Members of the 1951 Moton High School Strike February 16, 2013

In April 1951, frustrated by the deplorable conditions at the segregated R.R. Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia, African American students took action. Without their teachers’ permission, student leaders held an assembly outlining to other students their grievances with the school: tar-paper buildings, no heat, and outdated books. The student body agreed and voted to strike. The students spent the next weeks picketing, demanding that the wrongs be righted. Their actions led to a court case, Davis v. Prince Edward County, which became part of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that banned segregated schools throughout the United States.

This Saturday, February 16, 2013 at 1:00 p.m., Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site will host four members of the 1951 Moton High School student body to share their stories of the conditions at their school, the strike itself, and the aftermath. Their discussion will follow a screening of the film “The Road to Brown,” which documents the story of the brilliant legal campaign that led to the Brown decision.