RICHMOND, Va. – A historic highway marker for the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground was unveiled during a ceremony Sunday afternoon.
More than 22,000 people were laid to rest at the 31-acre site, which is believed to be the largest burial ground for free and enslaved African Americans in the U.S.
The heart of the now-invisible cemetery is on North 5th Street.
"Today is about a story of resilience. Because the legacy, the spirit and the resilience of the descendants of those ancestors still lives on with the descendants here with us today," Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said.
The Virginia Department of Historic Resources called the burial ground one of Virginia's most endangered historic places.
The site, which is Richmond's second African burial ground, opened in 1816, but closed in 1879 because of overcrowding.
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