BLACKSBURG, Va., Sept. 29 -- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University issued the following news release:
When the 23/54 Project's Quilt Monument was unveiled in Pulaski last year, Kamille Simon '25 saw years of history gathered in one place.
The unveiling brought together descendants of the 23 Black families who fought for better educational facilities for 54 Black children in Pulaski County in the 1940s. Community members, artists, researchers, and others who had helped tell their stories joined them.
For Simon, then a Virginia Tech undergraduate in history and social sciences education and a public history research fellow with the Calfee Community and Cultural Center, the moment showed what can happen when historical researc...