First VP Debate Tonight

First VP Debate Tonight

Tonight's VP Debate Casts Light on Small Town with a Strong Civil Rights Past by Jennifer Wishon (Oct 4, 2016)

Farmville isn't exactly your typical debate site, but this town and adjoining Prince Edward County changed the nation. It's where the civil rights movement was born.

[CBN News] Vice presidential candidates Sen. Tim Kaine and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence are two men with a lot in common. Both served as governors and in Congress and both were raised Catholic, although Pence is now an evangelical Christian.

Both candidates are comfortable talking about their faith.

 

Kaine defies church teachings on abortion, gay marriage and capital punishment, while Pence upset conservatives when he caved to pressure by gay and other activists on a religious freedom law he pushed in Indiana.

 

On Tuesday night, the men will square off at Longwood College, a small school in Farmville, Virginia.

 

There's no doubt, the pressure is on Pence. After Donald Trump's debate performance and week of unwelcome headlines, the GOP nominee's campaign is relying on Pence to get the Republican ticket back on track.

 

Pence has been practicing with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and rallying with his fellow Hoosiers.

"I joined this campaign in a heartbeat because you have nominated a man for president who never quits, who never backs down. He is a fighter; he is a winner," Pence told a crowd in Indiana. 

 

Meanwhile, Kaine prepared by reading and practicing with a Washington attorney.

 

On Sunday, he attended his home church in Richmond, Virginia.

 

"It's intense but you know I'm calm. Things work out the way they're supposed to. I'm calm," said Kaine. 

 

Farmville isn't exactly your typical debate site, but this town and adjoining Prince Edward County changed the nation. It's where the civil rights movement was born. 

 

Before there was Selma and Montgomery, students like Joy Cabarras Speakes were leading the way right here. Speakes was an eighth grade student in 1951 when she and her classmates walked out of The Moton School to protest inadequate conditions.

 

"All of us walked out and I feel it was divine intervention to get that many students to follow you out at one time," she recalled. 

 

The court case that followed was rolled into the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated America's schools.

 

It was a victory, but in 1959 instead of integrating the schools, Prince Edward county shut them down for five years.

 

"I was in a state of shock," recalled Charles Taylor, a former Prince Edward County student. "It was devastating because school was everything to us in this little, small town. It was recreation, friendship, athletic—everything was done either in school or through the church." 

 

These former students hope having the eyes of the nation on Farmville will help spread their story of sacrifice and perseverance.

 

"One thing about these candidates coming in here that they need not overlook, they need not overlook that this is a proving ground, that civil rights education started right here in this house, right here, in the house of Moton," Rev. Samuel Williams said. 

 

It's likely to get some attention.