The master planning process for the 10-acre park has taken a year to process the history of the area, but also the history of the struggle to bring to fruition the place that should put Richmond on the contemporary map for historical truth-telling about slavery and our city’s role in it.
Inspired by the community effort that has artistically transformed an old abandoned building at the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, the Defenders’ Shockoe Bottom Community Advisory Group is proposing a similar redoing of the old sandwich shop that sits at the corner of East Broad Street and the CSX railroad tracks.
Updates on the Heritage Campus and Interpretive Center portions of the Shockoe Bottom Memorial Park.
Our proposal for how the increased economic activity spurred by the development of the Shockoe Bottom Heritage Campus can be used to benefit the Black community.
A report on the 20th Annual Gabriel Gathering, the largest ever. This year’s event featured performances, light displaces, and other artistic expressions to honor the great slave rebellion leader, executed at the African Burial Ground on October 10, 1800.
The Richmond city government has committed to memorializing Shockoe Bottom, but there are still a number of outstanding questions about this process. Here are some of them, which we have directed to Delegate McQuinn.
Updates on the Shockoe Bottom Memorial “Heritage Campus”: a great deal of study is required from the city before any work could begin, mostly having to do with flood considerations.
The Virginia Defender 