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Surveying An Exposed History of Black Lives
As they carefully rake through a grid of the old black cemetery at Pierce Community Park, Howard students Kristin Baker, above front, and Chinyere Knight, left, examine a stone bird that anthropologist Mark E. Mack, center, found.
(Photos By Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)
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On a recent Sunday at the park, students Ikechukwu Mesumbe, 23, and Vyron Alexander, 29, cordoned a 10-meter square of land to examine. Layne and Miesha Hegwood, 23, both anthropology majors, combed through the area uphill of the trail. Alexander raked soggy leaves and tossed aside cans, twist tops and a kitchen knife.
Mack and Mesumbe waded through brush and poison ivy below the path. Kristin Baker, 20, the only junior on the team, stooped occasionally to check that a rock was not a foot bone.
The first square required nearly 1 1/2 hours of labor, and the park stretches, square after square, for four acres. The work, said Mesumbe, gives him a deeper appreciation for the effort archaeological research entails.
By late morning, the team was ready to document the first find of the day. Adult skeletal remains lay amid the gnarled roots of a black locust tree. The stained bones could be mistaken for sticks by an untrained eye, but Mack pointed out femurs, humeri, a tibia and an ulna. The decaying wall of a wooden casket was also visible, tucked under the base of the tree.
Mack and Hegwood set up a theodolite, a surveying tool that helps them pinpoint the location of the grave.
The group likely will finish the survey in late spring and issue a report with a map, descriptions of artifacts and remains, information gleaned from archival research and suggestions for the future of the site, Mack said.
Mack said he would prefer that the city leave the remains in their original resting place and fill in the eroded areas. He said he would like to see the cemetery's history integrated into school curriculum, an opinion echoed by several community members.
A commemorative garden or educational signs could enhance the park as well, said Mindy Moretti, president of Friends of Walter Pierce Park and an advisory neighborhood commissioner.
Coleman, the nonprofit Parks & People director, would like the park to become a key stop along an expanded Potomac Heritage Trail.
The park's history already is arousing interest. A historical tour several weeks ago drew more than 70 people, and the Kalorama Citizens' Association has been publicizing and supporting the survey. Student team members say pedestrians who stumble across the survey team often have heard of the cemetery.
Yet, the work needed to understand the site more fully is far from finished.
About noon on that recent Sunday, Hegwood, one of the Howard students, wrote the details of the remains on a dry-erase board and placed it beside the find. Mack put down a northward-pointing spade and measuring stick for reference. Hegwood snapped photos of the bones and casket, which the team soon covered again with dirt.
Then, Mack and the students picked up their rakes and moved on.
Another square of earth awaited.
