Visit

Located in historic Farmville, just 25 miles from Appomattox, and within 60 miles of Charlottesville, Lynchburg, and Richmond, Moton is a beacon of civil rights education and Virginia history. Visit us here in “the heart of Virginia” and discover why.

Hours and Admissions

Guest Hours

12 – 4 p.m., Monday-Saturday, and by appointment.

Office Hours

9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Monday-Friday, and by appointment.

Admission

Admission is free for the general public.

School & Group Tours

To schedule a guided tour (groups of 5+ individuals is preferable), email [email protected] or call 434.315.8775 ext. 6 at least ten business days in advance. Please also fill out this form so we can better accommodate your group. Click here!

K-12 educators, check out additional information about scheduling field trips and other educational programs.

Directions

Physical Location

900 Griffin Blvd,
Farmville, Virginia 23901

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Parking

There are limited parking spaces onsite at The Moton Museum. Overflow parking can be found across the street from our museum at the Southgate Shopping Center. Visitors are encouraged to use the spaces that run parallel to Griffin Boulevard. Please reference our parking map for details.

Looking for places to stay, restaurants to try and fun activities to make your trip to Farmville memorable? Check out visitfarmville.com.

Explore Galleries

Gallery I – A Call to Action

Step back into 1951 and take a seat alongside history makers in the Moton High School auditorium. Rallied by the persuasive arguments of 16-year-old Barbara Johns, you will join students as they walk out in protest of inferior school facilities and into a series of events that will forever change the face of American Education.

Gallery II – Living Separate But Unequal

Though founded upon the fundamental truth that “all men are created equal,” America, throughout its history, has struggled to live up to this ideal. In this gallery, the reality of segregated education is revealed inside a cold “tar paper shack” classroom complete with original pot-belly stove.

Gallery III – The Court Speaks

Here the Moton students hand their complaints to the NAACP attorneys. Their lawsuit, Davis v. Prince Edward, will become the largest and only student-initiated case decided as part of Brown v. Board of Education. See the evidence presented to the courts on the road to Brown and the triumphant May 17, 1954, decision declaring “separate but equal” public schools unconstitutional.

Gallery IV – Virgina Responds

The Supreme Court’s 1955 Brown II ruling —that public schools be integrated “with all deliberate speed” —failed to provide national leadership regarding the process of school desegregation. State and local leaders opposed to integration filled the void. Experience the uncertainty of the period and competing national, state, and local interests.

Gallery V – Prince Edward County Says No

In 1959 when facing court-ordered school desegregation, Prince Edward County officials took the extreme step of closing all public schools rather than integrating. Learn about the decisions local families were forced to make to educate their children during those five years when public schools were closed.

Gallery VI – Rebirth

Free education available to all children returned in September 1963 with the opening of the Kennedy Administration’s Prince Edward Free Schools. Over 1,500 students enrolled. Discover the challenges and success of the Fee School year, which ends with the Supreme Court’s 1964 Griffin v. Prince Edward decision securing education for all.