KING GEORGE, Va. — Dozens of headstones from a historic African American cemetery in the nation’s capital that were used as erosion control along a Virginia shoreline are being relocated to a Maryland memorial garden.
Officials marked the transfer of the first 55 headstones to Maryland on Monday.
They'll be part of a memorial garden honoring the 37,000 people buried at the original cemetery.
The Columbian Harmony Cemetery was the most prominent burial site for African Americans in Washington, but it was moved in the 1960s to make room for development and the gravestones were sold or given away.
After the gravestones were discovered in 2016, an effort was launched to return them to a proper memorial site.
