The Robert Russa Moton Museum will open its newly constructed exhibition to the public on April 29.
The exhibition will feature texts, photographs, newspaper clips, digital media and oral histories on the history of the student-run strike led by Barbara Johns, a student at Robert Russa Moton High School, as well as the process that led to the students’ influence on the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case in 1954.
Lacy Ward, Jr., director of the Robert Russa Moton Museum, said that the purpose of the building of a highly visual exhibition was “to tell one story, and the story is how did Prince Edward County, Va. move from a system of segregated public schools to a system of integrated public schools over a 13 year period of time.”
The newly constructed exhibition will include six galleries. Gallery one will exhibit the student-run strike. Gallery two will exhibit the Robert Russa Moton High School before 1951 that had tar paper shacks built into the building to cheaply expand it. Gallery three will exhibit the process toward the Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward case during 1951 to 1952. Gallery four will exhibit the state of Virginia’s Massive Resistance from 1955 to 1959. Gallery five will exhibit the closing down of Prince Edward County’s public schools from 1959 to 1963. Gallery six will exhibit the process toward the student-run strike and the Brown v. Board of Education case from 1963 to 1964.
Further discussing the importance of creating a visual exhibit, Ward said, “This is not a history that the local community has talked about a lot. If they have talked about it a lot, they have talked about it within families and churches, which means you really haven’t gotten that integration of the story or the story has not crossed class or ethnicity lines because it is not talked about from a community perspective.”
Ward stated that the exhibition will allow “a broader picture” of the students who began the student-initiated strike for better conditions within the high school, otherwise known as the Walk Out generation.
Ward also expects economic growth as the museum continues to grow with employment opportunities for museum docents, scholars and researchers as well as fellows and speakers brought into Prince Edward County.
“The good thing about heritage tourism [is] it’s about a place, which means your business can’t move ... If you’re telling the story of a place, you can only tell it in the place.”
The construction has involved different phases since September 2011. Currently, the construction at the Robert Russa Moton Museum is in phase two, which involves the installation of the exhibition.
Phase one of the construction involved prepping of the building to serve as a museum. Phase one was completed September 2011.
Afterwards, fundraising for the last of the funds necessary to complete the construction project was completed December 2012.
From September 2011 to April 2013, the exhibits have undergone the process of being fabricated and installed.
The final phase of the construction process for the museum will be to build a pavilion/visitor facility in the shape of a tar paper shack, which will add an additional 2,000 square feet to the already 8,500 square foot building. The final phase was assisted with partnership with the town of Farmville through a grant from the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Tobacco Commission. There are plans to renovate the parking lot for the museum as well.
The expected date of completion for the final phase is late 2013 or early 2014.
According to a memorandum printed July 24, 2012 that provided the project status report for the museum’s construction plans, the total funding for the entire project totals to $2,690,000.
For project management, design and gallery preparation, the funds totaled to $1,560,000. For project management, fabrication and for the completion of the installation, the funds totaled to $1,130,000.
Concerning further development to the Robert Russa Moton Museum, Ward stated that he foresees the museum developing more of an online component.
He stated that there was a lot of information that was unable to be placed within the exhibition due to space issues, so he hopes to “build an online environment that allows for a depth of exploration into each of those things we deal with at the surface level.”
Ward also stated that he hopes “to teach people to be American citizens [and] to be citizen leaders” by educating them on prominent figures of the 20th century who greatly contributed to the Civil Rights era as opposed to focusing on the founding fathers during the 18th century.
By educating more students on local citizen leaders who have made great changes to their local communities by standing up and making a change, Ward stated that he hopes these students will then engage with history, itself, and make changes within their own communities.
