2026 SESSION
ENROLLED
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 49
Commending the Robert Russa Moton Museum.
Agreed to by the Senate, January 22, 2026
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, January 26, 2026
WHEREAS, in 2026, the Robert Russa Moton Museum in Farmville, which has preserved and interpreted the Commonwealth's unique role in the civil rights movement for 25 years, will honor the 75th anniversary of the Robert Russa Moton High School student strike, a pivotal event in the fight against school segregation; and
WHEREAS, the Robert Russa Moton Museum is located in the former Robert Russa Moton High School building, a segregated public school established in 1939 that served Black students from the Farmville area; and
WHEREAS, by the early 1950s, Robert Russa Moton High School was unable to provide an adequate learning environment due to severe overcrowding, unsafe conditions, outdated textbooks, and facilities that were not equal to those offered at schools for white students in the area; and
WHEREAS, on April 23, 1951, Barbara Johns, a 16-year-old junior at Robert Russa Moton High School, worked with several classmates to plan a student strike protesting these unacceptable conditions and ultimately demanding school integration; and
WHEREAS, Barbara Johns and her fellow students sought legal counsel from the NAACP, and the ensuing case of Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County , filed by attorneys Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson, reached the Supreme Court of the United States along with four other similar cases, and formed the basis of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling; and