Virginia Civil Rights Memorial

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Virginia Civil Rights Memorial
Virginia Civil Rights Memorial
Coordinates 37°32′19.7″N77°26′1″W / 37.538806°N 77.43361°W / 37.538806; -77.43361 Coordinates: 37°32′19.7″N77°26′1″W / 37.538806°N 77.43361°W / 37.538806; -77.43361
LocationVirginia State Capitol

The Virginia Civil Rights Memorial is a monument in Richmond, Virginia, commemorating protests which helped bring about school desegregation in the state. [1] The memorial was opened in July 2008, and is located on the grounds of the Virginia State Capitol. It features eighteen statues of leaders or participants in the Civil Rights Movement on four sides of a rectangular granite stone block onto which are carved quotes. [2] The memorial was designed by Stanley Bleifeld, who was chosen by the commission behind the construction of the monument. [3] The memorial cost $2.8 million which was financed by private donations. [2]

Contents


Background

Plaque describing the movement for integration of Virginia schools. Virginia-Civil-Rights-Memorial-plaque.jpg
Plaque describing the movement for integration of Virginia schools.

R. R. Moton High School, an all-black high school in Farmville, Virginia, founded in 1923, suffered from terrible conditions due to underfunding. The school did not have a gymnasium, cafeteria or teachers' restrooms. Teachers and students did not have desks or blackboards, and due to overcrowding, some students had to take classes in an immobilized, decrepit school bus parked outside the main school building. The school's requests for additional funds were denied by the all-white school board. [1]

In response, on April 23, 1951, a 16-year-old student named Barbara Rose Johns covertly organized a student general strike. She forged notes to teachers telling them to bring their students to the auditorium for a special announcement. When the school's students showed up, Johns took the stage and persuaded the school to strike to protest poor school conditions. Over 450 walked out and marched to the homes of members of the school board, who refused to see them. Thus began a two-week protest. [4]

The protest led to a court case where Virginia civil rights lawyers Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson brought suit against the school board. Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County was eventually one of the four cases combined into Brown v. Board of Education , the famous case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1954, officially overturned racial segregation in U.S. public schools. [1] However the policies of Massive Resistance delayed integration until the 1960s when national legislation was passed. [5]

Construction

Governor of Virginia Mark Warner and the Virginia General Assembly established on February 24, 2005, the commission to oversee the monument. [6] Ground was broken on the site of the monument on February 19, 2008. The memorial is located on a corner opposite a Statue of Harry F. Byrd, the architect of the massive resistance movement against civil rights. [7] The monument was on temporary display in Newburgh, New York before being installed in July 2008. The ceremony opening the memorial was held on July 21, 2008, and was attended by about 4,000, including Governor Tim Kaine, relatives of those involved in the protest, and civil rights leaders. [2] Stanley Bleifeld, who was the sculptor of the monument, said that because of the continuing nature of the Civil Rights Movement, he "wanted to make a living memorial, not a statue so that people engage and understand what's behind it." [8]

Statues

Eighteen statues are positioned around the monument. Not every statue depicts a specific person, with statues representing both students and adults. Among those depicted include:

Quotes

Two quotes are engraved on the granite on each of the long sides of the monument:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince Edward County, Virginia</span> County in Virginia, United States

Prince Edward County is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,849. Its county seat is Farmville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farmville, Virginia</span> Town in Virginia, United States

Farmville is a town in Prince Edward and Cumberland counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 8,216 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Prince Edward County.

Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County was one of the five cases combined into Brown v. Board of Education, the famous case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1954, officially overturned racial segregation in U.S. public schools. The Davis case was the only such case to be initiated by a student protest. The case challenged segregation in Prince Edward County, Virginia.

Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his brother-in-law James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation, particularly after Brown v. Board of Education. Many schools, and even an entire school system, were shut down in 1958 and 1959 in attempts to block integration, before both the Virginia Supreme Court and a special three-judge panel of Federal District judges from the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting at Norfolk, declared those policies unconstitutional.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linwood Holton</span> American politician (1923–2021)

Abner Linwood Holton Jr. was an American politician and attorney. He served as the 61st governor of Virginia, from 1970 to 1974, and was the first elected Republican governor of Virginia of the 20th century. He was known for supporting civil rights, integration, and public investment.

<i>Silent Sam</i> Bronze statue of a Confederate soldier on the University of North Carolina campus from 1913 to 2018

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver Hill (attorney)</span> American lawyer (1907–2007)

Oliver White Hill, Sr. was an American civil rights attorney from Richmond, Virginia. His work against racial discrimination helped end the doctrine of "separate but equal." He also helped win landmark legal decisions involving equality in pay for black teachers, access to school buses, voting rights, jury selection, and employment protection. He retired in 1998 after practicing law for almost 60 years. Among his numerous awards was the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which U.S. President Bill Clinton awarded him in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spottswood William Robinson III</span> American judge

Spottswood William Robinson III was an American educator, civil rights attorney, and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after previously serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Russa Moton Museum</span>

The Robert Russa Moton Museum is a historic site and museum in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. It is located in the former Robert Russa Moton High School, considered "the student birthplace of America's Civil Rights Movement" for its initial student strike and ultimate role in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case desegregating public schools. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998, and is now a museum dedicated to that history. In 2022 it was designated an affiliated area of Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park. The museum were named for African-American educator Robert Russa Moton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Rose Johns</span> American civil rights activist

Barbara Rose Johns Powell was a leader in the American civil rights movement. On April 23, 1951, at the age of 16, Powell led a student strike for equal education at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. After securing NAACP legal support, the Moton students filed Davis v. Prince Edward County, the only student-initiated case consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring "separate but equal" public schools unconstitutional.

Stanley Bleifeld was an American sculptor.

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More than 100 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America and associated figures have been removed, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn down by protestors.

Robert E. Lee is a bronze sculpture commemorating the general of the same name by Edward Virginius Valentine, formerly installed in the crypt of the United States Capitol as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. The statue was given by the commonwealth of Virginia in 1909. On December 21, 2020, the sculpture was removed from the grounds of the United States Capitol and relocated to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stonewall Jackson Monument</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwilda Gustava Allen Isaac</span> American civil rights pioneer (1937–2022)

Edwilda Gustava Isaac was an American civil rights pioneer. She participated in the 1951 walkout of the segregated Robert Russa Moton High School to protest unequal conditions.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The History of Jim Crow". Archived from the original on March 1, 2007. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 Sluss, Michael (July 22, 2008). "'Living memorial' unveiled at state capitol". The Roanoke Times . Retrieved September 30, 2008.
  3. ↑ "Artist Stanley Bleifeld". Virginia Civil Rights Memorial. 2007. Archived from the original on August 2, 2008. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
  4. ↑ "Farmville, Virginia — Separate is Not Equal". Separate is Not Equal Brown v. Board of Education. Smithsonian National Museum of American History Behring Center. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
  5. ↑ "Remembering Barbara Johns". Hampden Sydney College News & Events. Hampden Sydney College. Archived from the original on August 27, 2007. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
  6. ↑ "House Joint Resolution No. 790". Virginia General Assembly. December 1, 2005. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
  7. ↑ Sluss, Michael (February 20, 2008). "Kaine helps break ground for civil rights memorial". The Roanoke Times . Retrieved September 30, 2008.
  8. ↑ Waugh, Dionne (July 22, 2008). "Remembering Barbara's Stand". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
  9. ↑ "Courage enshrined". The Free Lance Star. July 27, 2008. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
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