This week's city council meeting, in which the full plan for a large park recognizing and honoring the importance of Shockoe Bottom to the history of slave trading in the United States was presented, continues to draw media attention in the Richmond area.

In a new report from WTVR, Ana Edwards, one of our partners in this National Treasures project, said:

"In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the great historical importance of Shockoe Bottom as the epicenter of the U.S. domestic slave trade," Ana Edwards, chair of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, said. "The nine-acre site of the proposed park represents the heart of this center. It’s history, and relevance to the present must be explored, through archaeology, education, public art, markers and events."

"We believe that a nine-acre Memorial Park, encompassing the African Burial Ground, the site of Lumpkin’s Jail and two more blocks east of the CSX railroad tracks, would be large enough to tell the full story of the nearly 100 sites in the Bottom once associated with the massive trade in human beings and also block any future inappropriate, profit-driven development, while still allowing for appropriate development within a recognized historic district," Edwards said.

The National Trust is still collecting comments on the park plan. You can view them and submit your thoughts here.