144-0053

Robert Russa Moton High School

VLR Listing Date

03/19/1997

NRHP Listing Date

10/24/1995

NHL Listing Date

08/05/1998
1998-08-05

NRHP Reference Number

95001177
DHR's Virginia Board of Historic Resources easement

This innocent-looking school building built in 1939 at the corner of South Main Street and Griffin Boulevard in the town of Farmville was an object of national attention in Virginia’s school desegregation crisis of the 1950s. The school was the scene of a strike begun on April 23, 1951 by students of the then all-African American institution to protest their inadequate and unequal educational facilities. The strike led to the court case Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, which was combined with others before the U. S. Supreme Court as Brown v. Board of Education. That case was the basis for the landmark decision that struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine governing public policy. The decision gave birth to Virginia’s massive resistance movement during which Prince Edward County closed its schools until 1964 rather than desegregate. Since listing, the former school has been developed into a civil rights museum.

Last Updated: January 31, 2024

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Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark

For additional information Read

Nomination Form

253-5182

Ball’s Bluff Battlefield Historic District and National Cemetery

(NHLs) Virginia's National Historic Landmarks

003-5085

Covered Bridges NHL Context Study (MPD)

(MPD) Multiple Property Document

073-0030

Robert Russa Moton Boyhood Home

Prince Edward (County)