BOOK ’EM:
The Virginia Foundation for the
Humanities announced their annual Virginia Festival of the Book coming up March
22–26 2006. This year they
will feature a special Crime Wave
Mystery Luncheon, in addition to their
other panel discussions, and the annual
authors reception. For more information call (434) 924-6890.
CIVIL RIGHTS TRAIL: The Civil Rights in
Education heritage Trail has
published a self guided driving
tour through Southside Virginia.
The trail features 41 sites with detailed information about the significance
of each one. It allows you to take your time getting from one
site to another, or simply to plan two or three a weekend when
you can also sample the local culture and cuisine along the
way. For example, travel to Farmville to see the RR
Moton Museum at the site where in
the 1950s, Prince Edward County officials closed public schools
rather than end segregation. The museum was once the RR
Moton School, a black school that
finally integrated and was used until the 1980s. You can also see
nearby First Baptist Church and Beulah AME
Church. During your visit take time
to shop at the downtown Farmville specialty shops and the
famous Green Front Furniture. For lunch try Charley’s
Waterfront Café in what was
once a tobacco auction room. This trail was established by the Old Dominion Resource Conservation and Development
and Council. It is managed by a
tourism marketing consortium comprised of Amelia, Appomattox, Brunswick, Buckingham, Charlotte,
Cumberland, Dinwiddie, Halifax, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Nottoway, and Prince Edward
Counties, as well as Petersburg. For more information contact Virginia’s
Retreat at (800) 6-RETREAT or www.varetreat.com.
DOGGONE TOURISM: The Virginia Tourism
Corporation created a slot on their
website newsletter detailing places you can travel in the Commonwealth and
your dog can travel with you. For
more information on Virginia’s list of pet friendly
accommodations and activities, log onto www.vatc.org.
SECRETS REVEALED: The Virginia Tourism Corporation announced a new publication, Jamestown Secrets. Its
intent is to promote America’s
400th Anniversary, Jamestown 2007. It is due out near the
premier of the film The New World.
Supported by the VTC’s advertising campaign, Jamestown Secrets it is
hoped will help further the momentum for the Jamestown 2007
celebrations being planned around the state. It is published in
conjunction with a publishing company in Roanoke that publishes
the Virginia Travel Guide. For
more information contact Judy Watkins at (804) 371-8163 or jwatkins@virginia.org.
SOUP TO NUTS:
Who is Irene Morgan? How long is the Chesapeake
Bay? What is the country’s largest white oak tree? If you are a Virginian and don’t know the answers to these
questions, you will soon have a resource at your fingertips
that will help you answer these and dozens of other questions
you may have always pondered. The Virginia
Foundation for the Humanities will
publish its New Virginia
Encyclopedia at the end of this
year. It is the first of its kind in the state. A few other
states have similar sources. It will be paperless, and will
feature more than a dozen section editors. The project will
cost at least $2.2 million for a five year intense development phase
and to take care of long term maintenance. The VHF got a grant
from the National Endowment for
the Humanities to develop plans and
has received funds from the state and a private donor to begin
implementing the plans. Here are the answers to the earlier
questions if you can’t stand the suspense: Irene Morgan refused
to give up her seat on a bus in 1944, 11 years before Rosa Parks. Morgan’s case went to the US
Supreme Court. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is 17 miles long. The country’s largest white oak tree is in Brunswick County. For more
information log onto www.virginia.edu.vfh/.
U2: A
historical highway marker was dedicated to honor famous U2 Pilot Gary Powers in Pound, VA, his hometown. Powers achieved notoriety when
his spy plane, the U2 was shot down in May 1960 while he was
flying a reconnaissance mission over the former Soviet Union during
the height of the Cold War. It caused even more strain between the US and the Soviets, and is
considered by historians to be a significant event in the Cold War. Powers, a
graduate of Grundy High School, was a prisoner for 21 months before the Soviets exchanged
him for their spy, Col. Rudolph
Abel who was being held by the US. Powers died in
a helicopter crash in 1977 and is buried at Arlington Cemetery. For more information about the
historic highway marker program contact Scott Arnold at the
Dept. of Historic Resources at (804) 367-2323 X122 or scott.arnold@dhr.virginia.gov. 