Editing Prince Edward County, Virginia (section)

===Desegregation===
Prince Edward County is the source of ''[[Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County]]'', a case incorporated into ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]],'' which ultimately resulted in the [[United States Supreme Court|U.S. Supreme Court]] decision that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional. This ultimately led to the desegregation of all U.S. public schools. Among the five cases decided under ''Brown'', Davis was the only one initiated by students, after they walked out in 1951 to protest overcrowding and poor conditions at their segregated school under [[Jim Crow laws]].

The all-black R.R. Moton High School, named after [[Robert Russa Moton]], a noted educator from neighboring [[Amelia County, Virginia|Amelia County]], did not have a gymnasium, cafeteria, or teachers' restrooms. Due to overcrowding, three plywood buildings had been erected, and some students had to take classes in a school bus parked outside. Teachers and students did not have desks or blackboards. The school's requests for additional funds were denied by the all-white school board. On Monday, April 23, 1951, [[Barbara Rose Johns|Barbara Johns]], the sixteen-year-old niece of [[Vernon Johns|Reverend Vernon Johns]], a civil rights activist, led students who staged a walkout protesting the conditions.<ref>''Both Victors And Victims: Prince Edward County, Virginia, The NAACP, And Brown'', ''Virginia Law Review'', accessed September 24, 2011</ref> The [[NAACP]] took up their case when the students agreed to petition for an integrated school rather than improved conditions at their black school. This vote passed by one count. [[Howard University]]-trained attorneys [[Spottswood William Robinson III|Spottswood W. Robinson]] and [[Oliver Hill (attorney)|Oliver Hill]] filed suit against the county school system on behalf of the students. As in other [[Southern United States|Southern states]], since the turn of the twentieth century black voters in Virginia had been largely [[disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era|disenfranchised]], which resulted in their lacking political power.

In ''Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County'', a state court rejected the suit, agreeing with defense attorney [[T. Justin Moore]] that Virginia was vigorously equalizing conditions in black and white schools. The state verdict was appealed to the [[U.S. District Court]], which ruled for the plaintiffs, a decision the school district and the state appealed. Subsequently, it was one of five cases incorporated into ''Brown v. Board of Education'', the landmark case in which the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional.