Citizens Outraged over Slave Burial Marker Delay

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Photos By John Garcia

In an act that outraged citizens, Mayor Dwight Jones and Governor Bob McDonnell postponed the planned unveiling of 17 historical markers along Richmond's Slave trail to attend the VCU Final Four game in Houston, Texas this past weekend.

About 75 people gathered to show support for the reclamation of the burial ground, located below a VCU-MCV parking lot at 16th and east broad streets. The struggle to reclaim the burial ground and remove the parking lot from the land, about 10 years in the making, has been a rallying point for black-rights groups in the city.




Lead by Ana Edwards, chair of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation project, the event was filled with anger at the city. Citizens were allowed to speak freely at the event.

"City officials including out cowardice black mayor, had to run off to Huston to honor the very organization that disrespected us, our ancestral burial grounds in the first place." said Sister Yafa, a long-time Virginia resident. She, along with other community organizers felt this delay was just another insult in a long series.


"There's no fanfare for by or for black people, decedents of those soldiers or prisoners, nor is there any fanfare for our ancestors held prisoners here under this parking lot."

Yafa's anger was shared by much of those in attendance. Maurice Robinson, a student at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, has been a regular figure at city council meetings to speak out in support of reclaiming the land.

"They trying to keep our history hidden by keeping this cement right here hidden." Robinson said.

Born and raised in Richmond, Robinson developed "Slang solution, liberation and New Guidance," an activist group to support black youth, a number of which were in attendance.

April 3rd marked the 146th anniversary of Union troops liberating Richmond from Confederate control. Also known as Richmond Emancipation or Liberation day, the unveiling was scheduled to coincide with the historic event.

"It's a reassertion of the importance of emancipation or liberation day from the confederacy, it was a moment in which to beautifully demonstrate how far we've come in knowledge of Richmond's black history." Edwards said.

But when Edwards learned of the postponement, through an e-mail sent by the city about five days before the scheduled event, she felt burned. The city's e-mail was vague according to Edwards, and did not specify the reason for the delay. It wasn't until a Richmond Times Dispatch article came out last Thursday that the reason for the delay was brought to light.
"Their justification is that it will get more publicity because it won’t compete with the final four. There is something wrong with that." Edwards said.

The unveiling has been rescheduled for this Saturday, April 10th at 3 p.m. Edwards and her group have said they will attend, but instead of participating as originally intended, they will be standing in the back of the crowd.

The unveiling of the markers was the first in several steps by the city and state to reclaim the burial ground. Governor McDonnell proposed an amendment to the budget this past General Assembly session to give $3.3 Million from the state to VCU for the transfer of the land to the city. Protecting and preserving the site will be the task of the city and the Richmond Slave Trail Commission, though cars still park atop the slaves remains as this story airs.

Robinson, toward the end of his speech, stressed his, as well as the rest of the groups, steadfast will to see the burial ground reclaimed.

"This will be solved. We're gonna continue fighting this issue until its solved - together, stand together."

Richmond’s French Film Festival Returns and Spotlights Recent Documentaries

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The 19^th Annual French Film Festival opened last night at the Byrd Theatre and continues until Sunday. The event attracted 21 thousand people last year and is a joint effort by Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond. It is a production of the married duo Dr. Peter Kirkpatrick of VCU and Dr. Francoise Ravaux-Kirkpatrick of U of R, who personally select the films from the roughly 170 released from France each year.

Ravaux-Kirkpatrick said that the goal of the festival is to present to Richmond the French community and culture through cinema.

“Every year what we do is we are trying to present to Richmonders and people from Virginia, but also from very far away states a sample, a sampling of last year or this year’s cinematographic productions,” she said.

According to Ravaux-Kirkpatrick, this year’s festival is presenting multiple environmentalist documentaries, because there have been so many that have been released in the past year.

Ravaux-Kirkpatrick said that when she and her husband started the festival, it was very small, but has gotten bigger every year. The festival was initially on campus, but as it grew larger, more and more screenings became necessary.

“Pretty soon, we had to have two or three screenings of the same film and so on,” she said. “And then little by little we came to the Byrd like our fifth year, I think we came to the Byrd, and since then this event has been in the Byrd and it’s grown and grown and grown.”

At last year’s festival, Myriam Guedjahi worked as an intern for college credit, and decided to come back this year because of how much she enjoyed the experience.

“I’m back because last year was for me one of my best experiences as a student, because I learned a lot of things and we want to work in event management, you know like, to organize events,” she said. “I really want to work in this field, so for me that was the best experience ever.”

Guedjahi said that in France, the city of Richmond and the French Film Festival has become well-known, and renowned.

“In France, people know Richmond, thanks to the French Film Festival,” she said. “Because we have a lot of French people who know that, thanks to the students, every year French students are more and more likely to work for the festival.”

Yesterday the festival opened with the documentary “Food Beware, Our Children Will Accuse Us.” In “Food Beware,” director Jean-Paul Jaud deftly illustrates not only the catastrophic results of using pesticides and chemically treating food, but how a small village in France has started eating only organic and local foods.

Nancy Nock, a U of R employee at the Jefferson School for Leadership Studies, has gone to the festival every year since it started. She said she was very impressed with Jaud’s documentary,

and how he presented the issue.

“I think where the director was able to capture this experiment and in this very small village form its inception all the way through to the end of a year or so, and to see how people’s attitudes were changing towards favoring the organic and sustainable way of agriculture and eating, it was amazing,” she said.

Today the festival will showcase more documentaries, including another screening of “Food Beware” at 9:15. Jaud will also present “Severn,” which is about an activist’s campaign to promote biodiversity at 3:30. On Saturday and Sunday, short films and features will be presented, along with “Oceans,” the 2011 Cesar winner for Best Documentary. “Oceans” will be presented on Saturday at 3:00.

According to Nock, documentaries are not common at the French Film Festival, but are a welcome addition.

“Usually, there are more dramatic kinds of films, comedies and dramas, and so forth. Not too many documentaries,” she said. “So I think it’s a really interesting and important departure.”

To Nock and many participants at the French Film Festival, this and other multicultural efforts are becoming more and more important.

“The world is getting smaller, and the more we get to know each other, and know about each other and our cultural perspectives, I think people will find it interesting and learn about each other,” she said.

Nathaniel James Klentzman

Party in the Park 2011 Coverage

Locals from every walk of life gathered in Monroe Park last Saturday. The event, spread by Facebook and word of mouth, was held to celebrate the 1000th signature on a petition to keep the historic forum open during the planned renovations.

The planned park renovation would close every section of the park for 9-months to a year. The party in the Park was a public demonstration to show concern for the park as a community center, and support those who need it most.

Alan Harrelson, a Richmond Native, has been coming to public feedings on Sundays at Monroe park for years. He collected over 500 of the 1000 signatures through an online and written petition, getting signatures from those who don't have internet access.

"This is the last place that the homeless have in this whole city to be at. They have chased them from place to place to place to place around this town and this is the last place. And if they take this, there's no place else to go."


Public feedings were the hot topic . Some groups have been feeding the needy for decades.

Cassandra Carter helps the needy with New Jerusalem International Christian ministries one Sunday a month. From Chesterfield, Carter said her and her group help in any way they can.

"We just come to talk to those in need, we come to minister to them, if its prayer they need or feeding, whatever they need that we can be a help to them because we are trying to reach out into the community to see if we can actually get them in a place were they are stable and able to have a place to go and get a job."

New Jerusalem is one of many churches that come to lend a hand.

Peggie Sterling, of the MCC Social Justice Committee, said the homeless weren't the only reason to stand up for a free and open park.

"People come here to gather as a community. We've gotten to know many of the people and some of them have come to our church after we have been here. This is just a necessary place for people to gather, there is no other place."

Music was a big part of the gathering. Local party-regulars No BS Brass Band were on hand to lend a note or two. The brass ensemble lead a parade through the park. In tow, the All Saints Theater Company, one of the sponsors of the event, were clad in rat costumes and paper mache rat masks.

A performance by All Saints lead to a brief lecture series, highlighted by a satyrical presentation by Eric Scott, local Wingnut, and a Monroe Park Campaign Organizer, dressed as Fan District Councilman Charles Samuels.

Samuels has taken the most criticism for the park renovations.

Scott said the dramatization was in jest, but supported by fact.

"I think that its important to show people that these things are ridiculous but they are in there. and they need to be addressed. because, wile the real Charles Samuels wont come out and say it just like that, that's what he's saying by his actions. That's the direction the Monroe Park Advisory council and some parts of city council are going in."

Some spectators to the event were folks who just saw the ruckus and stayed for the music.

Sunny Gilderman, a VCU grad, remembered Monroe Park fondly and came to see her old stomping grounds. Coincidentally, the former Director of Emergency services for the Homeless in Richmond stumbled upon the event. She frowned upon the idea of closing the park for an extended period of time.

"Its another example of lack of provision for those in need and a loss of services and NOT a comparable alternative offered by the city of other authorities so... not cool. At all. "

The arts were well represented at the celebration. Gull, a local masked multi-instrumentalist rode in the bed of a silver truck as it sped around Monroe Park, blaring his unique musical style.


Julie Karr, with a 'K,' played a more mellow song for the crowd.

She sympathized with the feeding programs in the park.

"I think displacing lots of people and feeding programs that have been here for almost 20 years is something we can NOT do and i think its preventable. I think having at least part of the park open allows for things like this, like whats going on today and I'd like to see more of this in general."

In the end, Just Plain Ant, of Just plain Sounds, a local hip hop collective, saw hope in numbers.

"We picked a beautiful day to do this. And i hope the efforts of today help the cause. And with the amount of people here, it should."

For Richmond Independent Radio News, I'm Brad Kutner with Danny Rathbun.