[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 82 (Wednesday, June 3, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1291]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  DEDICATION OF THE LIGHT OF RECONCILIATION MEMORIAL IN PRINCE EDWARD 
                            COUNTY, VIRGINIA

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. THOMAS S.P. PERRIELLO

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 3, 2009

  Mr. PERRIELLO. Madam Speaker, today I wish to commemorate the 
official unveiling and dedication of the Light of Reconciliation 
Memorial in Prince Edward County, Virginia. The Light of 
Reconciliation, in the bell tower of the Prince Edward County 
Courthouse, is a permanent monument created to honor the memory of the 
historic events in Prince Edward County during the era of public school 
segregation, to recognize the role of local students in ending school 
discrimination in Virginia and across the United States and to call on 
each of us to shine our own Light of Reconciliation in the world.
  In 1951, a group of dedicated high school students led by Barbara 
Rose Johns organized a strike to protest the disgraceful condition of 
Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. The school 
lacked a gymnasium, a cafeteria, heat, desks, blackboards, and in some 
cases even classrooms: a school bus parked outside served as one 
classroom for the overcrowded and underfunded school. The student 
strike ultimately led to Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward 
County, one of the five court cases that would make up Brown v. Board 
of Education. The Davis case was the only one of the five to arise from 
student activism. Following the Supreme Court's decision that 
``separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,'' Prince 
Edward County closed its public schools for the years of 1959 to 1964 
rather than allow black and white students to attend school together. 
After five years and the Supreme Court decision in Griffin v. County 
School Board, the schools were finally reopened and integrated. The 
Light of Reconciliation and the memorial stand as both a reminder of 
the mistakes of the past and a celebration of the students from R.R. 
Moton High School and from other schools across the country who 
continued the fight for education for all.
  Today marks the 50th anniversary of the action that would close the 
Prince Edward County public schools, one of the darkest moments of 
Virginia's civil rights struggle. Acknowledging this part our history 
is painful, and I commend the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors 
for their courage in publicizing past transgressions against our fellow 
citizens in hopes of preventing future ones. It is only in seeking 
truth about our past that we can hope to pursue justice for our future, 
and this memorial is a public expression of our renewed commitment to 
justice for all.
  On this occasion we are reminded that each of us is called to work to 
bring our nation closer to its fundamental ideals of equality. If one 
16-year-old student can spark the protests that would ultimately 
galvanize a nation in the cause of civil rights, we should all ask of 
ourselves what we can do to fight for human dignity and the common 
good. As long as inequality and suffering persist in our nation and in 
the world, our work is incomplete. This memorial not only looks back to 
the dreams deferred by locked schoolhouse doors, but also forward to a 
better nation, one of ever-expanding opportunity for all. Martin Luther 
King Jr. once said, ``Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light 
can do that.'' Let this light in Prince Edward County, Virginia be a 
permanent reminder of our ongoing struggle for a fairer world.

                          ____________________