FOX Richmond and Hardee’s are proud to join Elegba Folklore Society in celebrating Black History Month.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7fKs6i0xCI

 

The “Burial Ground for Negroes” was the first designated burial site for free and enslaved African Americans in Richmond; many of Richmond’s first citizens rest here in unmarked graves.

The African Burial Ground, located in Shockoe Bottom, is another location along Elegba Folklore Society’s “In the Beginning.. Virginia” Trail of Enslaved Africans.

 

The Colored Paupers’ Cemetery, as it was originally known, was the final resting place for more than 500 infants and children. In 2007, the abandoned site was cleared and renamed the Garden of Lillies, in honor of the countless delicate souls laid to rest here.

 

Located in the East End of Richmond, The Four Cemeteries at Evergreen hold some of Richmond’s most prominent African American leaders from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The East End Cemetery Clean Up & Restoration Project is working hard to breathe new life into these once-forgotten, sacred grounds. To learn more about how you can volunteer, visit eastendcemetery.wordpress.com

 

Rosa Dixon Bowser was an educator and civic leader in Richmond. Bowser led the charge on African American education & community reform; she is buried in the East End Cemetery.

 

John Mitchell Jr., “The Fighting Editor” was the editor and publisher of the Richmond Planet, a community activist, politician and President of the National Afro-American Press Association. Born enslaved, Mitchell led the charge against lynching and was instrumental in Richmond’s 1904 streetcar boycott. He is buried in Evergreen cemetery.

 

Born enslaved and freed in 1851, Mary Elizabeth Bowser served as a spy for Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War. Bowser operated as a servant to Jefferson Davis while obtaining Confederate secrets. Her last known act as a spy was an attempt to burn down the Confederate White House. She is buried in Woodland Cemetery.

 

Maggie L. Walker was an African American teacher, banker and businesswoman. She was the first female bank president in the United States and was a major leader and activist in the Richmond community.

Walker was instrumental in reforming the way of life for African Americans and women; she is buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

 

The Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, located in Richmond’s Jackson Ward, is the former home of bank president, newspaper editor and activist Maggie L. Walker. Her home has been preserved as a tribute to her legacy and hard work in the African American community.

 

The Winfree Cottage, built for newly freed slave Emily Winfree by former owner David Winfree, is the only remaining Slave Cottage in Richmond. Emily raised five children in one half of the cottage and rented out the other.

In 2002, a local nonprofit A.C.O.R.N. (Association to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods) saved the cottage and relocated it to Shockoe Bottom, where it now sits atop a trailer located near the Devil’s Half Acre (formerly Lumpkin’s jail).

 

Lumpkin’s Jail, also known as “the Devil’s Half Acre” was a notorious slave jail and auction house, located in what is now known as Shockoe Bottom.

In 1857, this site would become the home of the school that transformed into Virginia Union University.

 

Once the home of William Barret, an extremely wealthy tobacco plant owner, the Barret House sits on a hill at 5th St and Cary. Henry ‘Box’ Brown, best known for his daring escape to freedom, was enslaved by and worked for William Barret.

Brown, who would rather risk his life than spend another day in enslavement, vowed to find freedom in any way possible. On March 23, 1849, he successfully escaped by shipping himself to Philadephia in a small, cramped box.

 

Henry Brown, an enslaved man from Virginia, shipped himself to Philadelphia after slave trade separated him from his pregnant wife and three children.

A member of the First African Baptist Church, he enlisted the help of friends and fellow congregation members. Henry Brown spent 27 hours with little water and food, in a box labeled “dry goods,” on his courageous journey to freedom.

 

The Leigh Street ‘Bojangles’ monument honors Richmond native Bill Robinson. A vaudeville and Broadway performer, Robinson starred in a number of Hollywood productions and was the highest paid black performer for the first half of the 20th Century.

Raised in Jackson Ward, Robinson never forgot his roots, even paying to have a traffic light installed at a once dangerous intersection, now the site of the Robinson statue.

 

Named after Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, the Robinson Theater Community Arts Center opened in September 1937 with Robinson’s film “One Mile From Heaven.” Robinson later attended a ceremony where his footprints and signature were inscribed in concrete in front of the theater, with a plaque honoring him as “The World’s Best Tap Dancer.”

 

Richmond native Arthur Ashe was the first African American male to win the U.S. Open & Wimbledon and the first black tennis player to be ranked number one in the world. After contracting HIV during a blood transfusion, he spent his later years raising awareness for the disease and participating in protests and demonstrations.

Ashe now rests in Woodland Cemetery.