Two Richmond philanthropic organizations recently awarded a combined $300,000 in challenge grants to the Robert Russa Moton Museum. The Robert G. Cabell III and Maude Morgan Cabell Foundation, and The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation further challenged the museum’s supporters to match their award with an additional $450,000.
When complete, the effort will generate a total of $750,000 in support toward the $2.3 million permanent exhibition which opens to the public on April 23, 2011, the 60th anniversary of the historic Moton Student Strike led by 16-year-old Barbara Johns.
The strike led to the filing of Davis v. Prince Edward one of the five cases decided in the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. The museum is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of the era.
Donors wishing to have their donations credited toward these challenge grants should contact the museum at 434-315-8775 or [email protected].
The Robert Russa Moton Museum is located at 900 Griffin Boulevard, Farmville, Virginia. It is the site of the April 23, 1951 student walkout, led by 16-year-old junior Barbara Johns, in protest of inferior educational facilities. The Moton strike launched Prince Edward County’s 13-year struggle for Civil Rights in Education and resulted in the filing of Davis v. Prince Edward, which called for an end to racial segregation in public education. Davis was decided, along with four other cases, in the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision.
The museum is establishing a permanent exhibit that will trace Prince Edward County’s 13-year struggle to establish an integrated school system. The exhibition will be in place by April 23, 2011, the 60th anniversary of the student protest. It will offer the only place in the Commonwealth of Virginia where visitors can come to understand the processes by which citizens and their national, state, and local governments resolved the policy issues of segregation in public education. For more information visit the museum’s web site at https://motonmuseum.org <https://motonmuseum.org/> .