On Tuesday, the only Vice Presidential debate of the election 2016 will take place at the Longwood University, Virginia’s third-oldest university in Farmville.
The institution with its blue and warm gray will warmly welcome the Democratic nominee for the position of Vice President Tim Kane, and Mike Pence for the Republican nominee.
But probably few will recall the fact that this small town had taken a big step against segregation.
As the venue was announced for the Vice Presidential debate a public discussion started. There were people who raised eyebrows upon the choice of the venue for the debate and considered it an unknown small town not fit for such a significant political event.
While those who knew the significance of the town stated “there is a lesson in the effort made by town leaders and the university to confront the worst aspect of the past.”
Does the name of Farmville ring bells from the past? Yes, it does, this was the town that had played a very significant role in the segregation and racial history of the United States.
It was April 23, 1951 two sisters Joan Johns Cobb 13 year and her 16-year-old sister Barbara Johns were fed up with the substandard and negligence of their all black Robert Russa Moton High School in Edward county in Virginia.
They took a daring step and organized a strike to tell the people in what worst conditions the black students were forced to study. They raised their voice for better educational institution. The school was in poor condition, shabby equipment and no science labs for the students, no gymnasium.
Two lawyers filed their case in the court. The Supreme court gave its decision to end segregation nationwide. Farmville and the Edward county responded in a manner by shutting down the public school system for five years instead letting the white and black students attend schools together.
Even today, according to a report that “the county is 64 percent white and the schools have 37 percent white students most of them still going to private schools.”
Much has changed today, a statue of Barbara is in Richmond, the state Capital, her school in Edward County is now a Civil Rights Museum.
The campaign for elections 2016 is divisive with the rise of pro-Donald Trump white supremacists in the main stream politics.
The race has become the dominant political issue in this campaign amid killings of black people, slurs on Latinos and Hispanics, support for a wall along US-Mexico border and demand to “completely shut down Muslims entering the US.”
The venue for the vice presidential debate has much to offer both in terms of symbolism and substance of the talk that may happen.
