SLAVE TRAIL MASTER PLAN
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The Richmond Slave Trail Commission yesterday released its vision to develop a $100 million to $150 million heritage site in Shockoe Bottom, including a slavery museum, an African-American genealogical center and a glass-enclosed Lumpkin's Jail archeological site.
Del. Delores L. McQuinn, D-Richmond, chairwoman of the commission, emphasized that plans for a 4.5-acre site between Main Street Station and Interstate 95 are preliminary but said she has begun to court prospective directors of a nonprofit to oversee the project. She cited Mayor Dwight C. Jones as a supporter and said someone of national or international prominence would be recruited to lead the project.
"We're really trying to create an international destination, because we've already got the triangle," she said, referring to the Reconciliation Triangle project involving Richmond; Benin, West Africa; and Liverpool, England, to apologize for their country's roles in the slave trade.
The commission's efforts to explain the city's role in the slave trade are expected to take shape in the next six months, with the placement of 16 markers along the 2½-mile Slave Trail, from the site of the Manchester Docks to the site of First African Baptist Church. Each of the 3-foot-by-3-foot panels is to be set on a granite base and describe an aspect of the area's history. The markers will add to the nine existing sites on the Slave Trail and could be expanded further to identify more than 50 sites of slave traders and auctioneers.
The commission has about $100,000 of city money that could be used to pay for the initial set of markers, but it's also talking to potential corporate and other sponsors. Project officials also are planning to install some initial landscaping to protect the Lumpkin's Jail archaeological site, which is ultimately envisioned to be enclosed by a glass-walled pavilion.
The Shockoe Heritage Site Master Plan also calls for a 15,000-square-foot genealogy center in the city-owned Seaboard building, an adjoining garden, a 50,000to 75,000-square-foot slavery museum, and a tree-lined area to mark the Negro Burial Ground. The plan was developed with the help of Stockton Clay Architects, a partnership between BAM Architects and SMBW Architects and presented yesterday to the City Council's Land Use, Housing and Transportation Standing Committee.
"I think it's an ideal time to do this," said Councilman Douglas G. Conner Jr., chairman of the committee. "This is history. This is our history."
The proposed museum would rival ones planned for the National Mall in Washington and Fredericksburg. McQuinn did not rule out working with former Gov. and Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, whose museum project in Fredericksburg has stalled.
"We're going to build a national slavery museum there," McQuinn said of Shockoe Bottom. "We have authentic history right there at that spot. We don't have to import it or exaggerate it. You don't have to rely on history books. It's based on history."
Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or wjones@timesdispatch.com.
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