care Association, which is 
comprised of mostly volunteers who have loved ones buried there. The 
main focus of the association is to preserve the cemetery and to raise 
funds to renovate and restore prominence to this sacred site.
  I ask the House to join me as we recognize the historic value of this 
hallowed place not only in the month of February but year round.

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