Farmville, Virginia’s former Robert Russa Moton High School, now a National Historic Landmark and museum, is the student birthplace of America’s Civil Rights Revolution.
“[The 1951 Moton Student Strike] marked the start of the modern civil rights movement . . . [and] forever changed the landscape of American education.” - Don Baker, The Washington Post Magazine
Farmville,
Virginia’s former Robert Russa Moton High School, now a National
Historic Landmark and museum, preserves and constructively interprets
the history of Civil Rights in Education, specifically as it relates to
Prince Edward County, and the leading role its citizens played in
America’s transition from segregation toward integration.
Moton strives to promote dialogue and advance positions that ensure empowerment within a constitutional democracy.
Dreamed by 16-year-old Barbara Johns, the 1951 Moton Student Strike produced three-fourths of the plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the landmark Supreme Court decision desegregating U.S. schools.
From 1959 to 1964 Prince Edward County closed their public schools to avoid integration. The Supreme Court in Griffin v. Prince Edward (1964) ordered schools to reopen, declaring “the time for mere ‘deliberate speed’ has run out.”
“If . . . you are looking for the handful of places where this nation’s civil rights revolution began, check out the old Moton High School in Farmville, Va.” - The Toledo Blade
This institution is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
