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

The proposed theme for the Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground memorial is “Hush Harbor.” Announced at the public meeting scheduled to be held at the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia on Dec. 10, hush harbors (or arbors) were the secret spaces in the woods where enslaved people could gather unobserved to rest, worship or plan.

The memorial will have trees and plants known to have relevance to Black people’s lifeways and to the native, waterside environment. The landscape will be lit at night. Pathways and interpretive panels move the visitor through history and time by a reflecting pool and a waterfall to an offering wall and into the Hush Harbor gathering space. The memorial encompasses the area closest to the largest part of the burial ground, on the hillside, surrounded by woods and along where Shockoe once flowed. Baskervill, the firm that is the lead designer and coordinator of the project, is in discussion with Afrikan Ancestral Chamber representatives about incorporating the Tekhen (obelisk) that the group installed in 2017 on the African Burial Ground site. (See “The Memorial Tekhen will remain.”)

The Shockoe Project was launched by the city of Richmond in February 2024 with the goal of completing it in time for Richmond’s 300th birthday in 2037. Each aspect of the 10-acre park is being developed in phases. The Shockoe Institute started construction inside Main Street Station earlier this year and is scheduled to open in the spring. The teams working on the Lumpkin’s Jail Pavilion and African Burial Ground memorial are in the midst of finalizing design documents and cost estimates that will be presented to the mayor’s office and city council in January.

The overall Shockoe Project is divided into two main project areas named for their geographic locations south and north of East Broad Street. The South Campus includes the Lumpkin’s Slave Jail Project (LSJP) archaeology site and the South Memorial to honor all enslaved people traded or sold from Virginia and through Shockoe Bottom. The North Campus includes the African Burial Ground memorial. Since the public meeting was scheduled to take place after this issue of the newspaper was sent to the printer, a report will be sent out in the next issueof “Updates & Announcements,” the newsletter of The Virginia Defender.

For City of Richmond information on The Shockoe Project, see this link. For design and program updates, visit Baskervill’s Shockoe Project page here and shockoeproject.com.