IX. African American Cemeteries
Cemeteries
Because the cemetery surveys were started in the 1980s, the street names and numbers may have changed. Check Google maps for more information. Supervisory districts are listed in BOLD.
- Cub Run Memorial Gardens in Centreville: end of Naylor Road, Sully
- Sons and Daughters of Liberty at The Pine Ridge Park 340l Woodburn Road Annandale, Mason
- Sons and Daughters of Liberty Orchard Street Vienna, Hunter Mill
- Ford, Ellis, Simms Cemetery 1011 Seneca Road in Great Falls, Dranesville
- African American cemetery by Guinea Road at intersection with Little River Turnpike- Ilda community, Braddock
- Pleasant Valley Memorial Park 8420 Little River Turnpike Annandale, Mason [see Guinea Road/ Ilda community reburials]
- Jackson Family Cemetery on Burke Presbyterian Church property 5690 Leather Way Burke Braddock
- Parker/ Green family cemetery (Blue Topaz Lane - west side of Hope Park in Centreville) Sully
- Robinson, Pearson, Hicks family cemetery 8100 Wolftrap Rd Vienna (near Joyce Kilmer Intermediate) Providence
- West End Cemetery 500 Lewis Street Vienna Hunter Mill
- Peake Family 815 Fordson Road Gum Spring Mount Vernon
- Neal family cemetery Sutton Road Vienna behind townhouses under development Providence
- Williams Family Cemetery 8327 Wolf Trap Road Vienna Hunter Mill
- Harris Family 7700 Bull Run Drive Bull Run Regional Park, Centreville, southeast of soccer fields Sully
- Jermantown Cemetery south side of route 50 in Fairfax City
- Pearson Family Cemetery entrance is beside 6424 Lake Meadow Drive Burke pathway next to house leads to cemetery in back Springfield
- Snowden and Bethlehem Cemetery 7836 Fordson Road Mount Vernon
- Coleman Cemetery Collingwood Road near Bethlehem Baptist Church Providence
- Robinson Cemetery on Robinson Lane Centreville Sully
- Clifton Union Cemetery 7348 Clifton Road Springfield
- Old “Colored” Graveyard 11401 Lee Highway (WPA report 1937) Sully
- Grayson Family Cemetery formerly near Huntington Metro Station Blunt Ln. Alexandria Enoch Grayson (Colored) purchased a 9-acre parcel near the current Huntington Metro Station in 1870 (Db L4:274). His family remained on the land until his son, Shirley Grayson, sold the property in 1925 (Db M9:534). Death Certificates and Disinterrment Permits on file with the District of Columbia Dept. of Health state that the remains of thirteen people were removed from this site in 1947 and reburied in Woodlawn Cemetery (Washington, DC) Mount Vernon
Church cemeteries
- Laurel Grove Baptist Church 6834 Beulah Street Franconia Franconia
- Cartersville Baptist 1727 Hunter Mill Rd Centreville Hunter Mill
- Mount Pleasant Baptist Church 6477 Lincolnia Road Alexandria Mason
- Pleasant Baptist Church 13614 Coppermine Rd Herndon Dranesville
- Clark's Chapel 7520 Rolling Road Springfield Mount Vernon
- First Baptist Church Chesterbrook, 1740 Kirby Road McLean Dranesville
- Shiloh Baptist Church 10226 Gunston Road, Lorton Mount Vernon
- Shiloh Baptist Church, 1331 Spring Hill Road McLean Old and New Section Dranesville
- Frying Pan Meeting House and Burial Grounds 2615 Centreville Rd Herndon Hunter Mill
- Little Zion Baptist Church - Pearson Cemetery 10018 Burke Lake Road Burke Braddock
- Second Baptist Church on 6626 Costner Road and Annandale Rd Providence
- Pleasant Grove Church and Cemetery on 8741 Lewinsville Road McLean Dranesville
- Clifton Primitive Baptist Church 7200 Main Street Clifton Springfield
- Little Bethel Church Cemetery 10255 Zion Drive Burke Braddock
- Pleasant Grove Church, 8741 Lewinsville Road McLean Dranesville
- Woodlawn United Methodist Church 7730 Fordson Rd. Alexandria Mount Vernon
- Galloway United Methodist Church 2750 Annandale Road Falls Church Providence
- Moriah Baptist Church terminus of Milstead Rd Great Falls Dranesville
- Bethlehem Baptist Church Collingwood and Riverside Drives Alexandria Mount Vernon
- Chantilly Baptist Church 14312 Chantilly Baptist Lane Chantilly Sully
- Ilda Methodist Church 8717 Little River Turnpike Annandale A 1937 deed mentions burials on the church property Mason
- Cub Run Primitive Baptist Church 15602 Compton Rd. Centreville Sully
SEARCHING CEMETERIES AND BURIAL GROUNDS OF THE ENSLAVED
While some had a documented and/or a physical presence at the time a survey was completed decades ago, the site’s location may be without a current correct address, often due to development. The physical remains such as gravestones, fences, physical environs may no longer exist. There are also sites that simply are identified through oral history accounts or family tradition, but are without any recorded documents, references to actual location, or known archaeological evidence.
Online research of county cemeteries is available on the Fairfax County Library website.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library_cemeteries/
Examples:
- Orrison Slave Cemetery is reported in a backyard of a home on Permit Ct., Kingston Chase Subdivision, about 200 ft west of the Orrison Family Cemetery in Herndon. Dranesville District.
- In the Annandale area, there are reported to be slave cemeteries associated with Ossian Hall and Oak Hill. The slave cemeteries are Robertson Family on Glen Park Road, Stuart, Custis Family on Royston Road and Unknown Name on Hogan Lake Place.
Braddock District
- A cemetery for the enslaved was established on the Ravensworth plantation. When the development of the industrial park on Port Royal Road began, a Ravensworth Farm resident retrieved a portion of the iron fence that had surrounded the slave cemetery. It was unknown as to whether the human remains had been removed.
Researching cemeteries/burial grounds
When researching for burial grounds of the enslaved in Fairfax County, one may use this website. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library_cemeteries/ One can search by a person’s name or name of a cemetery. One may add a search filter by type: slave, Black, unmarked, unnamed, “colored, or “Negro.”
There are challenges when trying to locate the burial grounds: In doing research of land deeds, one finds that there are no descriptions of burial grounds included in the deed. Also, when persons visit the property, they find no visible physical evidence of a burial ground.
In the past when surveys were completed by visiting each cemetery/burial ground, the location of the cemetery had no address, so the address of the home nearest to the cemetery/burial ground might be included with the description.
- Sources: Fairfax County Public Library, cemetery survey online: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library_cemeteries/
- Fairfax County Cemetery Preservation Association www.honorfairfaxcemeteries.org
Volunteers for Freedom: Black Civil War Soldiers buried in a segregated portion of Alexandria National Cemetery Part 1
- The article relates how approximately 280 African American soldiers were buried in a small corner of Alexandria National Cemetery.
- Repository: Historic Alexandria Quarterly Fall 1998
- https://media.alexandriava.gov/docs-archives/historic/haq/historicalexandriaquarterly1998fall.pdf