A Piece of History Recreated at Moton Museum

Approximately 150 residents and town and county officials came to witness the official ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony for the newly constructed replica of one of the old “tarpaper shack” schoolhouses that once stood on the grounds of the Robert Russa Moton School in Farmville. Although the new building is built to meet current building codes with modern materials and using modern techniques, it looks, on the street side and ends, very much the same, and sits in the same place as one of the old, cold, leaky and drafty buildings that were first constructed in 1948 to “alleviate overcrowding” for the 400 or so students attending the R.R. Moton School, which only had a capacity of 180 students.

The original footprint of one of the other tarpaper shacks is marked by a narrow concrete walk, just adjacent to the new building. It was the poor conditions of those old tarpaper shack schoolhouses that initially prompted the student walkout and consequent strike, led by Barbara Johns in April of 1951. These actions began a chain of events that would help to change public education in the United States forever.

Davis v. Prince Edward County became one of the five cases decided on by the Supreme Court’s ruling in the matter of Brown v. Board of Education. The final and historic ruling in 1954: Separate but equal education was unconstitutional, thus mandating desegregation of public schools. Virginia leaders responded defiantly with a policy of massive resistance. Public schools in Prince Edward County would stay closed until 1964, 13 years after the student walkout and strike at R. R. Moton School, when the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Griffin v. County Board of Prince Edward, forcing the county to fund and open their public school system.

Hamilton Glass, a Richmond artist and renowned muralist, painted the exterior of the new building that faces the Moton Museum. He also worked with the Moton Museum on the design of the striking mural that is painted on the interior wall of the classroom.  Far from standing only as a monument to the fight for civil rights in our nation, the building will be used for “…additional educational and meeting space.”

Today, undoubtedly the strongest advocate for the educational potentials of the Moton Museum, aside from the museum itself, is Longwood University. Standing within sight of each other in Farmville, their roles, relative to each other, have changed dramatically over the years. Following the actions of other universities across the nation, Longwood, in January of this year, approved a letter of “profound regret for its actions during the civil rights era and apologized to those who have been hurt.” Additionally, and perhaps even more significantly, Longwood University and the Moton Museum entered into an official covenant of affiliation on June 30 of this year that will ensure and reinforce the longstanding mission of the historic museum, “… to share the story of the Moton strike, advance and expand public understanding of the struggle for civil rights and to advance the Museum’s broader mission of supporting the cause of civil rights.”  It will also serve as an invaluable hall of education for Longwood University. It is a partnership that will ensure that the free and open dialog, the real talk about racial equality and the continued quest for civil rights today, not just in our county, not just in our state or even our nation, but all over the world, will continue to be spoken…and heard.