THE RICHMOND 34
The Richmond 34 Gallery
With your help, RPAA is working to raise $25,000 for the installation of a permanent art gallery featuring work by local professional artists inspired by the Richmond 34 and their historical significance. Using the artwork as a foundation, an educational resource will be created, providing a guide for students and teachers to understand this event and inspire them to create change within their community. Following this installation, RPAA will work with local schools to feature student work on an annual, rotating basis.
In January 2025, RPAA began working with curator Taekia Glass to commission pieces for the permanent gallery. Currently, RPAA already has 1 piece created by Rian Moses-Hedrick (digital illustration) and 2 more pieces in process, from Nastassja Swift (felt) and Unicia Buster (quilting).
These three pieces, along with a commemorative Richmond 34 Flying Squirrels jersey, and a copy of House joint resolution No. 279 commending the Richmond 34 on the 50th anniversary of the Thalhimers Department Store Lunch Counter Sit-In were installed in the gallery with supporting signage to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the sit-in.
If you would like to support these efforts, you can make a designated gift through the link below.
Interested in sponsoring a portion of this project? Click here to learn more.
Meet the Artists
Updates
January 31, 2025
We are so excited to share another Richmond 34 Gallery progress update! Last week in the Genworth BrightLights Education Center, artist Nastassja Swift led a felting workshop with local artists, Taekia Glass (Gallery curator), and individuals connected to the Richmond 34 to create works to be featured as part of the permanent exhibition.
Photos with personal significance to the sit-in were brought in from participants to be transferred onto fabric to create a replica of the image. Felting needles and wool were then used to hand craft a retelling of the story through the eyes of those closest to those who represent this important piece of Richmond’s history.
January 16, 2025
Thank you to everyone who supported this project in 2024! To date between the GoFundMe campaign and other donations, RPAA has raised $4,284.00 towards the Richmond 34 Gallery–thank you!
Our Director of Education and Community Engagement, Jennifer Maddux, is working with gallery curator Taekia Glass to commission pieces for the permanent gallery. At this time, RPAA already has 1 piece created by Rian Moses-Hedrick (digital art) and 2 more pieces in process, from Nastaja Swift (felt) and Unicia Buster (quilting).
These three pieces, along with a commemorative Richmond 34 Flying Squirrels jersey, and House joint resolution No. 279 commending the Richmond 34 on the 50th anniversary of the Thalhimers Department Store Lunch Counter Sit-In will be installed in the gallery with supporting signage by our second annual reception to be held in February 2025.
Other exciting updates: The remaining 5 visual artists to be featured in the Richmond 34 Gallery have been identified and their works will be commissioned as funding becomes available! All 8 artists to be featured in the gallery brings a unique medium and approach to their craft, offering unique visual arts interpretations that connect the history of the Richmond 34 to today’s social justice issues.
We look forward to sharing more updates with you. Please continue to support this project by sharing this GoFundMe campaign, making a contribution, and helping us spread the word!
November 26, 2024
It’s almost Giving Tuesday!
Giving Tuesday is the global day of generosity where people all over the world support organizations in their communities. This year, RPAA is raising funds to support the Richmond 34 Gallery. To have the art gallery ready by the 65th anniversary celebration, we need your support now!
Here’s how you can help:
1) Share the fundraiser with your friends and family!
2) Make a gift on Giving Tuesday!
3) Schedule a visit to see the mural!
Thank you for ensuring that future generations have an opportunity to interact with an important part of Richmond’s (often untold) history. Your support enables others to continue to act as changemakers, making a lasting impact on their community just like the Richmond 34.
August 28, 2024
WHAT YOUR GIFT WILL DO…
Gifts at any amount make this work possible. Further your impact by sponsoring a specific part of the project at any of the following levels and receive a special thank you from RPAA.
Your sponsorship will uplift this definitive moment in Richmond’s history. Together we will continue to honor the legacy of the Richmond 34 and educate the community and generations to come on their impact and how we can all contribute to positive change in our region.
$100 INFLUENCER – Showcase student artwork!
Your gift of $100 will go directly to helping us display student artwork in the Richmond 34 Gallery! You will receive a Richmond 34 Mural Print.
$250 ACTIVIST – Highlight a local artist!
Your gift of $250 will help us install signage to tell the story of the local artists who create original pieces for the Richmond 34 Gallery! You will receive a Richmond 34 Mural Print and an invitation to next year’s (2025) Richmond 34 reception.
$500 CATALYST – Help us tell the story!
Your gift of $500 will pay for permanent signage for the Richmond 34 Gallery highlighting the art for all to see! You will be recognized on social media. You will also receive a Richmond 34 Mural Print and an invitation to next year’s (2025) Richmond 34 reception.
$1,000 INNOVATOR – Help us hang the artwork!
Your gift of $1,000 will go directly to a local professional to install the original pieces of art created for the Richmond 34 Gallery. Your name will be listed on permanent signage in the Gallery as a supporter and you will be recognized on social media. You will also receive a Richmond 34 Mural Print. Each year, you will receive an invitation to our annual Richmond 34 reception.
$2,000 CHANGEMAKER – Commission a piece of art!
Your gift of $2,000 will go directly to a local artist to create an original piece of art for the Richmond 34 Gallery. Your name will be listed on permanent signage in the Gallery as a supporter and you will be recognized on social media. You will also receive a Richmond 34 Mural Print signed by Elizabeth Johnson Rice, Hamilton Glass, and Germany Ray as well as a Carpenter Theatre tote bag. Each year, you will receive an invitation to our annual Richmond 34 reception.
$5,000 TRAILBLAZER – Curate the art gallery!
Your gift of $5,000 will go directly to our local curator to work with artists in the community and bring the Richmond 34 Gallery to life! Your name will be featured prominently on permanent signage in the Gallery as a supporter and you will be recognized on social media. You will also receive a framed Richmond 34 Mural Print signed by Elizabeth Johnson Rice, Hamilton Glass, and Germany Ray as well as a Carpenter Theatre tote bag. Each year, you will receive an invitation to our annual Richmond 34 reception.
August 14, 2024
Sneak peek of the first piece acquired for the Richmond 34 Gallery.
This work by Rian L. Moses inspired the work for the Gallery which will consist of pieces by local artists to live alongside the mural created in collaboration with Hamilton Glass and Germany Ray earlier this year.
“Amid the 2020 unrest in Richmond, VA, the city’s history became more accessible, leading me to discover the story of the Richmond 34. I was inspired by their resilience and their landmark journey to the Supreme Court, where they not only made history but also shaped the future.” -Rian L. Moses
About the Richmond 34
On February 20, 1960, Virginia Union University (VUU) students walked from the campus on Lombardy Street down Broad Street until they arrived at the shopping district along Broad and Grace Streets. Once there, they entered the “whites only” lunch counters of several drug stores, sat down, and asked for service. On that day, the students were refused service, but they quietly remained in their seats until each lunch counter closed.
Two days later on February 22, 1960, 200 VUU students marched from their campus to the Thalhimers Department store. They picketed around the store until 34 students entered the store. Some sat down at the lunch counter as others entered the Richmond Room. The students were asked to leave. When they refused, they were arrested for trespassing. This event marks one of the first mass arrests of the Civil Rights Movement. The students became known as the “Richmond 34”—a reference to their place in the Civil Rights Movement, breaking through the barriers of segregation in Richmond, Virginia. The Thalhimers store integrated its entire store facility within a year. The only reason they waited that long was because Thalhimers’ management insisted that Miller & Rhoads integrate at the same time. Thalhimers management team- led by William B. Thalhimer Jr.- became one of the early chief advocates for peaceful retail integration in the city.
Sit-ins were an integral part of the non-violent strategy of civil disobedience, an essential tool in the arsenal of strategies to end racial segregation in the United States. Beginning in 1958 Wichita, Kansas, the use of sit-ins spread. On February 1, 1960, the Greensboro Sit-In at a Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina launched a wave of anti-segregation sit-ins across the South and opened a national awareness of the depth of segregation in the nation. The media picked up the issue of sit-ins and covered it nationwide, beginning with lunch counters and spreading to other forms of public accommodation, including transport facilities, art galleries, beaches, parks, swimming pools, libraries, and even museums around the South. The result was the passage of one of the most sweeping acts of legislation in history, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964 mandating desegregation in public accommodations.
About the Richmond 34 Mural
Dominion Energy Center now stands in the former Thalhimers Department Store location. To honor this historic event, RPAA collaborated with public artist Hamilton Glass and Virginia Union University alumna Germany Ray to create a mural within the Genworth BrightLights Education Center that stands as a legacy wall for the Richmond 34. The mural, completed in November 2023 and unveiled to the public on February 22, 2024, is Phase 1 of RPAA’s work to commemorate this event.
To schedule a time to visit the Richmond 34 mural, please email: education@rpaalliance.com
Timeline of Important Events
1960
February 22 – 34 Virginia Union University students held a sit-in at the Thalhimers department store and were arrested for trespassing.
After the sit-ins and boycott of Feb 1960, Thalhimers’ facilities were 80% integrated within one year and completely integrated in two years. All bathrooms, water fountains, and changing rooms on all 6 floors (including 3 restaurants) were reconfigured. The reason it took a year was due to the fact that Thalhimers refused to integrate until Miller & Rhoads agreed to do the same, which they did after 11 months of negotiations. William B. Thalhimer Jr., the CEO of Thalhimers, met with Webster Rhoads in the back of a car in their shared parking deck, so no one would hear their conversations. William Thalhimer Jr. said in an interview years later, “[Webster Rhoads and I] agreed that in December [1960] we would issue an invitation to leaders of the black community for dinner in the Richmond Room. This was symbolic of our changing policy. After that, we integrated everything. Anyone could use restaurants, fitting rooms, bathrooms, fountains, etc. It took a year to make the transition.” The CEOs of Thalhimers and Miller & Rhoads both invited leaders from the black community to dine with them and their wives in the Richmond Room and Tea Room, signifying the integration of both stores.
1963-67
In 1963, President John F Kennedy personally invited William B Thalhimer Jr to meetings at the White House to discuss peaceful integration of stores and movie theaters. Mr. Thalhimer attended two meetings at the White House in June 1963, setting the tone for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. William B Thalhimer Jr. said in an interview, “The impact of this meeting was huge. It rang a bell across America.”
In 1966, picket leader Rev HG Knight (a VUU alum) of Sixth Baptist Church presented William Thalhimer Jr. a Humanitarian Award acknowledging his personal involvement in race relations in RVA. William Thalhimer Jr. said it was one of the proudest moments of his life.
In 1967, Thalhimers hosted the heads of 20+ department stores, where executive Newt Hamblett said regarding integration, “There is no greater problem or challenge or opportunity facing us. Sufficient quantities of our precious time, our best efforts, and our valuable resources must be committed to this task. If these things are not done, we will be the big losers.”
2004
February 22nd – Richmond 34 member, Elizabeth Johnson Rice held a Commemorative March to recognize the importance of the historic sit-in that took place in 1960.
2010
February 18th – Historical Marker erected on the Virginia Union University campus in front of Martin E. Gray Hall.
February 22nd – 50th anniversary educational symposium and celebration (Sit In | Stand Out) held at the site of the former Thalhimers Department Store- now Dominion Energy Center for the Performing Arts. Historical Marker was erected at this location as well. This is when the group VUU students who participated in the sit-in were officially named the “Richmond 34.”
2019
February 19th – Judge Birdie Jamison has the records expunged for all members of the Richmond 34.
2021
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press 2024
Hamilton Glass
Germany RayResources
Valentine Museum exhibit:
https://thevalentine.org/explore/exhibitions/this-is-richmond-virginia/
Richmond Flying Squirrels legacy weekend:
English