Moderator: When Run Richmond comes around every year, people ask “Why Richmond?” Why do you feel that Richmond is the place for this run, and why does it bring people together in a way that may not happen in other spaces? 

Mayor Avula: You can't tell the story of Virginia, of America, of Blackness in this country without coming through Richmond. There's a harsh reality of the place that Richmond has in history. This effort of Run Richmond 16.19 has to be anchored in the reality of that history. There is something special about being in those spaces, about actually walking and running through these places of history, where horrific things happened, but also amazing things happened. Being able to touch and feel and smell those things is important, as we build our memory and build our vision of where Richmond and our country are heading in the future. Richmond has a very unique place in that history  

Moderator: I want to go deeper on something the Mayor just said around our responsibility in telling these stories, and the responsibility of Richmond. Richmond carries some of the most painful chapters of American history, alongside extraordinary stories of Black achievement and resistance. What responsibility does the city have to tell that full story? 

Mayor Avula: I don't think we can achieve true healing and true forward progress without being honest about the fullness of our history. We need to delve in and make sure that people know that history so that we can then move forward. The reality is that today, we still see the trappings of that history. In 2026, we still see significant disparities in health outcomes for Black Americans and in wealth accumulation for Black Americans. We see rampant residential racial segregation in our neighborhoods across the city and across the country. Those are all a result of intentional policies and practices that have been layered on for years and years in the history of our country. Our responsibility is to make sure that we know that story, that we're telling that story, and that we're translating that knowledge into the active untangling and dismantling of policies and practices that have gotten us where we are. 

Moderator: What does it take for a city to turn history into a living community experience rather than something we simply commemorate? We keep hearing this word ‘commemoration,’ but how do we get beyond simple commemoration?  

Mayor Avula: It takes events like Run Richmond 16.19. It takes these communal events that bring people, not just from Richmond, but from all over this country, together to be exposed to and to learn this history together. It takes the actual physicality of the race and walking through neighborhoods and walking through history to take in the power of what happened here. It takes cultural institutions, like BHMVA, to continue uplifting and telling those stories, to be able to weave the public narrative, the narrative arc of Virginia history and of Black history. In our strategic plan, we have seven pillars. The seventh pillar is we want to be a city that tells its stories. The importance of that storytelling, the importance of uplifting examples of incredible resistance, resilience, excellence, is healing. It is knowing where we come from to know where we're going. It is healing the atrocities of our past. 
 

A huge part of my job over my time as a public health doctor was really looking at the health and well-being of communities, looking at why it is that certain communities have longer life expectancies or higher rates of hypertension and diabetes. As you start to peel back the layers of what contributes to those disparate outcomes, it is our history. It is the redlining and why certain neighborhoods were inaccessible to Black folks. It is the adoption of a racialized zoning code back in the 1920s.
Richmond was the second city in America, second only to Baltimore, that actually had explicit language in its residential zoning code saying that Black people cannot live in these neighborhoods. We have a lot of work to do today to fix that history and to unwind that zoning code. That's why the 7th pillar of telling our stories keeps it in the consciousness of our community, so that we know we have policies to solve.
We have investments we need to make. We have work in neighborhoods that still needs to be done because we haven’t solved this. 

Moderator: I’m going back to commemoration. I want to spend some time on the 250th anniversary of our nation. I want us to connect what feeling you want the runners to get out of it this year, specifically as we commemorate the 250th anniversary. If you could sum it up in one word, what do you want the runners to feel this year? As people are coming into Richmond specifically, what do you want them to feel? 

Mayor Avula: I want them to feel the groans of history. I want them to feel hope for the future. My greatest aspiration for this city, and I think events like this really help us move there, is that we are somehow able to participate in the redemption of Richmond’s story. I hope that the history of being the capital of the Confederacy, of being the birthplace of the domestic slave trade in this country, of hundreds of years of oppression, has given birth to amazing regenerative things. I think the story of Virginia Union is probably one of the best examples of that. The fact that Lumpkin slave jail, one of the most brutal slave jails in our country, where thousands of enslaved people came through and were brutalized on their way to being sold and sent further south. That slave owner, Robert Lumpkin, married a Black woman, Mary Lumpkin, one of his slaves. When he died, that property went to her. She had befriended a pastor in town and said, “let's do something good with this,” and she started leasing it to him. That was the origin of the seminary that became Virginia Union University. I think that story is such a vivid example of how this horrific place could be redeemed for a beautiful addition to our community and something that has deep history and significance, not just in Richmond, but across the country. My hope is that Richmond follows that arc, that it would become a place that is known internationally as a place of hope and healing.  

Moderator: Five years from now, what do you hope Run Richmond 16.19 will have changed here in Richmond, and how people have engaged in Black history or how people feel connected to Black history? 

Mayor Avula: Djimon often talks about this race, and this city, as a place of pilgrimage. Sesha mentioned that one in four African Americans can trace their history back to Richmond. It really does have a unique place in this country's history. My hope is that 5 years from now, that this event and this place have gotten so much national and international attention that people see this as a pilgrimage, as a way to come back and to know their story. I think that's true for Black Americans, but I'm not Black, and I care deeply about the city, about the story. Some of that comes from growing up as an immigrant kid and feeling othered. It comes also from learning the story of our country and realizing how intentional and terrible our history has been for Black people in this country. It comes from this fundamental belief that the tapestry of humanity is not an accident. I really believe our creator did this with intention, with hope, with a nod to the beauty of what humanity can be. As Djimon talks about reconciliation, that is what I hope for this race, for the city, and for our country in 5 years, that this is a place of healing, a place of pilgrimage, and a place of acknowledging the beauty that is humanity.