News for the Profession

The Robert R. Moton Museum:A Center for the Study of Civil Rights in Education

Susan Bagby, Longwood College 

Almost fifty years after the student body walked out to protest overcrowding and inferior conditions, the R. R. Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia, is being transformed into the Robert R. Moton Museum: A Center for the Study of Civil Rights in Education. The courageous two-week student protest which began in April, 1951, led by Barbara Johns, sixteen-year-old niece of civil rights pioneer Rev. Vernon Johns, quickly led to a lawsuit, Davis v. County School Board, one of the cases making up the historic 1954 Brown decision.

The Moton Museum will differ significantly from other civil rights museums in the South because there was no violence, no water hoses, no snarling dogs here. The Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors closed the schools in 1959 rather than desegregate. The battles here were primarily in the courts, culminating in the 1964 Supreme Court case, Griffin  v. County School Board, which forced local authorities to fund public education and reopen the schools.

The vast majority of the county's 1,700 African American students went without formal education between 1959 and 1964, although some families sent their children to relatives outside the area, and other students were placed by the American Friends Service Committee with families or private schools in the Northeast and Midwest. The students who lost five years of public education have been variously dubbed "the lost generation" and "the crippled generation" by reporters and researchers studying the long-term effects of educational deprivation.

Moton High School, named for Viginia educator Robert R. Moton, president of Tuskegee Institute (1915 to 1935), opened in 1939 designed to accommodate 180 students. By the time of the 1951 walkout, 450 African-American students were crowded into the school. The three "tar paper" shacks erected by the school board beside the high school to add classroom space symbolized for Moton students the inequality in facilities and sparked the protest for a new high school in 1951. Except for the years the public schools were closed in Prince Edward County, the school remained in use, primarily at the elementary level, until 1995. The fate of the one-story brick building was uncertain until the Martha E. Forrester Council of Women (formerly Council of Colored Women), many of whom were retired teachers, undertook a $300,000 campaign to buy the school from the county and to convert it into "a center for the study of civil rights in education."

In 1996 the Moton building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and Congress appropriated $200,000 for a National Park Service plan for the conversion into a museum. In 1998, Moton High School was designated a National Historic Landmark. A board of directors has succeeded the Martha E. Forester Council as legal agent for the project and plans are underway for a celebration of national proportions on the 50th anniversary of the student walkout on 23 April 2001. On that date, it is anticipated that the museum will begin regular hours of operation. The Moton Museum will also serve as the anchor of Virginia's Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail, a driving tour of thirty-six primary sites in central and southside Virginia.

On a recent visit, Congressman John Lewis said walking through the Moton building was "like you're walking on sacred ground."

With exhibits covering Jim Crow education, the student walkout, and legal strategies; profiles of local leaders on both sides of the struggle, like Rev. L. F. Griffin, Dean Gordon Moss, and newpaper editor J. Barrye Wall; and archives of oral histories and personal reflections by local residents from 1951 to the present, the Moton Museum will endeavor to share the pain and progress in public education that is our history.

More information is available at <http://www.moton.org/> and through the NPS civil rights website, <http://www.cr.nps.gov/aahistory>.  

The Georgia Historical Society

The Georgia Historical Society is pleased to announce that Anne J. Bailey is the new editor of the Georgia Historical Quarterly. She Succeeds John Inscoe, who is stepping down after eleven years as editor to serve as Secretary-Treasurer of the Southern Historical Association and editor of the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Georgia. All Manuscript inquiries should now be directed to Dr. Bailey at Georgia College and State University, Department of History, Box 47, Milledgeville GA 31061; <abailey@mail.gcsu.edu>; (912) 445-0950. The new book review editor will be Stan Deaton, Director of Publications, The Georgia Historical Society, 501 Whitaker Street, Savannah, GA 31401; <sdeaton@georgiahistory.com>; (912) 651-2125, ext. 15. Inquiries about book reviews should be sent to Dr. Deaton. The Georgia Historical Society has published the Georgia Historical Quarterly since 1917.

Nazi War Crimes Working Group

The Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group (IWG) is asking for assistance from anyone in locating information about classified Federal records relating to Nazi war criminals, Nazi war crimes, Nazi persecution, and looted assets.
Last year, the IWG initiated a large-scale U.S. Government effort to identify relevant records and to begin the process of declassifying and transferring pertinent records to the National Archives and Records Administration. In addition, the IWG held special meetings with experts, historians, Holocaust scholars, and the general public to open lines of communication with knowledgeable individuals and concerned organizations. The website <www.nara.gov/iwg> was established to keep the public notified of IWG's activities.

Any information that could help the IWG should be sent to the Interagency Working Group Staff, National Archives at College Park, Room 2600, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740; <iwg@arch2.nara.gov>.

Library of Congress Celebrates Bicentennial with Major Exhibition on Thomas Jefferson

The keystone for the Bicentennial celebrations of the Library of Congress is an exhibition about the Library's very own "founding father," Thomas Jefferson, whose personal library of 6,487 books was the seed from which the nation's library grew. Congress purchased Jefferson's library after its own collections, housed in the U.S. Capitol, were burned by the British in 1814.
That library--the original volumes that came to Washington in carts from Monticello--will be a primary feature of the "Thomas Jefferson" exhibition. Because of an 1851 fire in the library, many of those original books had been lost. Spurred by a very generous donation of Jerry and Gene Jones as a Bicentennial "Gift to the Nation," the library has been reassembling copies of the same editions of the works that Jefferson held. The reconstituted Jefferson's library should be more than 90 percent complete by 24 April.

The display of Jefferson's library as part of this exhibition will be the first time ever that the public will be able to view Jefferson's library. It is also the first time that the volumes have been assembled in one place in the original order that Jefferson himself devised since the collection came to Washington in 1815. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to tell which volumes were owned by Jefferson and sold to Congress in 1815, which were recently identified and pulled from the library's general collections, which have been recently purchased, and which are still missing.

"Thomas Jefferson" will be on view in the Northwest Gallery and Pavilion of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., from 24 April through 31 October. Hours for the exhibition are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

Items from the exhibition are available on the library's Website at <www.loc.gov>, and by 24 April the library's entire collection of Jefferson Papers (more than 25,000 items) will be accessible online.

Thomas Jefferson--founding father, farmer, architect, inventor, slaveholder, book collector, scholar, diplomat and third president of the United States--was a complex figure who contributed immeasurably to the creation of the new republicanism in America. Wherever Anglo-American culture has shaped political and intellectual developments, Jefferson is almost inevitably part of the mix. Drawing on the extraordinary written legacy of Thomas Jefferson that is held in the library's collections, the exhibition traces Jefferson's development from his earliest days in Virginia to an ever-expanding realm of influence in republican Virginia, the American Revolutionary government, the creation of the American nation, the revolution in individual rights in America and the world, the revolution in France, and the burgeoning republican revolutionary movement throughout the world. Items borrowed from other institutions contribute to the exhibition's attempt to offer viewers a fully rounded portrait of the nation's third president.

The exhibition focuses on the complexities and contradictions of Thomas Jefferson, the man, the myth, the model. He was simultaneously an unquenchable idealist and a hard-headed realist. He deplored inequality among men, but owned slaves, supported servitude, and relegated women to a secondary role. He supported freedom of the press until his own foibles and politics became the focus. He was a firm believer in the separation of church and state, but he was often accused of being anti-Christian. He expounded the virtues of public education, ensured that his own daughters were well educated, and founded a public university at Charlottesville, but he assumed that access to higher education would be strictly limited. His life embodies the public and private struggles of life in a democratic republic.

Some 150 items in the eight sections will illustrate and provide a context for the life and character of Thomas Jefferson. The final and ninth section will be the reassembled "Jefferson Library." Visitors to the exhibition will see such items as the only surviving fragment of the earliest known draft of the Declaration of Independence as well as the desk on which he composed the Declaration; Martha Jefferson's thread case; Jefferson's instructions to Lewis and Clark; political cartoons of the day lampooning Jefferson; and the last letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the mayor of the city of Washington just ten days before he died, espousing his vision of the Declaration of Independence and the American nation as signals of the blessings of self-government to an ever-evolving world.

"Life and Labor at Monticello" examines how Jefferson's family, his era, education, role as plantation master and slaveholder, and his love and use of books influenced his character and the formation of his ideas on individual and institutional rights and limits. Items include:

• Thomas Jefferson's Memorandum Book, 1773, where he kept detailed records on his expenditures including the purchase of slaves;
  
• the Plantation account books kept by Jefferson's wife and then his granddaughter, recording purchases made from Monticello slaves, especially the Hemings family, for vegetables and fowl from the slave families' own flocks and gardens;
  
• the 1873 memoir by Madison Hemings published in the Pike County (Ohio) Republican, who testified that his mother, Sally Hemings, gave birth to five children "and Jefferson was the father of them all." Historical evidence, both circumstantial and direct, documentary and oral, along with DNA testing in 1998, substantiates Hemings's assertion;
  
• the letters Jefferson exchanged in 1791 with Benjamin Banneker, a free black living in Maryland, in which Jefferson praised Banneker's mathematical accomplishment ("no body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men...") as well as with Abbé Henri Gregoire in 1809 trying to explain why he asserted the inferiority of African Americans in his Notes on the State of Virginia published in 1785; and
  
• the letter written by Thomas Jefferson to John Adams in 1815 in which he says, "I cannot live without books, but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object."
  

The exhibition continues by demonstrating the expanding influence of Jefferson on American life and his interest in creating a culture based on republican principles--first in his own state of Virginia, then on the federal scene with his drafting of the Declaration of Independence and his election to the presidency in 1800. On view are:

• one of the nation's greatest treasures - Jefferson's "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence, which is the final draft presented by Jefferson to his fellow committee members and indicates changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin;
  
• a fragment of the earliest known draft of the Declaration of Independence in Jefferson's hand;
  
• an 1806 document in President Jefferson's hand calling upon Congress to end the practice of importing slaves as soon as permitted by the U.S. Constitution in 1808; and
  
• Notes on the State of Virginia, 1785, the only book ever published by Thomas Jefferson.
  

"The West" explores Thomas Jefferson's persistent fascination with the vast part of the continent that lay beyond Virginia--an area he never saw--and his conviction that the new nation had to expand westward in order to survive. A highlight is Jefferson's instructions to the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark before they set out to map and explore the Western territories with their Corps of Discovery in 1803. Visitors can also see a Nicholas King manuscript map documenting the Lewis and Clark expedition that is annotated by Lewis with information from fur traders and Native Americans.

The influence of Jefferson's republican ideas were felt far beyond America, especially in France, his first experience on the world stage beyond America. He became an ardent supporter of the French revolution and often consulted with Lafayette during the drafting of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. In a 9 July 1789 letter to Jefferson, Lafayette asked him for his "observations" on "my bill of rights" before presenting it to the National Assembly. On view in the exhibition is a manuscript copy of the French Declaration written in a clerical hand, with emendations in the hand of Thomas Jefferson. Also in the exhibition is the 1789 passport that Thomas Jefferson used upon his return from France, signed by King Louis XVI.

The exhibition concludes with "Epitaph: Take Care of Me," which reviews Jefferson's own evaluation of the meaning of his life and his thoughts about how he would be viewed by history. Key items here are:

• A sketch and wording for Jefferson's tombstone, in his own hand
  
• A letter explaining his position on slavery, written just six weeks before his death
  
• A letter to Jefferson from his granddaughter, Ellen Randolph Coolidge, despairing of the "canker of slavery" that oppresses the Southern states
  
• A newspaper account of the sale of Jefferson's slaves by his heirs in order to pay off estate debts
  
• A volume accompanying the exhibition, Thomas Jefferson: Genius of Liberty, includes an introduction by Garry Wills and essays by Jefferson scholars Pauline Maier, Charles A. Miller, Annette Gordon-Reed, Peter S. Onuf and Joseph J. Ellis. Published by Viking Studio, the hardcover volume is highly illustrated with mostly color images and sells for $35. It is available in major bookstores and from the Library's Sales Shops; order with major credit card by calling (202) 707-0204.
  

Truman Library and UMKC Establish Presidential Studies
Collection for Kansas City

More than 2 million pages of presidential documents and 1,500 books relating to the presidency are being transferred from the holdings of the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum to the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Miller Nichols Library. The new Presidential Studies Collection has been established to make the materials more centrally available to students, teachers, and the public in the Greater Kansas City area.

To celebrate the grand opening of the Collection, the Truman Library and UMKC will host an event on Friday, 25 February at 10 a.m. in room 303) of the Miller Nichols Library. Students from Paseo High School, the Barstow School, and UMKC will engage in a research workshop using materials in the Collection. The workshop will illustrate the unique and challenging character of original historical documents, and will help students analyze the information from the Collection to make their own judgments about past events.

The materials in the Collection include more than 2,000 rolls of microfilm containing substantial collections of the papers of eighteen presidents, including George Washington, John and John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, and Theodore Roosevelt. The collections of sixteen of the presidents are in the holdings of the Library of Congress: the John and John Quincy Adams papers are held by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Also included in the Collection are photocopies of 40,000 pages of historic documents regarding fifty significant topics relating to Truman and his presidency, including the decision to drop the atomic bomb, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the recognition of Israel, the founding of NATO, the 1948 election, the Fair Deal, and the Korean War.

"Researchers come to the Truman Library from around the world to use unique archival records relating to Harry Truman and the Truman presidency," Larry Hackman, director of the Truman Library, said. "Yet the library holds very important publications and microfilm relating to other presidents and the presidency. We would like these materials to be accessible to faculty and students at UMKC, other colleges, and to high schools students and teachers."

UMKC Interim Chancellor Gordon H. Lamb agreed. "These are important materials for our faculty and students, and we are happy to make them available to other users as well. This Collection is another part of the productive collaboration between the Truman Library and UMKC.."

Under the joint agreement creating the Presidential Studies Collection, which was approved by both the Archivist of the United States (the Truman Library is part of the National Archives and Records Administration) and the Chancellor of UMKC, the university will catalog the Collection, acquire new equipment to store it and facilitate its use, and will provide free and open access to it. The Web sites of both of the partners will provide information about the Collection.

In addition, the Truman Library will promote use of the collection to students during National History Day competition, which the library sponsors in the Greater Kansas City, Missouri region. The partners will appoint collection liaisons and a joint working group to regularly review the condition and use of the collection.

The Harry S. Truman Library is one of ten Presidential Libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. It houses about 15 million pages of documents, including President Truman's own papers relating to his life and presidency. The Truman Library is located at 500 U. S. Highway 24 in Independence, Mo. For information, call (816) 833-1400 or visit the Truman Library Web site at <www.trumanlibrary.org>.

UMKC University Libraries, with three campus locations, consist of more than one million volumes, 6,722 Current serial subscriptions and collections of government documents, microforms, sound recordings, and musical scores. The Presidential Papers Collection will be complemented not only by these holdings, but also by the Libraries' Special Collections, which include the Snyder Collection of Americana and the Richard W. Bolling Papers.

Ready reference service and on-site access to the collections are available to the Kansas City community during library hours, which for the winter semester are Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. - 11 p.m.; Friday, 7:30 a.m.- 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; and Sunday. 1 - 11 p.m. Library materials are available in many formats including print, CD-ROM, and online technology. Primary access to the collections is available by using the University Of Missouri System's online catalog, MERLIN, located at <www.umkc.edu/lib/>. For more information, call (816) 235-1534.

Milan Group in Early United States History

The Milan Group in Early United States History, an interdisciplinary study group of international membership founded in 1980, announces a new website: <http://www.spolitiche.unimi.it/milangroup>. The site contains information as to the history of the Group, whose United States coordinator is, at present, Ronald Hoffman (OIEAHC); complete programs of the Group's nine biennial symposia; covers, contents and foreward of the volumes of the Group's Quaderno series (five to date, in English); and the draft of the 20th symposium program ("On the Frontiers," 20 to 23 June, 2000, University of Milan, Milan, Italy).