RICHMOND, Va. — City and state leaders unveiled plans on Monday for a life-size replica slave ship with amphitheater seating and a granite memorial wall at Ancarrow's Trailhead in Richmond.
Those new proposed components of The Shockoe Project will help create a comprehensive, experiential destination that places Richmond at the center of the American story by recognizing the history of enslaved and free Africans and people of African descent, according to those leaders.
The Shockoe Project also includes improvements and additional commemoration aspects to The Richmond Slave Trail, The Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground, the Winfree Cottage and its relocation back to Manchester south Richmond, The Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground at 5th and Hospital Streets (1305 N. 5th St.), the former slave trading sites throughout Shockoe Valley and renovation of the Reconciliation Statue Plaza.
"For us to be here, where we can celebrate this, memorialize this past, and make sure the enslaved, who were silenced for generations, are finally seen," Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said about the proposed project.
Del. Delores McQuinn (D - Richmond) said the project is more about a retelling of Richmond's history.
"Thank you for making sure that generations who are yet to come would know these stories, that they'll be able to walk this trail, that they will be able to participate and better understanding what this is all about," she said at Monday's event. "It's not just again history telling, but it's all about also about reconciliation. How do we move beyond history to reconciling?"
The multi-million dollar proposed Shockoe Project needs City Council approval and, in addition to the city's budget, will be funded by private donations and grant money.
The Project remains in its planning stages.
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