Twenty students and community activists protested Virginia Commonwealth University’s plan to pave a parking lot they believe is a historical black burial ground. The group is protesting the repaving of a 400-space parking lot owned by Virginia Commonwealth University arguing the school is desecrating a sacred site where slaves and freed blacks were buried. Although a state archaeologist issued a report stating that most of the Richmond Burial Ground for Negroes was covered by Interstate 95, there is a portion of the burial site underneath the parking lot. The university decided in August not to use the 50-foot section of the lot as a memorial, stating they are not paving over anything that has not already been paved over.

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