From 1619 to 2023, Virginia has been an epicenter for conflict, change, oppression, and freedom in the larger American experience-- particularly the Black American experience. The site of this year’s conference is no exception. Home to the 1951 Moton School walkout, Farmville’s complicated history is both unique and emblematic of the larger struggle to obtain and preserve in freedom the U.S. Join Director of the Moton Museum, Cainan Townsend, at the closing plenary of VCSSC 2024 as he leads a conversation with Joan Johns Cobbs.

Joan Johns Cobbs is the sister of Barbara Johns, who spearheaded the Moton School walkout of 1951. This student-led strike against segregation evolved into Virginia’s Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, one of five court cases that were ultimately consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education. Mrs. Cobbs will share her and her sister’s story of the fight to desegregate public education.