Restoring history | The Henrico Citizen – Henrico Citizen

The Woodland Restoration Foundation, a group dedicated to preserving the grounds of Woodland Cemetery, is in the process of fundraising and renovating the Eastern Henrico cemeterys former chapel into a museum to house artifacts and memorabilia of those interred at Woodland.

Woodland Cemetery, established in 1917 and located just north of I-64 at Mechanicsville Turnpike, is the second-largest historically African American cemetery in the area at 29 acres, next to the 60-acre Evergreen Cemetery. Woodland was created two years before perpetual care in cemeteries was required legally.

Marvin Harris, the cemeterys owner and the creator of the Woodland Restoration Foundation, grew up in Jackson Ward. He volunteered first at Evergreen Cemetery because he was an alumnus of Maggie Walker High School, whose namesake is buried in Evergreen. He spent more than four years working there before moving to Woodland.

I would venture to say I knew about 1,500 people out [in Woodland Cemetery], or at least had heard their name, Harris said. Thats what really brings me back. To see this history go back to absolutely nothing, it really makes me get involved. Thats why Im out there and thats why as long as Im on this earth, Im going to make sure that we bring it back around to where it should be.

Harris became the owner in August 2020, around five months after he became involved with the cemetery, he said. Prior to his ownership, Henrico elementary school teacher Kathleen Harrell was leading the efforts to get volunteers involved with cleaning up the cemetery.

Arthur Ashe, a Richmond-based tennis icon, is interred at Woodland Cemetery. His family and friends have donated money to the cemetery in the past. Those who were close to Ashe are also donating memorabilia to the museum, Harris said.

Harrell first went out to Woodland Cemetery in 2018 after she discovered that Ashe was buried in Richmond through a documentary she wanted to show her students, she said.

I saw [Ashes] gravesite and it looked great, she said. His family takes care of it and makes sure that its well-manicured. Then I turned around and the rest of the cemetery was completely overgrown. You couldnt see headstones, you couldnt see much of anything. It just really shook me and I couldnt stop thinking about it.

Later in 2018, Harrell heard that a large number of pine trees had been dumped in Woodland.

That was kind of my one deciding moment, like I need to go out and do something about that, she said. Three weeks and 22 truckloads later, John Shuck (another volunteer), my kid and I had cleared the dumped trees. Then I was just hooked.

Since then, Harrell has gone to the cemetery on a weekly basis, she said. She and other volunteers started a Facebook page to document the clearing progress and recruit more people to help out.

Harrell is now a board member for the restoration foundation and is in charge of coordinating volunteer efforts, she said.

Restoration is an ongoing process based upon available funding, Harris said.

Right now, were getting volunteers to put in as much time as they possibly can and weve got some donations coming in, he said, citing a $25,000 grant from Henrico County last summer among others. [A]nd we just got notice that the Virginia Outdoors Foundation is giving us a grant, so were basically doing it as we get the funding.

The Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation also donated $50,000 to Woodland Cemetery in November 2020 for its restoration efforts.

Long-range planning, including road construction and an eventual educational center, will probably take 10 to 15 years, Harris said.

We see a lot of youth that come out and they might have heard of Arthur Ashe, but they have no knowledge of some of the other people the pastors and doctors and lawyers that are interred out there, Harris said. And some of the family havent been out there in years because they moved away, or it got to the point where they didnt feel safe coming out there. We want it to be so that they can punch their relatives name in and itll tell them exactly where theyre located.

Roxie Lyons, treasurer of The Woodland Restoration Foundation, has been involved with the organization for almost a year and started volunteering because she has family members interred in the cemetery, she said.

My mother used to take me and my brothers and sisters out there as kids to clean off the graveyard because it was in such bad condition, she said. Over the years, it got worse to the point where you couldnt even get in there to do [clean up].

The foundation has been applying for grants, trying to set up a perpetual fund and also reaching out to relatives of those who are buried in the cemetery for donations and volunteers, Lyons said.

Woodland is important to Lyons on a personal level, but it also should be important to everybody in the context of identifying the history of African Americans in Richmond, she said.

We know a lot about the Confederacy. We know a lot about the generals and soldiers and everybody in that, but what about people who were living under the laws of Jim Crow? What accomplishments did they make? Thats something that Woodland represents, Lyons said. It shows that people in this community, even though we were working at a major disadvantage, were able to accomplish wonderful things. Thats why I want [Woodland] to be beautified and made sacred again. I want it so that we can educate our children.

Patricia Bozeman, another board member of the restoration foundation, also grew up going to Woodland Cemetery. She re-visited the cemetery in her adulthood and decided to get involved when she saw its poor condition, she said.

For the group of founders, the original directors, who had the imagination and the skills at the time to make sure there was a decent, respectable burial place for African Americans in the Richmond area, its really important that story continues, Bozeman said. And then to find out who the people are who are buried there and their stories, thats something that my generation is going to lose.

Im not a spring chicken anymore and Im trying to make sure that my children and grandchildren are aware of the story and know where their families and neighbors are at Woodland Cemetery.

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To learn more about the Woodland Restoration Foundation and Woodland Cemetery, or to contribute to the efforts to restore it, visit http://www.woodlandrestorationfoundation.org/

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Restoring history | The Henrico Citizen - Henrico Citizen