Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail

A Self-Guided Driving Tour Through Southside Virginia.

Virginia has led the nation in many ways, particularly in education. The birthplace of the free public education system our country now enjoys has its roots right here in Southside Virginia. It was here, along the sleepy back roads of a few rural counties, that todays African Americans, Native Americans and women developed the right to an education that equaled that of white males.

Today, a new self-guided driving tour brings together for the first time 41 of these historically significant sites and tells the poignant and often explosive story of civil rights in education in our country.