Moton Museum Receives State Grant
For Interpretive Signs

Picture and caption courtesy of Farmville Herald - July 14, 2000

Thomas Mayfield, left, president of the Robert R. Moton Museum board of directors, receives a certificate recognizing the museum as one of the inaugural grant winners in the state's African-American History in Virginia Grant Program. Presenting the certificate are Bruce Twyman of the Virginia Tourism Corporation and Teresa Dowell-Vest of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

News Release - July 5, 2000

The Robert R. Moton Museum in Farmville has been awarded one of 21 inaugural grants in the state's African-American History in Virginia initiative, it was announced recently. The initiative, funded by the General Assembly, is a joint program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy and the Virginia Tourism Corporation. The Moton Museum grant will fund the installation of interpretive signs at the former Moton High School building.

At a program held at the Ivy Creek Natural Area near Charlottesville in June, the 31 grant recipient organizations were recognized by various representatives of state agencies. The African-American History in Virginia Grant Program, which awarded more than $75,000 in its first round of grants, is designed to assist local organizations throughout the state in researching and interpreting sites related to African-American history. The ultimate goals of the program, according to Foundation spokespeople, are "to increase understanding of this important component of Virginia history; to strengthen the institutions that interpret African- American history in the state; and to encourage as many people as possible - Virginians and people from all parts of the nation and the world - to visit these sites."

Thomas Mayfield, president of the Moton Museum's board of directors, said that he is "deeply pleased" that the local museum was selected as a grant winner. "Practically, this will make it possible to have state-of-the-art signage at the Moton Museum," he noted. "We're also pleased that the Humanities Foundation and the Tourism Corporation have recognized the important role which the Moton Museum will play in heritage tourism in our area." The museum will server as the anchor in a twelve-county Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail, according to Rodney Lewis, director of the Old Dominion Resource Conservation and Development Council.

The 31 initial awards went to organizations throughout the state, from large cities like Richmond and Alexandria to small rural locales. Among other recipients, those in Central Virginia included the Anne Spencer Memorial Foundation in Lynchburg, which is enhancing the tour of the poet's house; the Lynchburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, for a brochure interpreting African-American historic sites in the Lynchburg area; and the Buckingham Training School Commemoration in Dillwyn, for the installation of interpretive signs at the Carter G. Woodson birthplace. Woodson, appropriately, is known as the father of African-American history.

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