August 28, 2023
By Jess Kirby
WRITER
At a Fredericksburg City Council meeting on Aug. 22, Gaila Sims, curator of African American history and special projects at the Fredericksburg Area Museum, shared a proposal for the former site of the slave auction block on the corner of William and Charles Streets.
The proposal was created by the auction block workgroup, which has been meeting for the past year, Sims said. The proposal does not include a finalized design but rather ideas for what the final product could look like once completed. By January 2024, the workgroup plans to release a request for proposals from teams of project managers, artists, designers and architects to design and implement the project.
With the goal of contextualizing the block and memorializing those who were impacted by it, Sims said, the final product could incorporate artwork, text and historical dates and images. The workgroup envisions the project extending about 100 feet on both streets leading up to the corner. Embedded in the bricks could be images, such as advertisements for slave sales, or text, such as names of enslaved people sold at the corner, excerpts from slave narratives and significant historical dates from the slave trade, both locally and globally. On the corner, a mosaic could be placed where the block once stood. Sims also said that a light component could be included so visitors can experience the site at night.
The project can also be added to over time as more names and information are uncovered, Sims said.
Sims showed examples of similar memorials to slavery from around the country, such as the Emancipation and Freedom Monument in Richmond, Va., the Paradox of Liberty exhibition at Monticello, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala. The embedded text in the bricks could be similar to Richmond’s T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge, Sims said, which showcases quotes related to the Civil War in Richmond.
But this project will be one of a kind, Sims said.
“I don’t think there is any other city-developed, city-funded, city-installed memorial to enslavement in the U.S. that would combine interpretation, names and public art like this one could,” she said. “I believe this is an incredible opportunity for Fredericksburg to do something unique and thoughtfully rendered and engaging, and I think this idea could be the one to fulfill what the community has asked for regarding this space.”
Though many council members shared praise for the proposed plan, the council has not always been in favor of relocating the auction block. After the Aug. 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, current Vice-Mayor Charlie Frye proposed that the council consider removing the block, according to the Fredericksburg city website. The council held a public forum and online survey but ultimately voted 6–1 for the block to stay, with Frye as the only dissenting vote. However, the council also asked the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience to examine the community’s narratives about the auction block, which was released in a final report on March 13, 2019. Using interviews and focus groups with Fredericksburg residents, the report details the Fredericksburg community’s disagreement on where the block should be and what story it should tell.
After the coalition’s report, Frye once again proposed that the auction block be relocated. This time, on June 11, 2019, the council voted 6–1 in favor of relocating it to the Fredericksburg Area Museum.
Then, the council needed a certificate of appropriateness from the Architectural Review Board. After multiple meetings and a failed motion to deny the certificate, the board’s 90 days to make a decision about the certificate were up, and the city council approved it instead on Nov. 12, 2019.
But the fight over the auction block’s move wasn’t over yet. On Dec. 10, 2019, E.D. Cole Building, L.L.C., and Local Holdings, L.L.C., filed a petition in the Fredericksburg Circuit Court, appealing the council’s granting of the certificate of appropriateness and effectively blocking the plans to move the auction block.
Fredericksburg Circuit Court Judge Sarah Deneke issued an opinion on Feb. 14, 2020, stating that the council’s motion to move the auction block was, in fact, legal. Plans to relocate the block resumed, until E.D. Cole filed another petition — this time in the Virginia Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court rejected the petition. But not before the COVID-19 pandemic would stall the removal once again in April 2020.
While Black Lives Matter protests were ongoing in Fredericksburg that summer, the block remained on the corner, as protesters called for the block to be moved and spray-painted on it.
Finally, the auction block was removed on June 5, 2020, and is now located in the Fredericksburg Area Museum, the centerpiece of an exhibit called “A Monumental Weight: The ‘Auction Block’ in Fredericksburg, Virginia.”
For those interested in learning more about the proposed plan, the Central Rappahannock Regional Library is hosting a virtual lunch and learn event on Sept. 15, the Fredericksburg Area Museum is delivering an in-person presentation on Oct. 5, and there will be a recorded presentation available on the museum’s website beginning in mid-September. According to the Fredericksburg city website, public feedback is welcome and requested by Oct. 16.
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