Race and Racial Justice
What's Happening Now
RFM Documents on Race & Racial Justice
Final Approved Minute on Race and Racism
Indigenous Reparations Ad Hoc Update, December 2025
Introduction
As Friends, we believe there is “that of God” in everyone. This belief grounds our practice of upholding the worth of every person. Just as we value each person, we hold dear the diversity of culture, race and ethnicity that enrich our human family. We commit to being a faith community of deep hospitality for and inclusion of all people.
We recognize that inequality and injustice are deeply rooted in our society. Although Quakers have a long history of fighting for social justice on many fronts, white Quakers have also at times acted from an assumption of white superiority. Therefore, we commit to challenging and repairing racism and racial bias within ourselves, our Meeting, and the wider world.
In December 2022, Richmond Friends Meeting established the Ad Hoc Committee on Race and Racism to discern how our community should address these issues and later to develop an action plan. This page documents the committee’s work and the continuing efforts in our Meeting that have grown from it.
RFM Race and Racial Justice Timeline
Image Gallery
Henrico County Registration Paper, 1797
1797 Henrico County registration paper for a man named James, who had been manumitted by Robert Pleasants, a Quaker abolitionist.
Jacob House
George Winston, a Quaker who freed his own slaves, trains and employs free Blacks in the brick making and construction of the Jacob House in 1817, originally 610 West Cary, now at Pine and Cary.
Richmond’s 19th Century Slave Market
Richmond’s 19th century slave market was the largest on the East Coast. Opposition to slavery and other factors caused a mass migration westward of many Virginia Quakers prior to the Civil War.
Map of Richmond, Virginia, 1863
Map of Richmond, Virginia, 1863. The Confederate government took over the Meetinghouse at 19th and Cary for use as a soldiers’ hospital during the Civil War. Quakers met in private homes.
Friends Association for Children, 1871
Friends Association for Children, 1871. First location of the Friends Asylum for Colored Orphans (now Friends Association for Children, located in present-day Gilpin Court). Richmond Friends were instrumental in helping establish this orphanage for children left homeless by the Civil War.
First African Baptist Church, 1865
First African Baptist Church, Richmond, 1865. Within a month of the war’s end, two Quaker sisters from Massachusetts—Lucy and Sarah Chase—opened a school in the Black church, eventually enrolling 1,000 children.