Originally published in the Summer/Fall 2025 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 77, printed December 11. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Summer/Fall 2025 issue or to download the full PDF, see this post. For other issues dating back to 2012, see the Full Issues page.

By Ana Edwards

This year marked 23 years of honoring the memory and legacies of “Gabriel’s Rebellion” and the Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground.

On Oct. 10, more than 100 people were present for the unveiling of a six-banner “mural” installation, titled “This Is Us.” Designed to remind us of our part in the long struggle for historical truths and social justice in Richmond, the mural also informs the public that something is happening down there!

The banners also remind Richmonders of the connections between Gabriel’s Rebellion and the city that was the epicenter of the domestic slave trade AND where the U.S. Civil War and slavery would end in Richmond, on the same day, on April 3, 1865.

The original Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality campaign was to help reclaim the Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground by popularizing the place and its history. The second phase was to prevent sports stadium-luxurycondo+retail development in the footprint of irreplaceable sites of significance. We are in the midst of the success of the third phase: creating the Memorial Park. The city’s capital improvement project is now branded The Shockoe Project and includes 10 contiguous acres in Shockoe Bottom, extending to the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground and Winfree Cottage relocation site, and, for the first time in a Richmond urban development plan, Indigenous and Black experiences.

But “in the midst of success” does not mean the struggle is over! It took more than 20 years to get to this point in an era when diversity in our national narratives was becoming more valued and supported. We are now in a period of cultural regression and it is imperative that we double our work to build, hold onto and strengthen the paths towards human inclusiveness and social liberation. On Oct. 10, 1800, Gabriel and nine others became ancestors for the cause of freedom, the last of that particular effort. But they were not the only ones to try, nor were they the last.