Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities will continue offering its guided walks on the Slave Trail throughout March and has added a new walk to see the growing nesting colony of Great Blue Herons in the James River Park.

The guided walks along the Slave Trail will be offered on the remaining Saturdays in March at 2 p.m. These are emotional walks that originate at the docks at Ancarrow’s Landing in the James River Park and cross the river to conclude at the site of Lumpkin’s Jail and the Reconciliation Statue.

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The Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities will offer guided walks on Richmond’s Slave Trail each Saturday during February, Black History Month. This emotional walk, led by James River Park Manager Ralph White, will take you from the stone docks at Ancarrow’s Landing on the river through the forest to the site of the slave jails.

The walks will be scheduled for 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. based on demand. There is a $5 per person fee. Please register in advance by calling the James River Park at 804-646-8911.

UPDATE: This has been cancelled.

The Richmond City Council Slave Trail Commission will hold a public news conference to discuss current Richmond City Council Slave Trail Commission developments, including plans for a National Slavery Museum, genealogy center and the historic Negro burial ground. The news conference will take place at the Richmond Slavery Reconciliation Statue Wednesday at 11:30 am. All citizens are invited and encouraged to attend.

Former Richmond City Councilman Sa’ad El-Amin filed a lawsuit this morning against Virginia Department of Historic Resources Director Kathleen Kilpatrick.

From the RTD:

The suit seeks to order the department to conduct an archaeological dig of a Virginia Commonwealth University parking lot at 1541 E. Broad St. to determine the true boundaries of a cemetery for African-American slaves.

The suit challenges an historic resources report that found that boundaries of the burial grounds extend 50 feet into the parking lot. [via]

Governor Kaine and Mayor Jones at the ribbon cutting and dedication for the Virginia Capital Trail. [via]

Photo from Jeff Kelley.

Richmond City Council Reporter and Telegraph has video of the Slavery  Museum being presented to City Council’s Land Use, Housing, and Transportation Committee on October 20, 2009.

Land Use, Housing, & Transportation – Oct. 20, 2009 from Silver Persinger on Vimeo.

Richmond Magazine has the latest details on the proposed slavery museum in Shockoe Bottom, as well as a slideshow of the renderings. The editor of Richmond Magazine’s twitter page hints that  the Fredericksburg location is out.

 ”Meet Me in the Bottom- The Struggle to Reclaim Richmond’s African Burial Ground” premieres October 23 at the Grace Street Theater at 7:00 p.m.

The Burial Ground for Negroes (ca. 1750-1816) is located north of Broad Street, between 15th and 16th Streets. It is the oldest municipal cemetery for enslaved and free Blacks known toexist in the Richmond area. An 1810 map shows the Negro Burial Ground near Broad Street and Shockoe Creek.  Today the Burial Ground for Negroes sits adjacent to a parking lot owned by Virginia Commonwealth University. In fact, there are questions as to whether the Burial Ground lies beneath the parking lot. Activist and other groups have protested what is seen by many as a desecration of sacred ground. This documentary tells the story of the community’s efforts to reclaim the Burial Ground as the final resting place of their ancestors.

Admission is free. Following the screening, there will be a community discussion. For more information visit the movie’s website.

Seen on the Hope in the Cities FB page:

If you are interested in being a part of one of the most significant historical sites in our city, come to Lumpkins Jail on Saturday, October 17 at 9 am to help clean up the site. It is an excellent time to work with others who care about our history and preserving sites that tell our story in such a powerful way. You can call 646-8911 to let them know you are coming, or just show up.

From the Library of Virginia’s Virginia Memory: This Day in Virginia History

This scale drawing of a portion of Manchester, Virginia, illustrates a February 21, 1869, murder scene, showing two routes from a local tavern to the home of Richard H. Whitehead. After drinking with Thomas Willis at Talley’s Bar Room, Whitehead shot James Rogers. The Chesterfield County Court convicted both Whitehead and Willis of murder in the second degree and sentenced Whitehead to eighteen years in the penitentiary and Willis to seven. The map is interesting for its depiction of particular buildings and residences of the time, revealing considerable information about how the area actually looked.

Members of the public are invited to stop by the Black History Museum on Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 11:00 a.m., to help wash, tag, and document materials retrieved from the excavation of the Lumpkin’s Jail site in Shockoe Bottom. The event is a collaboration by the Black History Museum, the Richmond Slave Trail Commission, and the James River Institute for Archaeology (JRIA).

The artifact washing and lecture are free events, but interested persons are asked to RSVP to the Black History Museum at 804-780-9093 or via email at information.bhm@gmail.com. [via]

Before it was redeveloped as apartments and given a rooftop pool, the old American Tobacco building spent a few years as an the Shockoe Arts Center (who later moved and became the Petersburg Regional Art Center).

Richmond Then and Now has an old Richmond News Leader article from February, 1975 about the 1810 grave of John Prosser along Main Street:

Sitting on top of the knoll about 15 feet above the 4400 block of E. Main St. is Prosser’s grave, which overlooks the James River from what once apparently was a cemetery of several grave sites. Now, however, only Prosser’s grave site is marked, although the stone marking the grave of a 14-year-old girl also stood on the knoll 20 to 30 years ago. [...] The knoll, which sits between two oil company offices, is now littered with beer cans and other trash. It has a carpet of leaves and honeysuckle. Two depressions indicate other graves.

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Following last week’s protests, Style Weekly presents an argument in favor of the repaving of the parking lots which lie over the negro burial ground. The reasoning? Repaving may help protect the artifacts that are buried beneath the asphalt.

The Shockoe Bottom parking lot may have caused a stir, but some people say the unintended consequence isn’t a bad one — that the history is locked in — even if it makes for ugly PR.

The paving over of the negro burial ground at 15th&Broad, delayed last year after protests, is under way today. Kenneth Yates posted the following message along with pictures of the repaving.

We will not know for sure until a proper archeological excavation has been done. This is now made that much more difficult with another layer of asphalt to break through. Perhaps they believe that, those in Richmond who don’t find this issue particularly important, will see the shiny new asphalt and assume the issue has been resolved.

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