We're celebrating our 40th anniversary with monthly dives into our archives. This look back is from our November 2009 issue.
In a November 2009 feature, “Bridging the Gaps,” we looked at the Richmond Slave Trail Commission’s plan to build a national slavery museum and genealogy center at the Lumpkin’s Jail Site in Shockoe Bottom. The proposed museum would finally tell the whole story of Richmond’s role in the slave trade.
In 2011, the commission unveiled 17 Richmond Slave Trail markers in Shockoe Bottom, but plans for a museum have yet to come to fruition. Changes in city and state leadership since 2009 have slowed things down, says state Del. Delores McQuinn, chair of the Slave Trail Commission, but, she says, “Everyone is basically on the same page now. … If you look at what’s going on around the country as it relates to African American history … there’s a level of interest that is so heightened right now. That’s why we’ve got to move this forward.”
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A 2009 rendering of the proposed slavery museum and genealogy center shows the view from Broad Street looking southeast. (Image courtesy Stockton Clay Architects)
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Del. Delores McQuinn (D-70th) speaks in Shockoe Bottom on July 30, at an event to commemorate the arrival of enslaved Africans in Virginia in 1619. (Photo by Abbie Smith)
The commission has been working with SmithGroup, the architecture firm responsible for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, for about five years. So far, City Council and the commonwealth have designated $19 million to related projects.
The Shockoe Alliance, a city initiative “charged with guiding design and implementation of concepts and recommendations for the future of Shockoe,” held its inaugural meeting in April. According to a summary, the more than 200 attendees agreed that the “education and memorialization around Shockoe’s history” should be the top priority. McQuinn says the next step is to form a foundation that can raise about $100 million to build a museum. “I believe clearly that all of those who have been at the table seem to be committed to make that happen,” she says.
