Project Harmony

In 1959, Columbian Harmony Cemetery, Washington DC’s most prominent burial grounds for Americans of African Descent was sold. While the remains of the 37,000 interred were relocated to the larger National Harmony Memorial Park in nearby Landover, Maryland, the headstones, monuments and grave markers dumped along the banks of the Potomac River as makeshift riprap. 

The HASAN team is working directly with the descendant community and the state of Virginia to recover, research and share the history of these gravestones, the people and community they represent. Legible stones recovered from the Potomac River are being transported to the National Harmony Memorial Park in Maryland where they will be thoughtfully formed integrated into a memorial wall and footpath. The story of Project Harmony is being documented for a feature length film Written in Stone.