A Timeline of Marcus-David Peters Circle
Please forgive any omissions, and feel free to let us know if we have left something out or have made factual errors
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The First Peoples....
Sometime between 13,000 - 18,000 BC: The first human sets foot into what is now called "Virginia." http://www.virginiaplaces.org/nativeamerican/firstvirginian.html
1526 - “The Spanish took enslaved Africans to a settlement in the present-day Carolinas in 1526. The slaves rebelled, and the settlement failed.” https://www.virginiamercury.com/2019/08/11/what-are-we-commemorating-much-of-what-weve-been-told-about-virginias-1619-first-africans-is-wrong/
1565 - “...the Spanish brought enslaved Africans to present-day St. Augustine, Fla., the first European settlement in what’s now the continental U.S.“ https://time.com/5653369/august-1619-jamestown-history/
1570 - “Powhatan controlled more than 30 smaller tribes and more than 150 settlements, who shared a common Virginia Algonquian language.”
1607 - The native Tidewater population is between 13,000 and 14,000.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia
15?? - Arrival of Europeans
1583 - Queen Elizabeth I of England grants Walter Raleigh a charter to plant a colony north of Spanish Florida
1611-1612 - Europeans trespass in the Richmond region.
1619 - Twenty kidnapped people from present-day Angola are trafficked to Point Comfort, VA in late August.
They are the first recorded slaves trafficked from Africa to Virginia.. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery#United_States]
19th century....
October 10, 1800 - Gabriel Prosser is executed in the Richmond area. The precedent is set for demonizing, over-policing, and murdering Black people fighting for their liberation. So-called “slave catchers“ will evolve into modern day policing, Although their firepower has certainly increased, the foundational substrate of racism remains unchanged.
Library of Congress
Civil War....
Robert E. Lee allows his troops to execute Black Union prisoners of war, while allowing white soldiers to live - a war crime.
Post-bellum, Reconstruction, Jim Crow era....
May 29, 1890 - Installation of the Robert E. Lee statue
https://www.nbc12.com/2020/06/04/history-behind-robert-e-lee-monument-richmond/
1894 - The United Daughters of the Confederacy is founded. It chooses Richmond for its headquarters, where it remains to this day, supporting Klan-adjacent, white supremacist, white nationalist organizations by funneling huge sums of money to white supremacist initiatives.
20th century....
Five more Confederate statues are installed on Monument Avenue
Daughters of the Confederacy, located a mile from this location on Arthur Ashe Boulevard continues to actuate harm on Black Americans by indoctrinating millions of schoolchildren with white supremacist ideology.
1991 - "...a plumber filmed what has been described as the world's first viral video of police brutality. It showed the savage beating of Rodney King, an unarmed black man, by several police officers after a car chase in Los Angeles, California."
August 25, 1995 - 21 year old Marco Loney is shot in the back by RPD. https://www.nbc12.com/2020/08/25/years-after-man-killed-by-rpd-officer-family-wants-case-reopened/
2002 - 26-year-old Jeramy Gilliam is shot in the back by a Richmond Police Department officer. That officer is incongruously later chosen to be the interim police chief. “Published reports state Gilliam didn’t match a suspect description and that the gun he allegedly pointed at Blackwell was found 35 feet away and lacked fingerprints.”
21st century....
"Racism is not getting worse, it's getting filmed." - Will Smith
The murders of Black people by the police continue unabated, but begin to be filmed
https://www.vox.com/2020/6/30/21306843/black-police-killings
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-06-04/police-killings-black-victims
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/865261916/a-decade-of-watching-black-people-die
May 14, 2018
The shooting of beloved biology teacher
Marcus-David Lamar Peters
He dies the following day.
JusticeandReformation.org is formed.
May 25, 2020 - The brutal murder of George Floyd in broad daylight by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin sparks a global uprising against racism in all its forms, particularly, the extrajudicial executions of human beings by agents of the United States government.
May 29 - Richmond protests begin in earnest
June 2020....
June 2 - In MDP Circle, Richmond police fire teargas grenades directly into a group of peaceful, kneeling demonstrators - some of whom are minor children - while they chant, “HANDS UP, DON’T SHOOT."
The protestors had broken no laws, and had not violated curfew.
Other angles on the teargassing;
https://twitter.com/chadloder/status/1267936600903675904
https://twitter.com/Justiceaddwater/status/1267650345947271176?s=20
Community members "reclaim" the green space around the Lee statue. Various names emerge and cling to the space, including Revolution Crossroads.
The space is utilized for a variety of purposes. The atmosphere by day is like a street festival, filled with food trucks, music, families picnicking, artists painting. By night, the police attempt to quash the protest using force, frivolous arrests, rubber bullets, teargas, threats, and beatings. Several police officers are charged with varying offenses. We are still trying to determine if any have been fired or suspended. [Richmond is currently on its third police chief since the protest began last May.]
Local high school and college students
begin staging photoshoots for graduations.
Musicians of all genres - classical, jazz, R&B, hip hop - begin to make unannounced performances, filling the air with music.
Gardening as protest: Gardeners begin to plant a "Food Justice Garden"
A "Free Radical Library" is lovingly curated by a community member. Police destroy it on multiple occasions. https://twitter.com/LilRadLibrary
Basketball hoops appear, an expression of Black joy, freedom, and liberation.
June 13 - 5,000 Man March
June 14th - Juneteenth Celebration!!
July 21, 2020 - A “Violin Vigil“ for Elijah McClain is performed: https://richmond.com/news/local/violin-vigil-hits-richmond-with-an-emotional-memorable-evening-at-lee-circle/article_b7d29002-9bc9-5318-a995-b69e88e80465.html
July 25 - The Elegba Folklore Society hosts an epic community worship, ancestral remembrance, history lesson, and drumming circle. Images from this event end up on the front page of the NY Times.
August 2020...
August 16 - The Virginia Flaggers chainsaw down the handcrafted Marcus-David Peters Circle sign.
They post the sign on social media with a Confederate flag draped over it.
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Community members fundraise to install a permanent sign:
Fall 2020...
In a close mayoral election, the disposition of statues and treatment of protesters become bellweather issues.
The least experienced Supreme Court justice in 30 years is nominated. Her presence on the High Court bodes ill for human rights.
September 28 - The Richmond police arrest stalwart citizen journalist @GoadGatsby
on an outstanding warrant for... obstructing free passage. The arrest is part of a continuing campaign to harass, intimidate, scare, verbally abuse, and threaten local journalists.October 2020....
October 17, 2020 - Marcus-David Lamar Peters’ 27th Birthday-in-Heaven is celebrated in The Circle with cake, fun, music, and family-friendly activities.
October 29, 2020 - Philadelphia bans the use of tear gas and rubber bullets. As of this writing, Richmond City Council has still failed to do so.
November 2020....
November 1, 2020 - A "Trump caravan"* drives past The Circle, not for the first time; participants are armed and carry water pistols full of mace. They discharge a weapon; a bullet hits a photographer's car. They strike "G," the "gentle gardener" with a truck.
As of 12/31/20, the fallout from this episode is still working its way through the courts.
*led by former strip club operator, felon, and perennial failed candidate for various political offices Mike Dickinson
November 8, 2020 - Review of Marcus-David Peters' homicide finds shooting "justified"
December 2020....
December 7 - "Breonna's Law" banning no-knock warrants, is signed into law in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We are only the 3rd state to do so.
Richmond police continue their harassment campaign, calling BLM occupiers insults such as “retarded.”
Drcember 25 - Richmond police arrest a BLM space-keeper for objecting to the towing of another protestor’s car. When she asked officers, “Why do you hate us?” they threw her into their vehicle. She is still incarcerated, during a global pandemic.
2021.....
The Black Lives Matter-centered projections on the Lee statue are featured on the cover of National Geographic's first ever “Year in Review.‘
May 14, 2021 - anniversary of the Marcus-David Peters shooting
May 25, 2021 - 1st anniversary of George Floyd's death
September 8, 2021 - Robert E. Lee statue comes down
??? - ‘Monument’ to Jefferson Davis removed
??? - All Confederate “plinths,” i.e. stumps, removed.
??? - Richmond City Council Bans the use of teargas and all weapons of war
November 2023 - AOC wins the presidential election, issues executive order requiring all police departments to remove military grade weapons from their arsenals
January 2024 - Alexsis Rodgers sworn in as Richmond’s First Black female, LGBTQ mayor. She immediately defunds the police in her first budget. City Council is deluged by phone calls and emails, and approves her budget.
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