RICHMOND, Va. – The 3rd annual Run Richmond 16.19, organized by Oscar-nominated actor Djimon Hounsou, took runners throughout the city to honor the achievements of African Americans in the Commonwealth.
Runners on the symbolic 16.19-kilometer course, which is just over 10 miles, experienced the places where enslaved Africans took their first steps on American soil after being brought to Richmond.
WATCH: Run Richmond 16.19 mirrors route of enslaved Africans: ‘We all need to be connected’
Run Richmond 16.19 mirrors route of enslaved Africans: ‘We all need to be connected’
Saturday’s run was created initially as part of the Djimon Hounsou Foundation’s Africa Reconnect series .
Hounsou called the experience gratifying.
“We wanted to bring about healing and reconciliation,” he said. “This was once a dream of mine… By putting something together like this, we might eventually form a powerful community that embraces this idea of unity and diversity.”
Richmond was the largest slave-trading center in the Upper South, according to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. It is estimated that up to 2 million people were sold from Richmond to the Deep South. In 1860 there were 550,000 enslaved Black people living in Virginia.