Center Section Celebrating 58 Years - Vol. 58, No. 37 • June 29 - July 5, 2023
Items Burned at the Gravestone of a Young Girl at Historic Black Cemetery
June 2023. Volume 9. Issue 6.
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By Kayla Benjamin WI Climate & Environment Reporter
5 Community members have brought dozens of toys to the grave of a 7-year-old girl after items left for her over the course of a decade were burned the day after Juneteenth. (Kayla Benjamin / The Washington Informer)
Bowser Admin Fetes Cedar Hill Medical Center Topping Out
When Patrick Tisdale talks about the people buried at the Mt. Zion and Female Union Band Society cemetery, where he has volunteered for more than three years, he often refers to the names on headstones as if they are old friends. He begins a story about the grave of a 7-year-old who died in 1856, “When I first met Nannie…” Other visitors to the historic Black cemeteries in Georgetown have traced family ancestors laid to rest at the site, and Tisdale is far from alone in feeling connected to the people interred there. That’s especially true for Nannie,
Historic Tour Through NANNIE Page 42 Montgomery County Takes Guests Back in Time By Micha Green WI Managing Editor
By James Wright WI Staff Writer
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, project partners, health care providers, political leaders and residents celebrated the topping out of the Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health facility on the St. Elizabeths East Campus in Ward 8 on Thursday. Bowser and guests signed the facility’s final steel beam in the hospital’s frame to mark a critical portion of the 5 Mayor Muriel Bowser, project partners, healthcare providers, workers, and project completion and to celebrate members of the community celebrated the topping out of the Cedar Hill Regional
CEDAR HILL Page 5
5 Historian Anthony Cohen tells tour participants about the history of the 40- acre Button Farm, he founded and runs at Seneca Creek State Park in Montgomery County. (Robert R. Roberts/The Washington Informer)
Medical Center GW Health facility on June 22, at the St. Elizabeths East Campus. (Ja'Mon Jackson/The Washington Informer)
When dozens of people boarded buses at Allen Chapel AME Church in Southeast, D.C., they began a trip, not only to Montgomery County, Maryland, but also embarked on a journey back in time. Participating in the Washington Informer’s African American Heritage Tour on Saturday, June 24, allowed for immersive experiences that transported guests from modern times all the way to the late 18th century. Featuring special appearances from innovative historians and local leaders, the tour offered engaging and didactic stories that provided insight to some of the challenges and achievements Montgomery County and Black
Celebrating 58 years. Your credible and trusted source for Black news and information.
communities face to this day. “It’s not lost on us that things like the national anthem, Pledge of Allegiance, ‘liberty and justice,’ and all that stuff– are kind of meaningful for some people, and kind of meaningless for other people,” said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D), during the tour’s stop at Glen Echo– a place with its own loaded and complicated civil rights history. With stops at Boyds Negro School, Button Farm Living History Center, Glen Echo and Josiah
TOUR Page 40