The Robert Russa Moton Museum stands today as a National Historic Landmark and a living record of young people who reshaped the course of American history. As we prepare for a historic national moment, the installation of Barbara Rose Johns’ statue in the United States Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection, we reflect on how the Moton story grew from a single act of courage into a national legacy.
In April 1951, sixteen-year-old Barbara Rose Johns and her classmates staged a student-led walkout from Robert Russa Moton High School to protest unequal and unsafe conditions, including overcrowded classrooms and tar-paper shacks used for instruction. NAACP attorneys Oliver Hill, Spottswood Robinson, and team took up the students’ cause, filing Davis v. Prince Edward County. Their case became the only student-led lawsuit consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
But the story did not stop there. Rather than desegregate, Prince Edward County officials closed the public schools from 1959 to 1964, an act of resistance that left a generation of students without a formal public education. Families, churches, and volunteers created makeshift learning spaces, efforts that soon drew national attention. With support from the Kennedy administration, the Prince Edward County Free Schools opened in 1963, restoring education to more than 1,500 students after years without public schooling.
Public schools in Prince Edward County reopened in 1964 after the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, a case led by Reverend L. Francis Griffin, pastor of First Baptist Church and a central figure in the movement for educational equality. Reverend Griffin’s leadership in the courtroom, in the community, and from the pulpit sustained families through the school closings and kept national attention fixed on the crisis. His unwavering commitment helped bring public education back to Prince Edward County after five long years of denial.
By the 1990s, the former high school building still stood, worn but deeply significant. The Martha E. Forrester Council of Women, a local civic organization dedicated to preserving community history, led the effort to save the site. Their persistence resulted in the building’s designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1998, recognizing its national importance in the civil rights story. The museum opened to the public in 2001, and in 2013 the permanent exhibition The Moton School Story: Children of Courage debuted, transforming the building into a fully interpreted educational museum.
In 2015 the Moton Museum entered into a partnership with Longwood University, marking a new era of educational work, community engagement, and national relevance. This year celebrates the 10-year anniversary of that partnership, a decade of collaborative teaching, scholarship, and outreach that continues to strengthen our mission.
As the Moton Museum approaches the 75th anniversary of the 1951 student strike and the 25th anniversary of the museum in 2026, we stand in a moment of reflection and anticipation. The upcoming installation of Barbara Rose Johns’ statue in the U.S. Capitol affirms what this community has long known: the courage shown here in Farmville helped shape the nation.
Her statue will stand not only for her, but for the Moton students who walked out, the families who endured the school closings, the leaders who fought tirelessly in court and community, including Reverend Griffin, and the generations who have carried this story forward.
This is the Moton story — a story of resilience, leadership, and hope.
A story that began in a small Southern town and now speaks to the nation.
We invite you to learn more at motonmuseum.org and motonschoolstory.org, visit the museum, and join us as we prepare for this historic chapter ahead.