For Freedmen, Long-Due Respect

To build the cemetery, the U.S. military seized land that belonged to Francis L. Smith, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's attorney, who had fled with his family at the onset of the war. "It was the edge of town," Cressey said. "There was nothing on it."

People continued to be buried there until at least 1869. In 1917, Smith's daughter deeded the land to the bishop of Richmond. The wooden shingles that marked the graves soon deteriorated and disappeared. In 1946, the plot passed into private hands. In 1955, a gas station was built on it.

To investigate what still lay beneath, a team of archaeologists cut away cross sections of asphalt. In some places, they found evidence of graves right away; in others, the bodies had been removed during construction projects or land grading. So far, 123 grave sites have been located; the team does not expect to find all the sites.

But the archaeologists do have the names of every person buried there, thanks to cemetery managers who recorded them in a ledger. For the rededication, 1,800 candlelit paper-bag luminarias, each with the name, age and date of death of a person buried there, are being hand-decorated by the community. Schoolchildren have decorated many of the bags. Many adults also have come forward, including war veterans and groups from New York and Baltimore.

"It has generated a lot of community interest," said Ruth Reeder, an educator at the Alexandria Archaeology Museum, which will host a community luminaria-decorating workshop Saturday; another workshop will be at the Alexandria Black History Museum on May 5.

Photographs of the luminarias will be posted at http://www.freedmenscemetery.org.

After the gas station and a two-story office building behind it are demolished later this spring, the city will have a design competition for the memorial, slated to be completed by 2010. No bodies will be disturbed during the process.

Mayor William D. Euille cited the contributions of freed slaves to the city's development. "A lot of homes and buildings in Alexandria were constructed by freedmen," he said, adding that many residents have told him they were surprised to hear about the cemetery. "That's what makes us unique . . . that we have a lot of history here that we're able to preserve."

The workshop will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Alexandria Archaeology Museum, in the Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union St., Third Floor, Studio 327. The event is free.