Journalist Kristen Green's new book tells the story of Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who would later transform a notorious slave jail in Richmond following the Civil War.
That's because, by 1867, she'd leased the old jail to Baptist minister Dr. Nathaniel Colver, who turned it into a religious school for newly-freed Black people. The Devil's Half Acre then became"God's Half Acre," and by 1899, something more: Virginia Union University, now just a few miles down the road.
Lucas recognized Lumpkin with a cornerstone, and named a street in her honor."To allow her legacy to be known for providing a jail as a place for education and empowerment is the story that we're constantly shaping for our students," he said.Over the last two decades, activists have launched the restoration efforts of a burial ground and slave trail, one that traces the forced migration into the Deep South.
"The first elected African-American governor [Douglas Wilder] came out there," McQuinn said."We have mayors, we have leaders and pastors, men and women who also went to Virginia Union University, including myself." But then, just before finishing her book, Green found Dr. Carolivia Herron, a Howard University professor, and great-great-granddaughter of Mary Lumpkin.