Dinwiddie County – One of the 53 sites along the Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail®. In 1911 a group of Dinwiddie County’s African-American residents established the Rocky Branch School in Sutherland. The school was a typical two-room schoolhouse. It had been moved from original location across from Ocran Methodist Church on U.S. Route 460 […]
Dinwiddie County – One of the 53 sites along the Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail®. Prior to the Civil War, Dinwiddie County was home to several private academies for those who could afford to pay for their education. While it was mostly affluent males who were educated, Pegram’s Academy, Female Academy, Girard Heartwell School […]
Mecklenburg County – One of the 53 sites along the Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail®. In 1876 the United Presbyterian Church and the Rev. J. J. Ashenhurst, the first principal, formed Thyne Institute, the only facility in Mecklenburg County offering courses for blacks until 1923. Two years after opening in a small building that […]
Prince Edward County – One of the 53 sites along the Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail®. In 1954, after the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, that United States schools must integrate, Senator Harry S. Byrd and several Virginia governors followed the policy of “massive resistance.” Integration was […]
Prince Edward County – One of the 53 sites along the Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail®. The Robert Russa Moton Museum, a National Historic Landmark, is the student birthplace of America’s Civil Rights Revolution. Dreamed by 16-year-old Barbara Johns, the 1951 Moton Student Strike produced three-fourths of the plaintiffs in the landmark Supreme Court […]
Longstreet built breastworks here to protect the rear of Lee’s army, most of which was four miles south at Appomattox Court House
General Longstreet built breastworks here to protect the rear of Lee’s army at Appomattox Court House. On the morning of April 9, General Lee arrived hoping to meet General Grant. After learning that he was approaching from another route, Lee rode back to the village.
At this point Lee’s army would change its line of march: Gordon’s corps now took the lead while General James Longstreet’s corps became the rear guard. They would continue to be pursued by Union army corps under the direction of Generals Humphreys and Wright.
Generals Grant and Meade used this location for their headquarters during the night. Grant stayed in the house, and it was here where he received Lee’s second letter suggesting a peace meeting. He left the next morning and rode on to Appomattox Court House.
The Confederate army marched through this tobacco town, followed by the Union army. Lee hoped to issue rations to his men here before turning south but was forced to flee across the Appomattox River. Grant sent his first dispatch to Lee concerning surrender from here.
