From Enslavement  to Justice 

Join independent historian David Heiby for his signature WALKING TOUR of the Wilkes Street Cemetery Complex,
tracing two and a half centuries of resistance, resilience, and the change African Americans forced in Alexandria.

21 VOICES
From a chambermaid who witnessed George Washington's death to a football captain who inherited a city transformed, From Enslavement to Justice brings twenty-one voices from Alexandria's past back to life in their own words. These are the voices of people buried in and connected to the Wilkes Street Cemetery Complex, Alexandria's 52-acre landscape of thirteen historic cemeteries. Their stories span two and a half centuries of enslavement, resistance, military service, education, civil rights, and injustice.

THIS IS NOT A LECTURE 

Each voice is a first-person narrative written by David from court records, pension applications, newspaper accounts, family papers, and archaeological reports. Each will be read aloud by a member of the group at the site where that history unfolded. Several of these stories had never been told on a tour before this one. Among the cemeteries you will visit are Christ Church, Methodist Protestant, Trinity Methodist, Presbyterian, Union, Penny Hill, and Bethel.

ONE OF OUR STOPS

Recently, Virginia's Board of Historic Resources approved a state highway marker, Lynchings in Alexandria, for Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas, both first buried at Penny Hill in unmarked graves. On this tour, you stand at Penny Hill and hear their stories in their own voices.

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

The tour covers about two hours on foot over grass and uneven ground, so please wear comfortable walking shoes and dress for the weather. There are no restrooms in the cemetery complex. Street parking is available nearby. Take Payne Street if walking from King Street. Use Hamilton Avenue (not "Hamilton Lane," which some GPS apps show) when navigating to the meeting point. See David's very informative Wilkes Street Cemetery Complex Map.
Meeting Point: Corner of Wilkes Street and Hamilton Avenue, Wilkes Street Cemetery Complex, 1475–1501 Wilkes Street.