An investigation is underway after vandalism and burnt items were found at a little girl’s grave in a historic Black cemetery in D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood after Juneteenth.
Nannie, the gravestone says. We don’t know her last name and we don’t know the circumstances of her death, only that it came early in her life, just a week before her eighth birthday.
Lisa Fager said she feels connected to the child, who died in 1856 and was buried at Mount Zion Cemetery, a burial ground for enslaved people, freedmen and other early Georgetown residents. For the past 20 years or so, people have left toys and trinkets at the child’s grave.
Sometime late on Juneteenth, someone brought fire to her resting place. Fager, who chronicles Georgetown’s Black history, said it happened after a Juneteenth ceremony. She returned the next day and found the desecration.
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“My first reaction was just tears because you feel like you know someone,” she said.
Nannie’s grave was singled out, even in the relative neglect of the cemetery compared to the upkeep and care given to the adjacent Oak Hill Cemetery.
“Nannie was something that we celebrated, a young girl that people loved, and so to see someone desecrate her grave, I take it personal,” Fager said.
The life of Mount Zion Cemetery parallels the experience of the earliest residents of the city of Georgetown. Early on, it was a separate entity and steeped in segregation. There were likely 1,000 people buried there.
“When are we gonna get peace? If our ancestors can’t get peace in the grave, it’s like death reflects life. This place is a reflection of our treatment as African Americans,” Fager said.
Vito Maggiolo, DC Fire and EMS spokesperson, said fire investigators were called to the scene after the burned property was found. "The cause is listed as undetermined," he said.
