Interview with Rhonda Keyes Pleasants

This interview was conducted as part of the East Marshall Street Well Project. Ana Edwards, a public historian and teaching professor, interviewed Rhonda Keyes Pleasants, a a mortician and funeral home director who was the second person to serve as Chair of the Family Representative Council.Ms. Keyes Pleasants described her life’s work as advocating for the dignity of the dead. That ethos led her to serve on the Family Representative Council, and eventually, to become its second chair. She recounted evaluating Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground and Evergreen Cemetery as potential burial sites before the Kontos Building plaza was chosen. Throughout the interview, Ms. Keyes Pleasants expressed her personal pain, weariness, and frustration that VCU has not made more progress towards burying the ancestral remains. She believes that too much emphasis has been placed on scientific research at the expense of burial. Most of all, Ms. Keyes Pleasants expressed concern that VCU will cite financial burdens as the reason why it cannot fulfill promises made to the Family Representative Council. ; https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/emsw_oralhistories/1006/thumbnail.jpg