Robert Russa Moton Museum
| Location | 900 Griffin Boulevard in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°17′28″N 78°23′52″W / 37.29111°N 78.39778°W |
Robert Russa Moton High School | |
| Location | Jct. of S. Main St. and Griffin Blvd., Farmville, Virginia |
| Area | 5 acres (2.0 ha) |
| Built | 1939 |
| Architectural style | Classical Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 95001177 |
| VLR No. | 144-0053 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 24, 1995 |
| Designated NHL | August 5, 1998 |
| Designated VLR | March 19, 1997 |
The Robert Russa Moton Museum (popularly known as the Moton Museum or Moton) is a historic site and museum in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. It is located in the former Robert Russa Moton High School, considered "the student birthplace of America's Civil Rights Movement" for its initial student strike and ultimate role in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case desegregating public schools. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998, and is now a museum dedicated to that history. In 2022 it was designated an affiliated area of Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park. The museum (and school) were named for African-American educator Robert Russa Moton.
The former Moton School is a single-story brick Colonial Revival building, built in 1939 in response to activism and legal challenges from the local African-American community and legal challenges from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It houses six classrooms and an office arranged around a central auditorium. It had no cafeteria or restrooms for teachers. Built to handle 180 students, already by the 1940s it struggled to hold 450; the County, whose all-white board refused to appropriate funds for properly expanding the school facilities, built long temporary buildings to house the overflow. Covered with roofing material, they were called the "tar-paper shacks."