In Washington, Black cemeteries suffer decay, erasure

Georgetown, one of present-day Washington’s most expensive neighborhoods, used to be a hub of Black life in the US capital.

Little remains of this history since gentrification began in the 1930s, but remnants of its African American roots can be found in cemeteries that have suffered from decades of disrepair.

The Black Georgetown Foundation is working to preserve the memories of the estimated eight-to-ten thousand people buried in two…