Arts
Uncovering Alexandria’s Freedmen’s Cemetery


An Interview with Char McCargo Bah
By Shenise Foster
Black History Month is a time to reflect and honor the contributions of African Americans in a way that is not done on a consistent basis throughout the year. As a native Alexandrian, a 2014 Alexandria Living Legend and a renowned genealogist, Char McCargo Bah has made it her mission to discover and document stories of Alexandria’s African American community. Here we discuss her second book, Alexandria’s Freedmen’s Cemetery: A Legacy of Freedom, to learn about the inspiration for her book and the lives that helped mold it.
Q: Congratulations on the publishing of your second book! How is it different from your first book, African Americans of Alexandria, VA: Beacons of Light in the Twentieth Century?
Thanks! My first book was about African Americans in Alexandria who made a positive impact on their community from 1920 to 1965. The book was based on the achievements of the African American community over that 45-year period.
My second book is about the Civil War, when African Americans were pouring into Alexandria to be protected by the Union. Many of these people were former slaves who were sick and malnourished. They were dying in large numbers. A burial site was set aside for them, but after the Civil War they were forgotten. Some 150 years later, the cemetery was rediscovered. This book is about who those people were and finding their descendants. The time period ranges from the 19th Century into the 20th and 21st Centuries.

