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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.

Last week, we took our #SaveShockoe message to the Worlds! The UCI Road World Championship bike races, that is. For just the second time in its history, cycling's pinnacle event was held in the US, and Richmond was chosen as host. We used the opportunity to join our partners in urging Mayor Jones to drop his plan for baseball in Shockoe Bottom and instead support the nine acre memorial park plan.

In a press statement, National Trust vice president of Public Affairs, Germonique Ulmer argued that: "There is renewed public debate across the country about how we understand and memorialize the painful legacy of slavery, and Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom lies in the crosshairs of this important conversation. As the international cycling world’s attention focuses on this historic southern city, its leaders should take a thoughtful look at this sacred site and plan for a future that respects its significance, not just to Richmond, but to the whole world."

Our support for the nine acre memorial park concept was also conveyed in a timely letter to the editor in the Washington Post by our president, Stephanie Meeks, which stated that "this park would provide much-needed space for learning, reflection and healing of slavery’s lasting scars and a powerful template for how we should address the complex and difficult history of the 'peculiar institution' nationwide. It would also be a testament to Mr. Jones’s forward-thinking leadership in Richmond, long after the bike races have run their course."

We brought this message to the crowd of international spectators during the men's and women's elite races, to a very warm reception. Join us in urging Mayor Jones to adopt the Sacred Ground Memorial Park plan!