Since 2020, Marvin Harris has been the driving force behind the Woodland Restoration Foundation. Working with Henrico County, the City of Richmond, descendant families, and ongoing volunteers, his foundation was able to acquire the beleaguered cemetery from the former private owner, as detailed in this post. The cemetery’s legacy is enormous, for Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1917, serves as an essential and esteemed part of Richmond’s historic landscape.
Advances under Marvin’s leadership include the uncovering of thousands of historic grave markers, an expanded board of directors for the foundation, a digital map of the cemetery made in partnership with local high school students, a new arrangement of veterans’ markers, a fundraising initiative involving commemorative bricks, and much more. A highlight for me came in June 2024, when Marvin returned a working fountain to the heart of the cemetery and presided over a lovely ceremony unveiling a state historic marker. Marvin has been an inspiring bridge-builder in the community, able to speak passionately and authoritatively about the importance of the place.
He has long sought to cultivate the next generation of leadership for the cemetery’s foundation and future. In July 2025, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that John Mitchell had taken Marvin’s place as executive director of the foundation. Mitchell has direct family ties to the cemetery, as his great-great-uncle and namesake John Mitchell Jr., editor of the Richmond Planet, founded Woodland Cemetery. However, longtime cemetery activists in the area will also remember John Mitchell’s recent role as a member of the board of directors of the disastrous Enrichmond Foundation, whose collapse and dissolution in 2022 disappeared tens of thousands of dollars in community funds and estranged longtime volunteers and families from the cemeteries it owned, East End and Evergreen. Still, Mitchell has the backing of many leaders in the African American community.
Marvin Harris has set the roadmap for Woodland’s success. We can hope that the next generation will follow it.