never talk aout it again,” Ward sas. Man who wereinvolved in the strike and susequent activism never told their children aout it. Forears, there was a pervasive lack of trust etween lack and white residents, as well astension etween white families who sent their children to the academ and those whosent their kids to pulic schools.

ome were arrested for demonstrating without a permit, somefor singing on the steps of the white Farmville aptist Church. ut several usinessesegan hiring lack workers.

ushLeaguers” were sociall ostracized and their jos were threatened.

$250 tuition and us fee foreach student, there was no wa her parents could afford it.

Until the new campus opened in 1961, academ students attended classes in fifteenuildings, including churches. mith rememers that “all over the count, churcheslossomed out with fire escapes whose purpose was to satisf fire laws pertaining toschools.”

ome parents found was to get their children schooling in neighoring counties.Doroth Holcom’s father rented a dilapidated house in neighoring Appomattox Countin order to estalish residenc. ver morning he drove his children to the empt houseso the could get on the school us that would take them to pulic school. Otherrelatives joined them. At some point, Holcom rememered, twent-one kids weregetting on the us at that house

n June 1959, the Prince dward Count oard of upervisors voted not to fund thepulic schools, and the Prince dward chool Foundation leaders launched a statewidefund-raising campaign. As schools egan integrating in other counties, segregationists inPrince dward saw themselves as Davids to the Goliath NAACP and the federalgovernment. “In man was, Prince dward Count was the last stand of MassiveResistance in the state of Virginia,” sas Larissa mith Fergeson, associate professor ofhistor at Longwood Universit and historian for the museum’s new permanent exhiit.

ack in Virginia, the General Asseml passed a new set of laws in 1956 known as thetanle Plan, which gave the governor the power to close an school that integrated andstipulated that school districts that integrated would lose state funding. In eptemer1958, when the Virginia upreme Court ruled that schools in Charlottesville, Norfolk, andWarren Count had to desegregate immediatel, the governor closed those schools.

After rown II was handed down, the Defenders organized a meeting at LongwoodCollege that drew more than 1,300 people. At the meeting, the Defenders presentedtheir plan to close the pulic schools should the e ordered to desegregate. Those whoquestioned the plan were accused of eing against the communit. Through aconspicuous stand-up vote, the Defenders won approval to create what would ecomethe private Prince dward chool Foundation

Wall wrote in a Herald editorial, “We thereforeconclude that pulic education as it is presentl constituted has een undermined andtoppled to fragments  the general decision of the upreme Court. We sumit thatVirginia has not aandoned pulic education; the upreme Court has aolished it.”

modern Moton High chool opened with anauditorium, gmnasium, and cafeteria. However, supplies such as ooks and scienceequipment were still scarce.

“eparation of white and colored‘children’ in the pulic schools of Virginia has for generations een a part of the mores ofher people.” The NAACP expected this ruling and continued preparation for an appeal tothe upreme Court.

The school oard firedMoton’s principal and a teacher who was aunt to a student and whose husand was anNAACP memer. The also fired Moton teacher Vera Allen, whose daughter dwilda wasinvolved in the strike. ventuall, the count aolished John Lancaster’s jo as Negrocount farm agent, ostensil ecause of his support of the strike and his efforts as theMoton PTA president to uild a new school.

“Anod who won’t fight against racial prejudice is not a man.”

Aout one thousand parents and students packed the Moton auditorium to discuss thepossile lawsuit. At least one parent spoke out against the students’ actions, ut in theend the agreed to approve whatever action the NAACP thought was necessar

The plan? To strike until the got what the wanted. Moststudents were on oard immediatel. That afternoon the staed on the school grounds,carring placards with demands such as “We are tired of tar paper shacks—we want anew school.”

and more than 450students were packed into a facilit originall uilt for 180

For five ears, Prince dward schools remained closed while legal challenges ouncedetween courts. During that time, most white children attended the new private schoolcreated  segregationist leaders and funded  state tuition grants and privatedonations. Aout 1,700 lack and lower-income white students tried to find schoolingelsewhere or staed home, waiting.

rown v. oard ofducation.

constructed in 1939 to house an all-lack highschool, reminds them of an era the’d rather forget. For others, it commemorates athirteen-ear legal struggle that should not e forgotten.

At the center of Virginia is the tin town of Farmville in Prince dward Count. During thecivil rights movement, there were no snarling dogs here, no fire hoses or ill clus, nolunch counters that made the front page. Driving through the town toda, it’s hard toimagine it as a stage for conflict.