There’s a key player who was integral in the historic agreement that the Robert Russa Moton Museum and Longwood University made this summer who has gone unrecognized.

It’s time for the community to thank her for the work she’s done which will impact this community for generations to come in a very profound way, much like that of civil rights trailblazer Barbara Johns.

The covenant in perpetuity wouldn’t have happened without Dr. Larissa Smith Fergeson, a professor of history and acting associate vice president for academic affairs at Longwood.

“No ifs, ands or buts,” said Longwood President W. Taylor Reveley IV of Fergeson’s impact on the agreement. “This wouldn’t have happened without Lara.”

Because of Fergeson’s hard work, devotion and trust building Reveley said that “without a question” she was the “MVP of making all this happen.”

The trust that Fergeson had with other key players in the agreement — who also deserve immense credit for their work — and with members of the community was paramount to mutual success.

“One of the things that I think is beautiful about Farmville is one of the things that’s painful too,”  Reveley said. “The history is hard, and there are lots of people still in the prime of their lives who … personally experienced it [and] at times, have trouble trusting back and forth that [the] best interests were in mind and this wasn’t [something] that it totally wasn’t.”

That’s where Fergeson came in, he said, as one who “everybody involved trusts just implicitly.”

We commend Fergeson — a true Farmville citizen leader — for her work in making sure that the Moton Story will be one that will never be forgotten.