At 10th and Capital Square in Richmond, VA on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 10:30 a.m., Virginia Govenor Tim Kaine announced that Virginia is first to do a pilot project to extract and index the Virginia Freedmen' s Bureau records in cooperation with the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia and the Genealogical Society of Utah. Governor Kaine said that: "This is the equivalent for African Americans of Ellis Island's records being put up."   He also said that: "I am proud that Virginia is leading the effort, and will be a pilot for subsequent information extraction.  At the podium is Dr. W. Darrell Walden of UR telling the story of former slave and freedmen, Hawkins Wilson of Caroline County, Virignia. Hawkins Wilson's letter was written to the Richmond Freedmen's Bureau to solicit help in finding his family after the Civil War in May 1867.  On Dr. Walden's right is Dr. Roice D. Luke of VCU, both co-founders of the Virginia Freedmen Project. Next to Dr. Luke is Stacy Burrs, chair of the Black History Museum, Viola Baskerville, Secretary of Administration for the Governor, State Senator Henry Marsh. On the very right side of the photo is the Honorable Tim Kaine, Governor of Virginia. To the left of Dr. Walden are Wayne Metcalfe and Alan Heath, Vice-president and Project Manager, respectively, for the Genealogical Society of Utah. The Governor also announced the placement of a Virginia Historical Marker to mark the area near 10th and Broad Streets where the Freedmen's Bureau and Freedman's Bank offices were located. A coordinated follow up announcement was made the next day, October 27th, in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society national annual meeting by Geneaological Society of Utah officials.

Governor Kaine's announcement above generated within a few days over 11 pages of Google news stories from more than 125 publications across the world. Significant news coverage took place as far away as Canada and Australia. The Richmond Times-Dispatch story on the African-American heritage initiative was the third most e-mailed news story in the entire Media General chain of 25 daily newspapers and 23 TV stations.