Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones visited the Robert Russa Moton Museum on Thursday, August 6, for a tour of the National Historic Landmark followed by a roundtable with education and community leaders in Moton’s historic auditorium.
The Farmville visit was part of Jones’ statewide “Protecting Virginians” listening tour, which took him more than 1,700 miles across Virginia over 10 days and 35 stops. The tour brought the Attorney General together with local leaders and communities to hear directly about issues affecting Virginians and consider how his office can help.
History as the Setting for Conversation
At Moton, the conversation centered on education.
Jones first toured the museum, where the story of the April 23, 1951, student strike and Prince Edward County’s long struggle for educational civil rights is preserved.
The roundtable that followed took place in the auditorium where 16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns called her fellow students together before they walked out of Robert Russa Moton High School to protest the unequal conditions of their segregated school.
According to the Office of the Attorney General, the discussion focused on challenges that remain in educational equity and opportunities for the Attorney General’s office to help address disparities.
Among those joining Jones at the table were Moton Executive Director Cainan Townsend, who also serves as Chair of the Prince Edward County School Board; Longwood University President W. Taylor Reveley IV; Prince Edward County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Donald “Chip” Jones; and other education and community leaders.
A Connection to Barbara Johns
The visit carried another connection to Moton’s history.
Virginia’s Office of the Attorney General is headquartered in Richmond’s Barbara Johns Building, named in honor of the young woman whose leadership at Moton helped set in motion Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, one of the five cases decided together in Brown v. Board of Education.
Earlier this year, while commemorating the Brown decision, Jones described that history as personal. His father, Judge Jerrauld Jones, was among the children who helped integrate Ingleside Elementary School in Norfolk.
During his statewide tour, Attorney General Jones emphasized the importance of hearing directly from people in their own communities, saying that listening to those who understand their communities firsthand is “where effective solutions are born.”
Where History Meets the Present
Seventy-five years after Moton students gathered in this auditorium and demanded better from their public education system, education leaders returned to the same room for a conversation about the work that continues.
It is part of Moton’s continuing role: preserving the history made here while creating space for people to learn from it, gather around the issues of their own time and consider what comes next.