Virginia Civil Rights Memorial
Encyclopedia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
commemorating protests which helped bring about school desegregation in the state. The memorial was opened in July 2008, and is located on the grounds of the Virginia State Capitol
Virginia State Capitol
The Virginia State Capitol is the seat of state government in the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in Richmond, the third capital of Virginia. It houses the oldest legislative body in the United States, the Virginia General Assembly...
. It features eighteen statues of leaders in the civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
movement on four sides of a rectangular granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
stone block onto which are carved quotes. The memorial was designed by Stanley Bleifeld
Stanley Bleifeld
Stanley Bleifeld was an American sculptor.Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bleifeld’s many awards included: Sculptor of the Year in Pietrasanta and the World, in 2004, the Henry Hering Memorial Medal of the National Sculpture Society, , the Medal of Liberty from the American Civil Liberties Union, ...
, who was chosen by the commission behind the construction of the monument. The memorial cost $2.8 million which was financed by private donations.
Background
R.R. Moton High School, an all-black high school in Farmville, VirginiaFarmville, Virginia
Farmville is a town in Prince Edward and Cumberland counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 6,845 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Prince Edward County....
, 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
School bus
A school bus is a type of bus designed and manufactured for student transport: carrying children and teenagers to and from school and school events...
parked outside the main school building. The school's requests for additional funds were denied by the all-white school board.
In response, on April 23, 1951, a 16-year-old student named Barbara Rose Johns
Barbara Rose Johns
Barbara Rose Johns was a young American civil rights hero who in 1951, at the age of 16, campaigned for the integration of Moton High School in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. After she appealed to the NAACP for legal representation, her suit became part of the historic 1954 United...
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.
The protest led to a court case where Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
civil rights lawyers Oliver Hill
Oliver Hill
Oliver White Hill, Sr. was a 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...
and Spottswood Robinson
Spottswood William Robinson III
Spottswood William Robinson III was an educator, civil rights attorney and judge.In the early 1950s, Robinson and his law-partner Oliver Hill litigated several civil rights lawsuits in Virginia. In 1951, Robinson and Hill took up the cause of the African American students at the segregated R.R...
brought suit against the school board. Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County
Davis v. County School Board 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...
was eventually one of the four cases combined into Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
, the famous case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1954, officially overturned racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
in U.S. public school
Public education
State schools, also known in the United States and Canada as public schools,In much of the Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the terms 'public education', 'public school' and 'independent school' are used for private schools, that is, schools...
s. However the policies of Massive Resistance
Massive resistance
Massive resistance was a policy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. on February 24, 1956, to unite other white politicians and leaders in Virginia in a campaign of new state laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision...
delayed integration until the 1960s when national legislation was passed.
Construction
Governor of VirginiaGovernor of Virginia
The governor of Virginia serves as the chief executive of the Commonwealth of Virginia for a four-year term. The position is currently held by Republican Bob McDonnell, who was inaugurated on January 16, 2010, as the 71st governor of Virginia....
Mark Warner
Mark Warner
Mark Robert Warner is an American politician and businessman, currently serving in the United States Senate as the junior senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Warner was the 69th governor of Virginia from 2002 to 2006 and is the honorary chairman of...
and the Virginia General Assembly
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, established on July 30, 1619. The General Assembly is a bicameral body consisting of a lower house, the Virginia House of Delegates, with 100 members,...
established on February 24, 2005 the commission to oversee the monument. 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, Sr., the architect of the massive resistance
Massive resistance
Massive resistance was a policy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. on February 24, 1956, to unite other white politicians and leaders in Virginia in a campaign of new state laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision...
movement against civil rights. 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
Tim Kaine
Timothy Michael "Tim" Kaine is a Virginia politician. Kaine served as the 70th Governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010, and was the chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2009 to 2011...
, relatives of those involved in the protest, and civil rights leaders. Stanley Bleifeld, who was the sculpted on the monument, said that because of the continuing nature of the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
, he "wanted to make a living memorial, not a statue so that people engage and understand what's behind it."
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:- Barbara Rose JohnsBarbara Rose JohnsBarbara Rose Johns was a young American civil rights hero who in 1951, at the age of 16, campaigned for the integration of Moton High School in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. After she appealed to the NAACP for legal representation, her suit became part of the historic 1954 United...
- Spottswood William Robinson IIISpottswood William Robinson IIISpottswood William Robinson III was an educator, civil rights attorney and judge.In the early 1950s, Robinson and his law-partner Oliver Hill litigated several civil rights lawsuits in Virginia. In 1951, Robinson and Hill took up the cause of the African American students at the segregated R.R...
- Oliver HillOliver HillOliver White Hill, Sr. was a 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...
- Leslie Francis Griffin
Quotes
Two quotes are engraved on the granite on each of the long sides of the monument:- "It seemed like reaching for the moon." — Barbara Rose JohnsBarbara Rose JohnsBarbara Rose Johns was a young American civil rights hero who in 1951, at the age of 16, campaigned for the integration of Moton High School in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. After she appealed to the NAACP for legal representation, her suit became part of the historic 1954 United...
- "The legal system can force open doors and sometimes even knock down walls, but it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me." — Thurgood MarshallThurgood MarshallThurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...