Interview with Rhonda Keyes Pleasants
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Interviewees
Keyes Pleasants, Rhonda
Accessibility Note
Content is digitally accessible 2026.
Interviewer
Edwards, Ana
Producer
Sunshine, Daniel
Description
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.
Biographical Note
Ana Edwards is a public historian and community activist. Currently, she is a teaching professor in VCU's Department of African American Studies. Most of her work centers on preserving the history and public spaces associated with Gabriel and the African Burial Ground in Shockoe Bottom.
Rhonda Keyes Pleasants is the second person to serve as Chair of the Family Representative Council. Born in Virginia Beach, she attended VCU and has lived in Richmond ever since. She is a mortician and funeral home director. Under her leadership, the East Marshall Street Well Project has produced new research and memorialization projects, but she remains deeply disappointed that VCU has not made much progress towards burying the ancestral remains.
Note
This interview description and biographical information was written by Daniel Sunshine.
Redaction information: Redacted sensitive comments.
Corporate Name Subject
Hampden-Sydney College. Medical Department--Corrupt practices; Virginia Commonwealth University--Corrupt practices
Topical Subject
Reparations for historical injustices; Human remains (Archaeology)--Repatriation; African American cemeteries--Desecration; Body snatching; History--Virginia--Richmond; Medical colleges--Corrupt practices; Universities and colleges--Corrupt practices; Racism in medicine; Racism against Black people; Public history; Community organization; Mortuary technicians; Death care industry
Place of Interview
Virginia Commonwealth University, The Workshop
City/Location
Richmond (Va.)
Genre
oral histories (literary genre)
Local Genre
oral history; sound recording; text
Type
Sound; Text
Digital Format
audio/mp3
Language
eng
Rights Statement URL
Rights
This material is protected by copyright, and copyright is held by Rhonda Keyes Pleasants. You are permitted to use this material in any way that is permitted by copyright. In addition, this material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Acknowledgment of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is required.
Collection
East Marshall Street Well Oral History Project
Contributors
Virginia Commonwealth University
Source
"Interview with Rhonda Keyes Pleasants," East Marshall Street Well Oral History Project, M 573, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University.
File Name
emswoh_keyespleasantsrhonda_interview.mp3
Disciplines
African American Studies | Digital Humanities | History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oral History | Social History | United States History