Civil Rights Walking Tour
The Civil Rights Walking Tour is a two-mile, self-guided tour that revisits influential sites and events from Prince Edward County’s contributions to the civil rights movement. The route begins and ends at the Moton Museum, site of the former Robert Russa Moton High School, where a student walkout headed by Barbara Johns in 1951 led to the Davis v. Prince Edward court case that eventually became part of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
From that 1951 walkout to the reopening of Prince Edward County schools in 1964, the Civil Rights Walking Tour weaves together key moments that shaped the history of Prince Edward County and mirrored the civil rights movement taking place around the country. Circumnavigating the campus of Longwood University and traversing Farmville’s Main Street, High Street and Griffin Boulevard, the trail includes 17 stops marked by Civil Rights Walking Tour signage.
You can find more information as well as a map of all stops on the trail here.
Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail
The Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail is a self-guided driving tour featuring more than 50 sites that revisit the hard-fought civil rights victories achieved by African Americans, Native Americans and women in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The tour covers multiple counties and includes a wealth of landmarks and historical sites from the Moton Museum and Twin Lakes State Park in Prince Edward County to the L.E. Coleman African-American Museum in Halifax and the Bishop Payne Divinity School in Petersburg.
While these 50-plus sites tell their own unique stories about the fight for civil rights in Virginia, the Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail connects them all into an overarching narrative with themes of perseverance, justice and a fight for equality that still ring true today. The trail is not linear or chronological and can be started at any point. Each site is marked by a Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail sign.
A brochure and map of all stops on the trail are also available here.