Moton 2011: A Permanent Exhibit to Preserve the Moton Museum

Moton Musuem Director Lacy Ward Jr., among others on the Moton Board of Directors, is very enthusiastic about the project dubbed Moton 2011. It is ambitious, but also important to the Moton Museum and the history of Prince Edward County and its fight for civil rights in education.Reverend Everett Berryman said the museum "tells the story of a county, a people, how society was, both whites and black, stories that have yet to be told." He also said that Ward is "getting it to where it should be." Berryman is referencing Ward's efforts to bring the permanent exhibit into reality.

The Moton 2011 project was launched in April 2008, thanks to the generosity of Dominion Virginia Power, who provided the museum with a $200,000 grant to get started. Since the launch almost a year ago, almost $900,000 has been given through grants from various companies and organizations. In addition, Ward said Congressman Tom Perriello is "requesting that the federal government earmark $900,000 for Moton to support the permanent exhibition." However, the entire exhibit requires a total of $5.5 million in funds.

Dr. Larissa Fergeson, associate professor of history and consultant to the Moton 2011 exhibit, said that despite the great need for funds, the project has made "tremendous success, in terms of fundraising and capacity building. He [Ward] is a tremendous fundraiser. The basic outlines of the exhibit were conceived last year, and now we're in the process of filling in the details."

Robert Hamlin, president of the Moton board of directors, said, "Great progess has been made. We now have an exhibit architectural design company (Jackson /Brady) in place. The next major step is to secure an architect for the restoration of the building. We are also working on getting started with the Oral Histories and filming the reenactment of the April 23rd, 1951 school walkout."

Ward explained the plans for the exhibit in great detail. There are five galleries planned, each specific to a certain time period during the Prince Edward County fight for civil rights in education. The first gallery will focus on the period before 1951, where Ward said the gallery "has to address what was segregation, how we came to April 23, 1951."

The next gallery will chronicle Davis versus Prince Edward, the time period between 1951 and 1954. The Davis case was a case in Prince Edward County regarding civil rights in education that was combined with four other national cases to make up the infamous Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case and decision of 1954. Ward said, "There are some exciting things that happened in those years. The case was filed. The case was joined with 4 other cases. The Supreme Court heard all arguments. The sitting Supreme Court justice died before the decision came out. A new justice came in, Warren, and he was able to craft out a political decision on how [to] bring a country together. It brought about a unanimous decision in the Supreme Court."

The third gallery will focus on the years 1954 to 1959, or the massive resistance period in Prince Edward County. This will deal with, according to Ward, "what the state government would do in response to what the national government said." Virginia said no to integrated education, and was active in advocating that for five years.

The fourth gallery will focus on 1959 to 1963, when the Prince Edward County public schools were closed. Ward said this part of the exhibit will shift away from tradition and attempt to tell the untold story of the parent and student reactions and responses to the school closings. Ward spoke of students going to junior college in North Carolina, going to living with Quaker families, families moving away to Boston and New York. All of this happened because of people's quest for education in this county. Ward said, "Yes, we will talk about how the schools closed, but we will also talk about how families persevered."

The final gallery in the Moton 2011 exhibit will feature the Prince Edward County Free Schools period from 1963 to 1964. Ward discussed then-Superintendent Neil Sullivan in 1963 coming into the vacant Moton school to reopen it, and there was a 48-state flag hanging on the wall. Ward talked about how Prince Edward's struggle for education was symbolic for the growth of America. The other remarkable thing about the schools reopening was, "The average reading level across the entire student population in one year's time advanced two grade levels, in a system that wasn't even open for four years," said Ward.

With these extensive gallery plans in the works, Fergeson said, I think it will transform it into the premier museum focusing on civil history in the state of Virginia. And, since the Prince Edward story is a national story, I think it will help draw a national audience to the museum. I think that the vision is to make it into a first-class professional museum."

Andrea Verschaeve, lecturer in English and the Moton board secretary, agreed with Fergeson. "[The] Moton Museum has the potential to become a destination for school children across the state and a real center for the study of civil rights in education," Verschaeve said.

Since Ward became director of the museum in January 2008, Moton has had six Longwood students serve as interns to the museum, learning about museum operations, as well as the history of Prince Edward County in civil rights. Senior Ashley Miller completed her internship in 2008 but continues to work at the museum. She is enthusiastic about the permanent exhibit taking shape. She said, "I am excited for the Moton 2011 exhibit's to finally be in place; I think the attention brought to it will encourage more visitors and more attention to what took place in Prince Edward County.