Richmond City Council voted unanimously to declare East End, Evergreen and Forest View cemeteries a public necessity.

The ordinance passed on Monday night also authorizes the city to acquire the parcels in order to preserve and maintain the historic Black cemeteries.

Each of the three cemeteries are more than 100 years old. The largest and oldest of them, 60-acre Evergreen Cemetery, dates back to 1891. Among the hundreds of African-Americans buried there are notables that include businesswoman and community leader Maggie L. Walker, as well as former editor of the Richmond Planet, John Mitchell Jr. Evergreen and the adjacent 16-acre East End Cemetery are located in the Richmond’s East End, while Forest View Cemetery occupies less than a half-acre on Bassett Avenue in the city’s South Side.

Before the vote on the ordinance that she first sponsored a year ago, 7th District councilwoman Cynthia I. Newbille acknowledged “all of those who’ve been working over the years to make sure that these cemeteries, these sacred burial grounds, are secured, preserved, restored and maintained.”

The action was prompted following the collapse of the Enrichmond Foundation and

its affiliate Parity LLC. Founded in 1990, the nonprofit provided financial services for a number of smaller “friends” groups.

Between 2017 and 2019, they acquired the cemeteries but its upkeep and maintenance of the properties was soon criticized. When the foundation was dissolved in July 2022, more then 80 local groups were left unable to access the funds they had entrusted to Enrichmond.

The FBI and Virginia Attorney General’s Office began investigating the closure last year.

It is unclear exactly how much money was lost by the foundation, but estimates are in the hundreds of thousands.

A number of residents spoke in support of two ordinances that were among those also passed that evening.

One ordinance will designate the corner of 2300 Third Ave. and Juniper Street in honor of the late Dr. Clifton Whitaker Jr., a former police detective who, after retiring from the force, became an ordained minister. He established multiple community outreach programs while serving as pastor of Grayland Baptist Church for 33 years. Dr. Whitaker died on Sept. 20, 2021, at age 79.

Another ordinance designates the corner of 300 North 11th St. and East Broad Street in honor of the late Dr. Lindsey Grizzard Braun, a nurse practitioner with VCU Health Systems known for both her dedication to her patients and her compassion in caring for them and their families. Dr. Braun was 30 when she died on Aug. 2, 2023.