Nine people, including a university president, three museum officials and an African-American history advocate, were named Tuesday to Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s new History and Culture Commission.

The mayor created the advisory group as a follow-up to the Monument Avenue Commission, which spent more than a year conducting a study of the Confederate statues along that street and issuing a report last summer.

The mayor stated that he wants the commission to advise him on ways to implement the recommendations of the Monument Avenue Commission, including ideas for better explaining the statues’ promotion of white supremacy.

However, the new commission initially will be assigned to consider how to best memorialize the history of the slave trade in Shockoe Bottom, Mayor Stoney stated.

The apparent goal: To gain some forward motion on a project that has been undergoing planning for at least three years, but has gone nowhere despite City Council and the state collectively setting aside more than $10 million to support the effort.

The creation of the commission, though, would not end the Richmond Planning Commission’s ultimate authority under the City Charter to determine how best to proceed in both areas.

“In order to move forward in creating more equitable spaces and opportunities for all Richmonders, we must ensure the stories we tell uplift and empower, not tear down or divide,” Mayor Stoney stated in announcing the advisory commission members.

“We must reclaim our complete history and dismantle the systemic racism and inequities that resulted. I am confident this commission will provide appropriate and rightful guidance in this important task.”

The commission members are Dr. Hakim J. Lucas, president of Virginia Union University; Jamie O. Bosket, president of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture; William J. “Bill” Martin, director of the Valentine Richmond History Center; Paula Saylor-Rollins, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ director of audience development and outreach; and Free Egunfemi, a history strategist and founder of Untold Richmond, an African-American history initiative.

Other members are Dr. Melanie Buffington, a Virginia Commonwealth University associate art education professor; Dr. Julian Hayter, a University of Richmond historian and assistant professor of leadership studies; Maurice Henderson, NASA education and exhibits outreach coordinator; and Ryan Rinn, executive director of the Storefront for Community Design.

The commission also is to include four non-voting members: City Council President Cynthia I. Newbille, planner Kimberly Chen of the city Department of Planning and Development Review and two youth members that the commission is to name later after it convenes this spring.