Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground

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June 11, 2022

Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground Historic Marker Unveiling

On June 11, 2022 the public gathered at 1305 N 5th Street for the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground Historical Highway Marker Unveiling Ceremony.

Ceremony Program:

Musical Introduction: Swansboro Elementary School Choir
Welcome: Ana Edwards, Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project
Opening Prayer and Remarks: Rev. Dr. Rodney Waller, Pastor of First African Baptist Church
Remarks:
The Honorable Ellen Robertson, 6th District Councilwoman, Richmond City Council
The Honorable Levar Stoney, Mayor of the City of Richmond
History of the Site: Ryan Smith, History Department, Virginia Commonwealth University
Kitty Cary’s Resting Place: Lenora McQueen, Descendant
Remarks:
Dr. Colita Nichols Fairfax, Norfolk State University and Virginia Board of Historic Resources
Unveiling of the Marker: Lenora McQueen
Reading of the Marker: Livi Booker, student at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School
Remarks and Closing Prayer: Dr. Cleve Tinsley, Executive Director of the Center for African-American History and Culture, Virginia Union University

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Thank you Lenora McQueen for her research and leadership, the City, the speakers including Sen. Warner’s representative, the Department of Historic Resources, Preservation Virginia, and Valentine Museum!

History of the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground District

At the Quarterly Board Meeting, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources listed the Shockoe Hill Burying Ground Historic District on the Virginia Landmarks Registry. The nomination will be sent to the National Park Service for review for listing on the National Register of Historical Places. The Shockoe Hill Burying Ground Historic District is a significant example of a municipal almshouse-public hospital-cemetery complex and illustrates the changing social and racial relationships in Richmond through the New Republic, Antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow/Lost Cause eras of the 19th and 20th centuries. The district features a suite of municipal functions and services concerned with matters of public welfare, health, and safety, which the City of Richmond relegated to its then-periphery on its northern boundary during the 19th century. This district includes three newly identified sites, the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, the City Hospital and Colored Almshouse Site, and the City Powder Magazine Site.

The Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground has been a particular focus of Historic Richmond’s advocacy efforts since 2018. The Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground is the largest African Burial Ground in the nation. Documentary research indicates that more than 22,000 African American men, women, and children were buried here, making it the City’s primary burying ground for the enslaved and free people of color who died in Richmond between 1816 and 1879. In the second half of the 19th century, development projects began to impact the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground’s physical features. The recognition of the historic significance of this sacred site is significant as a first step in understanding our history. Yet there is much more work to do to appropriately memorialize this site and protect it from further desecration by infrastructure projects.

We are grateful to Lenora McQueen for her leadership, tenacity and extensive scholarship which served as the foundation for this monumental moment. We also thank the other historic nomination co-authors – L. Daniel Mouer, PhD, Ryan K. Smith, PhD, and Steve Thompson – for their leadership and scholarship, as well as the following partners for their dedication and support: Ana Edwards of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, Ellen Chapman of RVA Archaeology, Kimberly Chen of the City of Richmond, Preservation Virginia, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Cultural Landscape Partners, and Hannah Jane Brown of the University of Virginia, and many, many other friends and supporters – too many to list here.

This is truly exciting news, but there is more yet to do.

March 17, 2022
Today, at the Quarterly Board Meeting, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources listed the Shockoe Hill Burying Ground Historic District on the Virginia Landmarks Registry. The nomination will be sent to the National Park Service for review for listing on the National Register of Historical Places. The Shockoe Hill Burying Ground Historic District is a significant example of a municipal almshouse-public hospital-cemetery complex and illustrates the changing social and racial relationships in Richmond through the New Republic, Antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow/Lost Cause eras of the 19th and 20th centuries. The district features a suite of municipal functions and services concerned with matters of public welfare, health, and safety, which the City of Richmond relegated to its then-periphery on its northern boundary during the 19th century. This district includes three newly identified sites, the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, the City Hospital and Colored Almshouse Site, and the City Powder Magazine Site.

The Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground has been a particular focus of Historic Richmond’s advocacy efforts since 2018. The Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground is the largest African Burial Ground in the nation. Documentary research indicates that more than 22,000 African American men, women, and children were buried here, making it the City’s primary burying ground for the enslaved and free people of color who died in Richmond between 1816 and 1879. In the second half of the 19th century, development projects began to impact the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground’s physical features. The recognition of the historic significance of this sacred site is significant as a first step in understanding our history. Yet there is much more work to do to appropriately memorialize this site and protect it from further desecration by infrastructure projects.

We are grateful to Lenora McQueen for her leadership, tenacity and extensive scholarship which served as the foundation for this monumental moment. We also thank the other historic nomination co-authors – L. Daniel Mouer, PhD, Ryan K. Smith, PhD, and Steve Thompson – for their leadership and scholarship, as well as the following partners for their dedication and support: Ana Edwards of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, Ellen Chapman of RVA Archaeology, Kimberly Chen of the City of Richmond, Preservation Virginia, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Cultural Landscape Partners, and Hannah Jane Brown of the University of Virginia, and many, many other friends and supporters – too many to list here

This is truly exciting news, but there is more yet to do.

2020 Update
For several years, Historic Richmond has been advocating for the protection of the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, first as a consulting party for the DC2RVA project, and more recently for the burial ground to be reacquired by the City so that it can be appropriately memorialized. This spring, we also supported a Preliminary Information Form (PIF) prepared by L. Daniel Mouer PhD for the proposed Shockoe Hill Burying Ground Historic District.

The district is a significant example of the sort of municipal almshouse-public hospital-cemetery complexes from the period of the New Republic. The history of the district encompasses the changing social and racial relationships of Richmond through the Antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow/Lost Cause eras of the 19th century. The district would include, among other resources: the Almshouse and its historic grounds, the Shockoe Hill Cemetery, the Hebrew Cemetery, the formally defined Burying Ground for Free People of Color and Slaves, and the expanded and ad hoc burying grounds generally recorded as “Potters Field.”

In August 2020, VDHR’s Architecture Evaluation Committee recommended the historic district as “eligible” for nomination to the NRHP and the Virginia Landmarks Register. VDHR’s Virginia State Review Board will consider the PIF at its September meeting. The next step will be a formal nomination for the district. We are happy to see the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground formally documented and its historic significance recognized.

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