Remove the Billboard that Desecrates the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground
On July 13, 2024, Lenora McQueen shared the following letter concerning a billboard on the grounds of the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground in Richmond, VA. The site, active from 1816 to 1879, was meant to be the final resting place for more than 22,000 free and enslaved African Americans; McQueen is descended from one of them, Kitty Cary. However, the grounds have been abused for more than a century; graves have been plundered and bodies stolen, railroad tracks run through the site, and until the 2021 installation of a historic marker by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, there were no surviving above ground monuments, memorials, or other hints of its former existence. And now there plans to put high speed rail lines through the site. The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) enrolled it as a Landslide site and featured it in the report and digital exhibition Landslide 2021: Race and Space. In June 2022, the Shockoe Hill Burying Ground Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Efforts are underway to have the site designated a National Historic Landmark.
Currently on the site there is a former gas station and a billboard. McQueen’s letter to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, Lamar Advertising (which owns the billboard), and others is a plea for the billboard to be removed.
Dear Mayor Stoney, Councilwoman Robertson, Lamar Advertising, VCU, fellow advocates, et al:
I write to you all today with great concern regarding what will happen next (as well as what will happen ultimately) regarding the Lamar billboard in the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground at 1305 N 5th. St. As you know, the billboard was constructed directly in the burial ground. Recent archaeology has proven that at least one of the billboard’s massive poles impaled a grave/burial, and intact graves surround the billboard. This billboard was erected directly within the two original burial grounds, the 1816 “Burying Ground for Free People of Colour” and the “Burying Ground for Negroes” (enslaved). Research utilizing the historical maps and map overlays shows that there is one pole in each of the two original burial grounds. The construction and use of this billboard harmed and desecrated this burial ground. Its continued use will continue to harm and desecrate the burial ground and its sensitive graves. Additionally, a great deal of profit has already been generated for Lamar Advertising, literally upon the graves of the people buried there. None of that profit was used to help the burial ground. These people who are buried there were abused, mistreated and profited upon in life, and in death… When will enough be enough? When will they finally be left alone and allowed to rest in peace? When will they be treated with the honor, respect, decency, dignity and integrity that they deserve? They are not bargaining chips, and they should not be treated as such.
I wanted to have a direct conversation with Lamar regarding this billboard and the burial ground. But they don’t want to have a separate conversation with me, stating that they are in current talks with the city. Though the Washington Post article published on Sunday leads me to believe that no talks are taking place currently. Additionally, VCU and Lamar want to put a sign on the billboard for the burial ground. Though given the current controversy that erupted surrounding the billboard and the burial ground recently, I can’t understand why? I have asked the question, however, as of yet I have not received an answer. I would like to know the reason they want to do this. What is their motivation, and what will they get out of this? What will this do for the burial ground? Will it help it, or will it harm it? I would like to know. I would also like to know what happens next? Will this act cause them to check a box, and then start advertising on the burial ground again? My ancestors are buried in this burial ground, and I believe I have a right to ask, and a right to know. But first and foremost, as a descendant, I have an obligation to advocate for and to protect not only my ancestors, but the other thousands buried within those grounds.
There are at least a few separate and isolated conversations going on regarding the future of this billboard and burial ground. This has me concerned. So I write this email to you all in order to shine a brighter light on this burial ground and the billboard situation. I hope it will spark the larger conversations that need to be had, and the actions that need to be taken. Lamar, my hope and my ask is that you will do the right thing. You are an extremely profitable company who certainly can afford to stop operating a billboard upon a slave burial ground without trying to profit from it further. It is very wrong for you to have and to operate a billboard in a cemetery, especially knowing the harm it has caused, and will continue to cause. In the meantime, I ask please that you refrain from driving cars, trucks and heavy equipment onto the property at 1305 N 5th St., which harms the graves there and those buried in them. I am asking you please to stop harming and desecrating this place and its people. And the reason I am addressing you here is that you won’t have a conversation with me separately. Doing the right thing here should be simple, not complex. It should not take a long time to do what is right. Billboards do not belong on burial grounds, and your billboard certainly does not belong on this one. The decision to stop desecrating this cemetery should be a simple one. I am asking and hoping that you will do the right thing.
