‘Understanding how we got here:’ RVA holds community event to shape Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground Memorial

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A sacred part of Richmond’s history is one step closer to being properly honored with Richmond's Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground memorial.

The city is inviting community members to help design a memorial at the Burying Ground — a site where thousands of free and enslaved African Americans were laid to rest.

The memorial is still in its early stages, however, the city is already making public input central to the process.

Officials recently held a community event to share preliminary design ideas and hear directly from residents about what the memorial should include.

“You drive up the road and it’s a gas station and a billboard, and no one has any understanding of what this site really is,” Kimberly Chen, Richmond's senior manager of the Department of Planning and Development, said. “That needs to change.”

Tucked between busy roads and commercial buildings, the burial ground has gone unnoticed for generations.

Recent archaeological work and community-driven efforts are helping to shine a light on its deep significance.

Chen said recent studies identified at least 135 grave shafts at the site which represent those individuals buried there.

“The site’s been cut and filled so much over time, we don’t know how many intact remains there are, but we know they’re there,” Chen said.

The city has taken a public-first approach, and officials have already held five rounds of community meetings to gather ideas, concerns and historical insight.

“It’s a very public-centered process,” Chen shared. “We wanted to hear what people wanted to see, and what they didn’t. This is their history — their space.”

The design team is now working to turn that feedback into real plans. Architect Burt Pinnock, who is helping lead the effort, said honoring the buried individuals — many of whom have no living descendants the team can contact, is a solemn responsibility.

“We’re essentially designing for thousands of clients and descendants we don’t personally know,” Pinnock said. “But we’re still trying to honor them the way we would for any individual client: by listening.”

The early concepts include a variety of possibilities that range from, transforming a former gas station into a commemorative space, to creating open green areas and placing interpretive signage that tells the site’s story.

“This is about awareness,” Pinnock said. “About filling in the gaps in our collective history so we understand how we got here.”

The city plans to hold an additional virtual feedback session later this summer to continue gathering community input before finalizing a design.