Senator Kaine was technically at the Robert Russa Moton Museum in Farmville to check on some HVAC repairs he’d secured federal funding for. About 95 degrees and sunny outside, thankfully it was up and running inside.
“Feel that nice cool air,” Cainan Townsend, Moton’s executive director, joked standing over a vent blasting chilly air.
The museum is inside Robert Russa Moton High School, considered the student birthplace of America's Civil Rights Movement. It's devoted to the legacy of Massive Resistance, the years-long effort by some Virginia localities to close their school systems entirely rather than integrate Black and white children.
Townsend showed Kaine some new additions to the museum — including an interactive display that allows you to look up those impacted by school closures. A Farmville local, Townsend typed in Earl Townsend, his father.
“So, dad was six, getting ready to start the first grade in September of ‘59. He did not start first grade in September. He worked on his family farm and neighboring farms picking tobacco for the most part," he told the senator. "[Dad] goes back to school, turns 11 years old as a first grader."
"When they finally opened?" Kaine asked as Townsend nodded.
"He does go through school, luckily graduates,” he replied.
As the tour wrapped up, Kaine connected Townsend and his father’s story to some of the actions coming out of the White House.
“We’re living in a time of very significant push back right now," Kaine said. "Which means museums like Moton, the Moton Museum, are even more important at this moment.”
But in such regressive times, the senator said he looks to the Virginia story.
“If we can make progress here given what we’ve lived through and the scar tissue that’s still so present," Kaine said, looking back at "All Men are Created Equal" along one of the walls. "Why would I despair of the progress we could make as a nation?”
