Protesters gathered Thursday in opposition to stadium plan

The protest also marked the 149th anniversary of Liberation Day.

April 4, 2014; 9:27 AM • by Richard Hayes

Earlier this week the Mayor’Office released the archeological plan for the Shockoe Bottom baseball stadium. The effort fell on deaf ears for opponents that feel any stadium development should not occur on the site of the former slave trade.

To mark the 149th anniversary of Liberation Day, when Richmond fell to Union troops, a group of around 200 protesters gathered in Shockoe Bottom to protest development efforts.

RTD has the full story including the participation of Solomon Northrup descendants. Northup, whose story has been made famous in the film “12 Years a Slave,” is believed to have spent time in Shockoe Bottom but the exact location is unknown.

At Lumpkin’s Jail, a notorious slave-trading site, activists held a “libation ceremony” in which drinks were poured onto the ground to honor ancestral spirits and read accounts of the opening of slave jails.

“Today, we are gathered to reclaim Richmond,” said Ana Edwards, chair of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality. “We are gathered to reclaim resistance.”

Image: RTD