Columbian Harmony Cemetery Archives

KING GEORGE, VA - AUGUST 23: Gravestones sit on pallets during a ceremonial transfer Monday, August 23, 2021 at Caledon State Park in King George, Va. The headstones were from Columbian Harmony Cemetery a historic African American burial ground in Washington, D.C. that was dug up and relocated in 1960 to Maryland. The discarded gravestones were rediscovered by kayakers in 2009. (Photo by Julia Rendleman for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Politics

Gravestones Returned to Honor Historic Black Cemetery

Published on August 25, 2021August 13, 2025

By Emma Tucker and Laura Ly Five years ago, Virginia State Sen. Richard Stuart stumbled upon a two-mile stretch of erosion control filled with gravestones along the riverfront of the property he had just purchased in King George County. Historians revealed that the gravestones once belonging to a historic African American cemetery in 1960 were