*In early June, officials in Fredericksburg, Virginia, removed a stone block that commemorates the auctioning of enslaved people from a public sidewalk. Now, the controversial artifact is set to go on view in a local museum with added contextualization, according to Smithsonianmg.com.
The 800-pound block of sandstone once stood at the corner of William and Charles Streets in the city’s historic center. Beginning in the 1830s, enslavers routinely auctioned off groups of enslaved African Americans near the site.
Michael S. Rosenwald of the Washington Post reported in June that the block and its painful history have been the subject of debate for decades. This year, the stone came under renewed scrutiny as protests against racial injustice and police brutality swept the country. During marches in Fredericksburg, protesters reportedly spray-painted it and chanted, “Move the block!”
City officials voted to remove the stone last year. But lawsuits and the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the actual event until this summer. In the coming months, a temporary panel called “A Witness to History” is slated to be installed where the block once stood. Per the Free Lance-Star, the stone will go on display at the Fredericksburg Area Museum (FAM) by mid-November at the earliest. Eventually, the museum plans to feature the block in a permanent exhibition about Fredericksburg’s African American history.
Learn more about the slave auction block’s removal in WUSA9’s video below:
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