In 2025, the Robert Russa Moton Museum experienced a year marked by learning, connection, remembrance, and forward movement. We welcomed students and visitors, partnered across Virginia, expanded our reach beyond our walls, and continued the careful work of telling a student-led civil rights story rooted in this place.
From classrooms to community gatherings, from local engagement to national recognition, Moton remained a space where history was not only preserved but actively shared and lived.
🕊 In Memoriam
In 2025, the Moton family said farewell to individuals whose lives and leadership are inseparable from this history:
Joy Cabarrus Speakes
Student striker • Plaintiff • Mentor • Moton leader and visionary
Dorothy Davis
Lead plaintiff, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County
The Honorable Henry L. Marsh III
Civil rights attorney • Statesman • Champion for public education
Reverend Dr. James Samuel Williams
Faith leader • Community pillar
We honor their lives by continuing to teach this history with integrity, care, and purpose.
Students at the Center
This year, Moton welcomed more than 5,000 K–12 students from county schools across the Commonwealth of Virginia. We were also proud to welcome Lunenburg County Public Schools to our growing Moton education map. As interest in Moton continues to grow, our calendar is already filling for Spring 2026, and we encourage schools and groups to schedule tours as early as possible.
Each visit reaffirmed that this building remains a living classroom — one where young people stand in the very place where students once stood up for themselves and their future.
Through the Bridge Builders Program, we worked closely with Cohorts III and IV, guiding high school students through the study of local history, civic engagement, and leadership in partnership with Fuqua School and Prince Edward County Public Schools.
Through the generous support of our sponsors and the success of our first Bridge Builders Dance Fusion FUNdraiser, Bridge Builders participated in meaningful educational travel, including visits to Historic Jamestowne, the Jamestown Settlement, and historic Petersburg — connecting classroom learning to place, memory, and lived experience.
Moton Beyond the Walls
Team Moton remained present across the region and the Commonwealth in 2025 — engaging in heritage tourism events, conferences, classrooms, and commemorations. Whether at Monticello during Civic Season, Twin Lakes State Park, or gatherings throughout Prince Edward County, Moton showed up with intention and purpose.
This year also included notable leadership moments beyond our walls, reflecting a full calendar of engagement and a sustained presence in educational and civic spaces throughout the year. Executive Director Cainan Townsend delivered the Convocation address at Longwood University, grounding new students in the power of history, responsibility, and civic engagement. Sherre Oke, Assistant Director for Visitor Engagement & Operations, continued to shape the visitor experience at Moton while also sharing the museum’s work on a national stage through her leadership with the Museum Store Association, including presenting on the development of the Moton Library & Lounge.
A Commonwealth Story, Told in One Place
Our role as a VA250 commemorative partner expanded this year, culminating in the VA250 Mobile Museum Experience at Moton — a day when multiple strands of Virginia’s story converged in one place.
Visitors and students engaged with the Mobile Museum’s exploration of revolutionary-era history before stepping inside Moton to encounter the Civil Rights narrative that emerged from this same Commonwealth’s soil. That layered experience offered a powerful reminder that Virginia’s story is interconnected — and that Moton is a place where those connections can be fully seen and understood.
In the fall of 2025, Moton also became one of approximately 70 historic sites statewide participating in the Virginia 250 Passport Program, allowing visitors to collect passport stamps while exploring Virginia’s heritage as part of the Commonwealth’s semi quincentennial commemoration.
Legacy on a National Stage
2025 marked an extraordinary year for Barbara Rose Johns’ legacy — one that carried her story from Farmville, Virginia, to the heart of the nation’s capital.
In December, Virginia’s choice to honor Barbara Rose Johns with a statue in the U.S. Capitol became reality when her bronze likeness was unveiled in Emancipation Hall as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection, joining President George Washington as one of the Commonwealth’s two official representatives in the Capitol. This historic installation recognizes a teenager whose student-led strike at Robert Russa Moton High School in 1951 helped spark legal challenges that were consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education — the Supreme Court decision that ended legal segregation in public schools.
In advance of this moment, the Robert Russa Moton Museum, in partnership with Longwood University, was honored to host a pre-event luncheon welcoming the Johns family and members of the Prince Edward County community — creating space for reflection, connection, and collective pride before the national ceremony. Community members traveled together from home to witness this milestone, underscoring the deep ties between this story and the people who have stewarded it for generations.
This year also marked the launch and national recognition of thebarbarajohnsstory.org, an award-winning digital resource dedicated to preserving and sharing Barbara Rose Johns’ story with care, accuracy, and context. Developed to support students, educators, and lifelong learners, the site expands access to primary sources, historical interpretation, and student-centered storytelling rooted in Moton’s scholarship. In 2025, the project received an Anthem Award, affirming the importance of this work and the responsibility of telling this history in ways that honor both its origins and its impact.
Community, Culture, and Care
Throughout 2025, the Robert Russa Moton Museum remained an active place of gathering — welcoming community through programs rooted in reflection, learning, and shared experience.
The year opened with MLK Day programming and continued through Black History Month, grounding national observances in local history and place. In June, Team Moton joined the wider community downtown, tabling at the Mary E. Branch Heritage Center’s Juneteenth celebration and connecting with families, neighbors, and visitors during one of Farmville’s most visible community moments of the year.
Fall programming brought new energy into the museum with a successful Friday Fright Night, where Moton hosted a public screening of Sinners, creating space for cultural conversation and critical engagement in an unexpected setting. Signature Events continued with our 5th Annual Pictures with Santa, welcoming families into the galleries, and the Moton Community Prayer Breakfast series, which offered moments of fellowship and reflection throughout the year.
2025 also marked visible growth within the museum itself. Building improvements and new outdoor lighting enhanced the campus experience, while the Grand Opening of the Moton Library & Lounge expanded how visitors engage with Moton beyond the galleries. The new retail space allows guests to carry the story forward through books, gifts, and locally rooted items aligned with Moton’s mission.
Together, these moments reflect a year in which Moton was not only a site of history, but a living community space — responsive to season, audience, and the ongoing responsibility of stewardship.
Our Gratitude
This work is collective.
The impact of the Robert Russa Moton Museum in 2025 was made possible through the shared efforts of staff across departments, board leadership, volunteers, educators, partners, sponsors, donors, artists, students, and community members who continue to show up for this place and the history it holds.
We are grateful to the schools and educators who entrusted us with their students, the organizations that partnered with us across programs and initiatives, and the many individuals who supported Moton through their time, resources, and belief in the importance of this story.
Every program delivered, every student welcomed, and every visitor engaged reflects a network of care and commitment that extends well beyond these walls. We thank all who contributed to sustaining Moton’s mission in 2025.
Looking Ahead
As we close 2025, we are reminded of what has always defined the Robert Russa Moton Museum. This place exists because students understood their moment and acted , and because generations since have chosen to preserve, teach, and protect what began here.
We move forward carrying both memory and purpose — commemorating the past, seizing the moment, and pledging to the future.
“There wasn’t any fear, I just thought—this is your moment. Seize it!”— Barbara Johns, 1979, reflecting on the 1951 student strike