[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 147 (Wednesday, October 16, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1523]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




RECOGNIZING WOODLAWN CEMETERY AND CELEBRATING CLEAN-UP OUR HISTORY DAY 
                          AT WOODLAWN CEMETERY

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 16, 2013

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of 
Representatives to join me in recognizing the historic Woodlawn 
Cemetery and in celebrating Clean-up our History Day at Woodlawn 
Cemetery in the District of Columbia on Saturday, October 19, 2013, at 
10 a.m.
  Woodlawn Cemetery is the final resting place for many prominent 
African Americans, among them, Blanche K. Bruce, the first African 
American U.S. Senator; Mercer Langston, the first African American 
President of Virginia State University, the first dean of Howard 
University Law School and 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 36,000 African Americans buried 
at Woodlawn, including ordinary citizens but also many of the most 
distinguished African Americans of the 19th and the early 20th 
centuries.
  Located in Southeast Washington, DC, Woodlawn Cemetery, for good 
reasons, has been on both the District of Columbia's Inventory of 
Historic Sites and the National Register of Historic Places since the 
early 1990s. The daily operations of the cemetery are entrusted to the 
Woodlawn Cemetery Perpetual Care Association, but most who work with 
the association as volunteers 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.
  This treasured site needs our help in the same way that a 
congressional resolution aided in getting assistance from citizens and 
from volunteers from the armed forces for the Congressional Cemetery 
two decades ago. The Woodlawn Cemetery Perpetual Care Association, 
along with DC National Guard volunteers, has developed a cleanup plan 
to restore this historic site. On Saturday, October 19, 2013, we will 
celebrate the first Clean-up our History Day at Woodlawn Cemetery, 3900 
Benning Road, SE, at 10 a.m. Joining us for the clean-up will be Yvette 
Alexander, Ward 7 Councilmember; Major General Errol R. Schwartz, 
Commanding General of the District of Columbia National Guard; Lonnie 
Bunch, Founding Director of the National Museum of African American 
History and Culture; Dr. Vincent Hill, University of the District of 
Columbia Mortuary Science Program Director; and supporting 
organizations and residents from all over the city.
  I ask the House to join me as we recognize the volunteers from the 
District of Columbia National Guard, Woodlawn Cemetery Perpetual Care 
Association, and families of loved ones interred at Woodlawn for their 
participation in the kickoff of the cleanup of historic Woodlawn 
Cemetery as we begin an effort to restore the cemetery to its rightful 
place on the historical map for the benefit of families, historians, 
scholars and visitors, and cast light on one of the most important 
periods in African American history.

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